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At first when I read the title of the book, Pie Town Woman, authored by Joan Myers, I could not imagine a town being called Pie Town! However, the town actually exists and is located in New Mexico. Its population is about 55 persons, certainly not a metropolis!

Pie Town Woman

Norman
2004-08-11 14:46:17

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You may ask how the town derived its name? Apparently, around 1922 a fellow by the name of Clyde Norman came to New Mexico in order to homestead. As he could not find a desirable property he decided to open a mining operation on a forty-acre piece of land that later became known as Highway 60. In order to survive he opened a grocery store that sold various items such as food, gasoline, kerosene and other commodities.

Norman saw the opportunity to sell doughnuts to his customers and this in turn led him to bake and sell pies. The pies became an immediate success and he soon replaced his original sign to read "Pie Town." Eventually Norman sold his enterprise to someone by the name of Harmon L. Craig who was instrumental in convincing the appropriate authorities to call the town Pie Town.

A photographer by the name of Russell Lee and his wife Jean became acquainted with Pie Town in April of 1940. They were very moved by the fortitude of the homesteaders who farmed in and around the area and how they barely eked out a living. As the author states, "the people were enacting the role of pioneers in the legendary drama of a frontier community. Although the Depression was a desperate time, the days when a family could clear a patch of land, raise a few crops, and be contentedly self-sufficient were over in the rest of the country."

Lee, who was an employee of the Farmers Security Administration and other New Deal Agencies, convinced his boss, Roy Styker, that it would be extremely useful to tell the story of this part of New Mexico with a series of photographs in order to convince the FSA to adopt programs to aid homesteaders. At the time no programs of this nature existed.

During the course of his stay in Pie Town, Lee and his wife had taken innumerable photographs that served as an historical record of small-town America. These photographs ultimately have found their way into the archives of ...