{"id":1135,"date":"2021-10-25T08:00:05","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmbaker.net\/?p=1135"},"modified":"2022-08-19T07:00:04","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T11:00:04","slug":"the-grand-tour-15-high-and-low-wide-and-steep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmbaker.net\/the-grand-tour-15-high-and-low-wide-and-steep\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Tour 15: High and Low, Wide and Steep"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 15 of 22 in the series Grand Tour<\/a><\/div>

From the low of a mine to the height of the Continental Divide and from the width of the plain to the steepness of Gallup\u2019s streets, this is a day on the move. And a chat with the ghost of Jimmy Stewart.<\/em><\/p>\n

May 12, 2018, Albuquerque to Gallup:<\/strong> We begin the day with a tour of Old Town Albuquerque. As seems to be our pattern as early risers, we arrive before it opens and pretty much have the place to ourselves in the cool of the morning. The pattern here is pretty much what we have seen in Santa Fe and even in the Taos Pueblo, a collection of early buildings around a working church. None of the buildings are preserved as historical artifacts. they are all commercial locations. basically souvenir or art stores or restaurants.<\/p>\n

There are three types of Old Town, I think. There are the reconstructions that operate as museums, like Upper Canada Village, Colonial Williamsburg, or Fortress Louisburg. Commerce on such sites it usually restricted to restaurants, serving more or less period food in more or less period costume. The only other selling on the site tends to be confined to giftshop in a visitor\u2019s center, usually a modern building slightly off the old site.<\/p>\n

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Then there is the section of a working city that happens to have been there for a long time, and is given an Old Town designation largely for tourist purposes. But the tourist angle here is supplementary rather than the main focus, for these are still working parts of the modern city. Quebec City is the example that springs most readily to mind. These tend to be a North American phenomena because in Europe practically every modern city has such an \u201cold town\u201d at its heart. In only a few, such as York, do they really make a thing of it (or such is my impression). Otherwise it is just part of visiting the city.<\/p>\n

And then there is a third kind, of a type I have seen only in the US (though I am in no way implying that they do not exist elsewhere). These are the old towns a separate districts set apart from the modern city and not part of its ordinary life, but not treated as museums the way Colonial Williamsburg or The Lincoln House in Springfield are. Rather, they operate as a kind of antique high-end shopping mall, full of restaurants, boutiques, galleries, and gift shops.<\/p>\n

It the buildings have historical significance, this will be noted with a plaque, but the building is not run to educate but to generate a profit. San Diego Old Town, for instance, is a recreation of an historic village, but many of the building host businesses. \u00a0Here in Old Town Albuquerque, every building, regardless of its history or significance, seems to be a working commercial enterprise and it’s heart.<\/p>\n

\"Old<\/a><\/p>\n

Even the church\u2014Saint Philip Neari, a beautiful church in a simple classical style\u2014follows this pattern. It is a working place of worship which allows tourist to visit but closes regularly for mass as it is the parish church of the local area. Everything, in short, is working.<\/p>\n

\"St.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Interior<\/a><\/p>\n

I am of two minds about this working style of Old Town. I love that these old churches are still working parish churches. But I could wish to see more historic reconstruction and interpretation of the surrounding buildings. How and when does a community decide whether it’s Old Town should become a museum or a tourist trap?<\/p>\n

I have noted earlier that the role of the museum is changing. In Springfield the Lincoln Museum operates as a shine<\/a> (and as a tourist magnet for the town the contains it). The Poeh Cultural Centre operates as a bastion of culture and cultural myth<\/a>. The Plaza District in Santa Fe<\/a> and Old Town Albuquerque operate as shopping malls.<\/p>\n

On the road again the Garmin again dumps us on the freeway despite my having performed what I thought with the necessary incantations to make it behave. Anna pulls out the easy guide and get us back on course, and, once clear of the city, the Garmin seems to settle down and follow route 66 properly again.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At first the country seems very flat but then mesas start to appear and quickly approach and we find ourselves on the old road twisting along at the foot of high sandstone cliffs.<\/p>\n

\"Mesa<\/a><\/p>\n

A feature of this stretch is a tightening radius bend apparently called Dead Man’s Curve. The tightening radius at the end of the bend could certainly send the unwary driver off the road. But because the cliff is on the outside of the turn rather than the inside, it seems more likely that it would stuff the overconfident driver into the scrub brush than kill them.<\/p>\n