Sallie Bingham

  • Events
  • Blog
    • Doris Duke
    • Best of 2024
    • My Favorites
    • Full Archives
    • Writing
    • Women
    • Philanthropy
    • My Family
    • Politics
    • Kentucky
    • New Mexico
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Theater
    • Religion
  • Books & Plays
    • Doris Duke
    • Fiction
    • Nonfiction
    • Plays
    • Poetry
    • Anthologies
  • Writing
    • Short Stories
    • Poems
    • Plays
    • Translations
  • Resources
    • Audio
    • Video
    • Print
    • Biography
  • About
    • Contact
 
You are here: Home / New Mexico / My Wild – Number 2: July

My Wild – Number 2: July

July 26th, 2016 by Sallie Bingham in New Mexico 5 Comments

From the series: Apache Mesa

My_Wild_2_1My mesa top ranch, Apache Mesa, east of Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the road to Romeroville, is burning in this remorseless drought. The whole world is burning up; the map of the United States is a uniform angry red. I feel the drought most strongly among the dwarfed pinions and junipers of this high mesa, never fertile or wet, never providing enough forage for a big herd of cattle, although it seems that sheepherders may have camped here with their flocks. Their rough stone one-room huts remain and we are converting one into a combined tack room and studio, for when I move my working operations out here and we find a way to haul horses up the ferocious road.

A month ago, we saw three nun-like wild turkey hens hunching across the dirt road, a single young stag, and a lot of birds. Today we only saw a four-foot rattler sunning in the middle of the road, a female by her stripes; she moved casually away, pausing only to rear and strike at an injudicious stick.

There are neighbors, invisible in trailers and small houses; one, the hermit, lives in a great mess of bottles and dogs, cans and broken cars. Another, more respectable, has made herself guardian of the four gates that must be laboriously opened each time we drive to the little house. She has finally given up, although it took some strong words to convince her that there are no cattle on the mesa to be contained.

Well, actually there are! Yesterday when I went up with my son Barry, we passed two small herds on the road, five cows with a frisking calf and five somber Black Angus steer, but they are enclosed by cattle guards and so don’t require gates.

What is priceless about the enclave on Apache Mesa is that it is not only us newcomers who have found little pockets of paradise there; the people who have lived there for decades are still in place.

On this trip, we met a grandfather, son and grandson coming down the road in a white truck; this family is the original landowner on the mesa and we will see them again at the neighborhood meeting in September. What is priceless about the enclave on Apache Mesa is that it is not only us newcomers who have found little pockets of paradise there; the people who have lived there for decades are still in place. In this rigidly divided state, where our boast about “three nationalities”—Hispanics, Native Americans, and Anglos—is punctured by the way we have moved apart into different areas that seem to have no common ground, the people living on Apache Mesa offer a thread of hope: we can cooperate, we can even enjoy each other’s company, and we share a love for this place perhaps best reflected in the tiny rusted child’s cup we found near the little house, or the tiny ‘thirties tin truck, or the worn sole of a child’s shoe.

My Wild 2 My Wild 2 My Wild 2 My Wild 2 My Wild 2 My Wild 2 My Wild 2

 

[For more on Apache Mesa, please see “My Wild.”]

Share
Tweet
Share
Buffer
0 Shares

In New Mexico Apache Mesa

A long and fruitful career as a writer began in 1960 with the publication of Sallie Bingham's novel, After Such Knowledge. This was followed by 15 collections of short stories in addition to novels, memoirs and plays, as well as the 2020 biography The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke.

Her latest book, Taken by the Shawnee, is a work of historical fiction published by Turtle Point Press in June of 2024. Her previous memoir, Little Brother, was published by Sarabande Books in 2022. Her short story, "What I Learned From Fat Annie" won the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize in 2023 and the story "How Daddy Lost His Ear," from her forthcoming short story collection How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories (September 23, 2025), received second prize in the 2023 Sean O’Faolain Short Story Competition.

She is an active and involved feminist, working for women’s empowerment, who founded the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which gives grants to Kentucky artists and writers who are feminists, The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University, and the Women’s Project and Productions in New York City. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sallie's complete biography is available here.

Comments

  1. James Voyles on Facebook says

    July 26th, 2016 at 9:27 am

    How beautiful!

    Reply
  2. Carol M. Johnson says

    July 26th, 2016 at 9:54 am

    Such rugged beauty. Do you feel safe in such a remote area?

