Wind whispers through the pinyon trees that dot the 160-acre mountaintop ranch that inspired writer D.H. Lawrence during a New Mexico sojourn more than 70 years ago.
The breathtaking views of the desert plains also captivated painter Georgia O'Keeffe, who liked to lie on a bench at the ranch near Taos and stare at the trees.Yet the property where Lawrence wrote "St. Mawr," given to the University of New Mexico with the promise that it be forever maintained, is deteriorating and the mausoleum that purportedly holds his ashes is blighted.
Paint curls off the walls and doors dangle from their hinges in the shrine, and cobwebs hang from the ceiling inside Lawrence's rustic cabin.
An alumni committee could decide soon whether to make improvements that would allow the ranch to be used again for educational purposes, Alumni Association president George Friberg said. Estimates to repair the ranch run up to $5 million.
University officials blame lack of money for the ranch's decline from a once-popular asset to dilapidated eyesore.
"It just isn't a priority," said David McKinney, UNM vice president of business and finance. "It's a long distance from the campus, and it has been difficult to find the resources to fix it up."
Some pilgrims to the Lawrence shrine have been critical of the ranch's 84-year-old caretaker, Al Bearce. Some complained that the cantankerous Bearce was as likely to snap at them as to show them around.
Hubie Williams, a professor emeritus from Appalachian State University, was among visitors disappointed by the ranch's condition and Bearce's attitude toward Lawrence, the English writer famed for the novels "Lady Chatterley's Lover," "Sons and Lovers" and "Women in Love."
"He has no respect for D.H. Lawrence, and he's trying to discourage people from coming by being rude," said Williams, who now lives near Albuquerque. "At this time the ranch is not an asset to the university, but it could be."
Bearce has run the ranch for 40 years and "thinks he owns the place," Friberg said.
Bearce has refused to be quoted in news stories about the ranch.
Lawrence's wife, Frieda, gave the ranch to UNM in the 1950s, specifying that 10 acres, including the mausoleum, be maintained and open to the public.
The cabin where Lawrence lived still contains the writer's typewriter and one of his denim jackets. But Bearce doesn't allow all visitors to explore the little house.
In the 1960s and 1970s, thousands visited each summer, attending conventions and educational seminars. The university's English department once invited writers to spend six to eight weeks at the ranch that inspired Lawrence.
But as time passed, the university failed to allocate sufficient money to maintain the property, said Floyd Williams, retired UNM plant manager.
The conference headquarters at the ranch was shut down by the early 1980s. In 1991, the department suspended the fellowship, said Scott Sanders, UNM English department chairman.
"One of the fellows was up there when the water system basically broke," Sanders said. "We found ourselves offering a fellowship that we didn't think was all that it should be."
Ricardo Medina, a friend of Frieda Lawrence who worked at the ranch for 23 years, said the university has not lived up to its agreement to maintain the ranch into perpetuity.
"I don't think she would be comfortable with it," Medina said. "It hasn't been well taken care of."
Despite the ranch's condition, thousands still travel to San Cristobal. Yet many leave disappointed, complaining of its shabby state.
If the Alumni Association doesn't rescue it, the university could sell it, trade it for other land or make the improvements itself, McKinney said.
"I don't think it's appropriate to keep sitting on it and watching it deteriorate," McKinney said.
He makes no apologies, however, for Bearce, who has the run of the property with his dog, Nipper. It's inappropriate for outsiders to speculate why an elderly man is in charge of the sprawling ranch, he said.
"There are people who have complained about him and there are people who rave about him," McKinney said.