The historic New Buffalo Commune was founded in June 1967, the "Summer of Love," when three young men from Pittsburgh who wanted to start a new life living off the land were given 105 acres by their friend, Rick Klein. Hearing of this in underground city newspapers, interested young people streamed to northern New Mexico. Instructed by elders of the Taos Pueblo in building, praying, and planting, they used native mud and wood from a nearby forest to construct a 5,000 square foot adobe main building and two smaller adobe buildings. Dedicated to raising their own food, they began growing corn, squash, and beans and raising chickens.

Life was not easy. Sadly, the next fall a fire destroyed much of the main building. But this group was unfazed and remained true to their aims of creating a community. Seizing the opportunity for positive change, they rebuilt the main building to fit their growing needs, creating separate rooms for families instead of a communal loft in the large sunken center room. The core of this original building still remains today, though the facilities have been greatly updated.

Mil Gracias, A THOUSAND THANKS, does not begin to cover the many, many individuals to whom we owe a debt of gratitude. This debt is not only the living but also to those men and women who long ago began to preserve the journals and documents we now depend upon for knowledge of the past: the chroniclers who accompanied the explorers and settlers and who, dusty, tired and hungry, sat in the light of a candle to record in their journals the events of the day and the Franciscan clerics who made detailed reports of their canonical visits to the mission churches of Nuevo México.

Corina A. Santistevan
Acknowledgements in "Taos: A Topical History"