This article appeared in The New York Times four years ago today. NewMexiKen has posted excerpts before, and it just sounds like a fascinating place. The article begins:
Drive for hours through the high desert of New Mexico, cross the Continental Divide, and fetch up in the tiny town of Quemado. Go past the adobe brick church and the Christmas tree, constructed of elkhorn, at the Chevron station. Park across from the bar, closed because the proprietor is keeping ”hunter’s hours.”
Wait. After a while, a van will pull up. Get in. The driver, who says his name is Robert, will know the way, but as soon as the van turns off the paved road you will be hopelessly lost, disoriented in a seemingly featureless landscape of scrubby grass and barbed wire fencing. After almost an hour, when the van pulls up at a tiny cabin, get out. Watch Robert drive away, leaving you and your five fellow travelers alone under a vast blue sky.
But not quite alone. Behind you is ”The Lightning Field,” an enormous and astonishing installation of 400 lightning rods, a work of art so immense and so changeable that is occupies the desert landscape like a living thing. The mystery of the road trip and the enforced isolation are all part of getting to know it.