Public to Get Tour of Famed Author's NM Ranch

In the mountains north of Taos along an ancient Kiowa Indian trail is the historic ranch of famed English author D.H. Lawrence. There are towering pine trees and vistas stretching from the Colorado Rockies to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. This is the place where Lawrence, deemed by many as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, found his inspiration for several of his stories and poems. Visitors will be able to tour Lawrence's ranch on June 19 with experts from the Friends of D.H. Lawrence, a local nonprofit group dedicated to all things Lawrence, and hear their stories about the famous people who frequented the ranch — from Georgia O'Keeffe to Tennessee Williams. Lawrence took over the 160-acre spread from prominent socialite Mabel Dodge Luhan during the early 1920s. Luhan tried to give the ranch to Lawrence's wife, Frieda, but Lawrence insisted that they pay for the property. That payment came in the form of Lawrence's manuscript for "Sons and Lovers." Several miles down a dirt road off the highway, the ranch — owned by the University of New Mexico — features Lawrence's memorial, two cabins and a home that was built by Frieda Lawrence following her husband's death. The memorial has a colorful history of its own. Warner said there was a bit of disagreement among Frieda Lawrence, Luhan and friend Dorothy Brett, an artist who had lived at the ranch, about what to do with Lawrence's ashes. To keep the other women from getting their hands on them, Frieda dumped them into the cement that was used to build the memorial...more