Are you itching to move? Some never want to. Some have to.
This is the first in a series of articles about places to live in New Mexico.
Lamy is the first because it is my hometown. John and I don’t live right in town but Lamy is our address. The town is three miles south over the hill. We sometimes walk there for our hike of the day. What we for sure do there is catch the train. Lamy is the train stop for the Amtrak, Santa Fe Depot. It is about 15 miles as the crow flies from Santa Fe, a 30 minute drive.
It is a guess but someone from New York City would go nuts living in Lamy. There is no bus into Santa Fe, though a local tourist train would take you in if you asked. There is no store. There has been from time to time a restaurant, though currently there is only a planned restaurant. There is a train museum but it is only open by chance. Other than the residents, that is it.
For quite a while the only Internet service was from a local network six miles north for which a dedicated neighbor put a tower on the hill enabling the service in the town. I’ve heard Qwest now has service into town. Cell phones do not work there. There is no ‘hear me now’ going on.
Houses in Lamy proper range from the renovated rail car; to a house built to look like a piece of rock (locals call it the Flintstone house;) an adobe or two; some cobbled together, though quaint, wood and other; a Victorian…well you get the idea. Those of us who live in more traditional (ha) developments love living close to these eclectic gems. One two stall horse stall building, recently built is all from adobe brick. It is beautiful.
A number live off the grid. One woman tends her goats, those that periodically go to mow someone’s yard. There are typical rural animals like dogs , cats, horses, chickens,; a bird sanctuary and the ever present hawks, crows, and ravens; the not so visible fox, coyotes, bobcats (just saw one yesterday;) for sure mice, prairie dogs, gophers; and no doubt creatures I have never seen.
The town was named for the Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy, who in the 1800's was assigned to Santa Fe. From the top of the hill south of Lamy, Cerro Colorado, they took the blocks of rock that made the cathedral in Santa Fe. The lime kiln just outside the town is likely where the blocks were cured.
Yep, my (now) hometown. Love it!
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