    Reply
    • Sallie Bingham says

      July 28th, 2016 at 8:41 am

      Thank you, Carol – yes, I always feel safe out of doors. -Sallie

      Reply
  3. William Dooley on Facebook says

    July 26th, 2016 at 1:14 pm

    Don’t get lost in the woods…

    Reply
  4. Marilyn McLaughlin on Facebook says

    July 27th, 2016 at 6:38 pm

    Not well off, but still there and keeping their old traditions. I have camped remote areas in every state (except Hawaii ) and always feel safe living in the beauty.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 

You might also like

  • Photo of Sallie Bingham looking out over the Gallinas River valley
    Apache Mesa Ranch Resolved
    The ranch is not really for us human beings with our thin skins and our need for comfort....
  • Photo of Snake Goddess - Heraklion Achaeological Museum
    Killing the Mama Snake
    I must write my story of this place… a story of the intersection of cultures here that seem to have no history or sense of conservation in common....
  • Photo of sunset at Apache Mesa Ranch
    Is It Sunset Time for Apache Mesa Ranch?
    I haven't written about my ranch in south-eastern New Mexico, near the old town of Las Vegas, for some time. In the interval, a lot has changed....
  • Black and white photo of the dog Pip on Apache Mesa
    A Dream Deferred
    I was unable to move through my bitter disappointment that my original dream, dependent on a man, had collapsed....
 

Subscribe

 

Latest Comments

  • Martha White on The Fruits of the Past Five Years: “Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings: “And suddenly a light is thrown back, as when your train makes a curve, showing…” July 6th, 11:14 am
  • Nenita on The Fruits of the Past Five Years: “I like your writings, I can relate to you. If I had been persevering and seriously aware of my interests…” July 6th, 11:13 am
  • Sallie Bingham on Whose Eyes: “Thank you, James – you are correct!” June 29th, 11:19 am
  • Martha White on Feeding the Fish: “Blinkying Report:: Our neighborhood rabbits have been observed leaping into the air three or four feet off the ground. It…” June 29th, 8:10 am
  • Martha White on Whose Eyes: “Subtle. The “b” stays silent—subtle, even.” June 24th, 12:59 pm

Watch Sallie

Taken By The Shawnee

Taken By The Shawnee

July 6th, 2025
Sallie Bingham introduces and reads from her latest work, Taken by the Shawnee.
Visiting Linda Stein

Visiting Linda Stein

March 3rd, 2025
Back on October 28th, 2008, I visited artist Linda Stein's studio in New York City and tried on a few of her handmade suits of armor.

Listen To Sallie

Rebecca Reynolds & Salie Bingham at SOMOS

Rebecca Reynolds & Salie Bingham at SOMOS

November 8th, 2024
This event was recorded November 1, 2024 in Taos, NM at SOMOS Salon & Bookshop by KCEI Radio, Red River/Taos and broadcast on November 8, 2024.
Taken by the Shawnee Reading

Taken by the Shawnee Reading

September 1st, 2024
This reading took place at The Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe, New Mexico in August of 2024.

Upcoming Events

Jul 25
July 25th - July 27th

The 9th Annual Taos Writers Conference

SOMOS Salon & Bookshop
Taos MO
Sep 23
All day

How Daddy Lost His Ear – Garcia Street Books

Garcia Street Books
Santa Fe NM
Sep 30
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm MDT

How Daddy Lost His Ear – The Church of the Holy Faith

The Church of the Holy Faith
Santa Fe NM
View all of Sallie's events

Latest Tweets

salliebingham avatar Sallie Bingham @salliebingham ·
10 Jul 1943388047287963824

Recently, I was reflecting with my good friend John on the fruits of the past five years. I’m so very grateful for all my readers who keep me and my books alive! https://buff.ly/NgnRjO3 #DorisDuke #TheSilverSwan #Treason #LittleBrother #TakenByTheShawnee #HowDaddyLostHisEar

Image for the Tweet beginning: Recently, I was reflecting with Twitter feed image.
salliebingham avatar Sallie Bingham @salliebingham ·
9 Jul 1942957873966792785

It's important not to be ploughed under by the chaos and intemperance in #WashingtonDC. We don't live in that swamp, and we don't need to allow our hopes and dreams to be drowned out by the noise. "Reasons to Hope": https://buff.ly/Z8lH33D

Image for the Tweet beginning: It's important not to be Twitter feed image.
Load More

Recent Press

Sallie Bingham's latest is a captivating account of ancestor's ordeal
Pasatiempo, The Santa Fe New Mexican

“I felt she was with me” during the process of writing the book, Bingham says. “I felt I wasn’t writing anything that would have seemed to her false or unreal.”

Copyright © 2025 Sallie Bingham. All Rights Reserved.

Press Materials   —   Contact Sallie

Privacy Policy

Menu
  • Events
  • Blog
    • Doris Duke
    • Best of 2024
    • My Favorites
    • Full Archives
    • Writing
    • Women
    • Philanthropy
    • My Family
    • Politics
    • Kentucky
    • New Mexico
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Theater
    • Religion
  • Books & Plays
    • Doris Duke
    • Fiction
    • Nonfiction
    • Plays
    • Poetry
    • Anthologies
  • Writing
    • Short Stories
    • Poems
    • Plays
    • Translations
  • Resources
    • Audio
    • Video
    • Print
    • Biography
  • About
    • Contact