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Taos could hardly be called a "shopping hub." It has a Walmart, a couple of grocery stores and an Ace Hardware. The rest is art galleries, home decor shops selling rugs and baskets and pottery and decorative knick knacks, boutiques that sell funky, artsy clothes and shops selling turquoise jewelry or hiking and fishing gear. That's about it. It's very small. The outlying neighborhoods around Taos have no city services, meaning water, sewer, gas, etc. I lived there for three years and although it is massively charming and offers endless photographic opportunities, the town has less than 7000 people and is quite remote. It's an hour and a half drive to Santa Fe, through the mountains. Interesting drive when the two-land road is covered in snow. One house I lived in there, near Arroyo Seco (which is about 12 miles north of the Taos main drag) had a septic system and well water, which routinely made me very sick. There's no zoning to speak of in Taos, so the house you spend a few hundred thousand on may very well have a nasty, disreputable trailer park across the street. Nice place to visit however. Taos Inn is great. Go in the late summer or fall and take your camera. Taos Pueblo is wonderful to see.
I can't imagine one could live on any reservation land, but I could be wrong. Taos Pueblo, for example, has no running water, hence no sewer. I can't say whether it is technically a "reservation" or not, but the land belongs to the Pueblo, which is hundreds of years old. It's quite beautiful, but it's beautiful because it is unspoiled. I don't think anyone is going to let you build a house on Pueblo land and most certainly would not let you park some godawful RV or other such vehicle on it. At least I hope not. I could post pictures of that land but there seems to be no way to do that here.
I can't imagine one could live on any reservation land, but I could be wrong. Taos Pueblo, for example, has no running water, hence no sewer. I can't say whether it is technically a "reservation" or not, but the land belongs to the Pueblo, which is hundreds of years old. It's quite beautiful, but it's beautiful because it is unspoiled. I don't think anyone is going to let you build a house on Pueblo land and most certainly would not let you park some godawful RV or other such vehicle on it. At least I hope not. I could post pictures of that land but there seems to be no way to do that here.
Don't confuse the ancient adobe structure referred to as Taos Pueblo, with the rest of the community, which does have running water, and other modern amenities. I don't know if the community includes land in fee simple status (like most real estate that isn't on federal land), but other pueblo communities do, and non-Natives have bought parcels within pueblo boundaries and built homes there. Nambe and Pojoaque Pueblos, to name a couple. Many reservations across the US have such land as a result of the Allotment Act of 1887, also known as the Dawes Act.
I'm surprised at how many people seem to gloss over the water issues that surround housing in New Mexico. The small towns like Taos and Silver City and others often have no water service to areas outside the immediate confines of the city center. Drilling your own well can cost tens of thousands of dollars and guaranteeing it is safe to drink is a VERY serious matter. Fifteen years ago I lived in a lovely rental house about 12 miles north of downtown Taos and it had no city services, meaning water or sewer. All it had was a well and septic tank. Drinking the water routinely made me very sick and more than once caused instantaneous vomiting. Great views though.
Nothing has changed in those locations. The real estate market has only gotten worse in Taos and Santa Fe - hugely inflated prices for dark, ugly, run down little hovels that often have no city water or sewer, most certainly have no air conditioning and often have only a cast iron stove in the middle of the room for heat.
And don't forget, you'll encounter quite a bit of wildlife once you get outside the city limits. The mice and rabbits in New Mexico carry plague, yes, BUBONIC PLAGUE. It's spread by the fleas. In the outlying residential areas of Silver City, just two or three miles from town, there are bears as well, and reportedly mountain lions. There was once a bear in the Santa Fe River, right downtown, when I lived there in 2011. I've seen mule deer wandering up onto people's back porches in Silver City. They look sweet, but can be dangerously aggressive. When I lived in Corrales, the hawks and owls routinely plucked housecats off of porches and garden walls. Little tiny lapdogs can lead a perilous existence if left out of doors. So watch out for your pets. It's not the wild wild west for nothin'.
I'm surprised at how many people seem to gloss over the water issues that surround housing in New Mexico. The small towns like Taos and Silver City and others often have no water service to areas outside the immediate confines of the city center. Drilling your own well can cost tens of thousands of dollars and guaranteeing it is safe to drink is a VERY serious matter. Fifteen years ago I lived in a lovely rental house about 12 miles north of downtown Taos and it had no city services, meaning water or sewer. All it had was a well and septic tank. Drinking the water routinely made me very sick and more than once caused instantaneous vomiting. Great views though.
Nothing has changed in those locations. The real estate market has only gotten worse in Taos and Santa Fe - hugely inflated prices for dark, ugly, run down little hovels that often have no city water or sewer, most certainly have no air conditioning and often have only a cast iron stove in the middle of the room for heat.
And don't forget, you'll encounter quite a bit of wildlife once you get outside the city limits. The mice and rabbits in New Mexico carry plague, yes, BUBONIC PLAGUE. It's spread by the fleas. In the outlying residential areas of Silver City, just two or three miles from town, there are bears as well, and reportedly mountain lions. There was once a bear in the Santa Fe River, right downtown, when I lived there in 2011. I've seen mule deer wandering up onto people's back porches in Silver City. They look sweet, but can be dangerously aggressive. When I lived in Corrales, the hawks and owls routinely plucked housecats off of porches and garden walls. Little tiny lapdogs can lead a perilous existence if left out of doors. So watch out for your pets. It's not the wild wild west for nothin'.
Plague is all over the US, btw, but especially in the Western states, and TX and OK. East Coast has reported cases: Connecticut, Maryland, and Georgia. Also a couple of Upper Midwest states. Life is full of risks.
I wonder what became of the original poster. From the way he was posting, he probably never walked on the side of the street where cars were driving in the same direction. People like this prefer the comfort of People Magazine and eating at Applebee's over the course of a life. Life's too short to agonize over everything.
Plague is all over the US, btw, but especially in the Western states, and TX and OK. East Coast has reported cases: Connecticut, Maryland, and Georgia. Also a couple of Upper Midwest states. Life is full of risks.
Don't be sayin' us Okies have plague. There hasn't been a case here since 1991 and that one was in the very northwest corner of the panhandle of the state ( in the county bordering Colorado and New Mexico). It was a kid who had been messing with prairie dogs. I ask this because we have enough of an image problem around here with being plagued with the plague.
On a serious note... I've always heard that the plague in NM, Colorado and Arizona generally originates on the Navajo Reservation and spreads from that point into other areas of the four corners states. Again, it is fleas on prairie dogs apparently being the vector.... transferring to dogs, other animals and ultimately to people.
Plague is all over the US, btw, but especially in the Western states, and TX and OK. East Coast has reported cases: Connecticut, Maryland, and Georgia. Also a couple of Upper Midwest states. Life is full of risks.
True .....but I see the highest concentration of red dots on the map in Northern New Mexico,
and iirc that area has the most cases of plague ....which I think, if I remember correctly, originated
from fleas on rats on a cargo ship that docked in San Francisco back in the late 1800s ....
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