ALCALDE— It sure didn't feel like spring on a cold, gray morning at the historic Los Luceros ranch on Thursday.
The state officially took over ownership of the property north of Española during a morning ceremony attended by a few dozen dignitaries who wore winter coats and warmed their hands around a wood stove inside the 19th century adobe ranch house.
But wait just a few more weeks, state officials repeatedly said, and the 174-acre ranch's lilac bushes, native flowers and apple orchards will come to life.
A setting like that makes Los Luceros an ideal place to serve as a retreat for writers, directors and others working in the state's booming film industry, said Jodi Delaney of the New Mexico Film Office.
"You can get away and concentrate on your craft," Delaney said.
A film-related retreat center is one of several uses the state is considering after purchasing the $2.5 million property. The ranch could also be home to interpretive exhibits and crop-growing and environmental studies programs.
"We came to this ranch today to breathe new life into Los Luceros," Gov. Bill Richardson said during a signing ceremony inside the home's living area, which Richardson joked would be the "governor's quarters."
Richardson presented a check to Frank and Ann Cabot, who bought the property 10 years ago, in exchange for the deed.
The ranch had fallen on hard times when the couple purchased the property.
"It was wonderfully beat up," Frank Cabot said.
The couple established the Los Luceros Foundation to fund the ranch's $3.5 million renovation and delighted in hunting for consignment furniture to fill the Territorial-style home.
In 2004, the ranch welcomed visitors interested in the site's history, the home's impressive architecture and scenery of farm fields and cottonwoods along the Rio Grande.
But the Cabots closed the ranch a year later and put it up for sale, hoping that it would remain in public hands. The state closed the deal on the purchase in February after a year of negotiations. The ranch is located on County Road 48 off U.S. 84/285 in Alcalde.
The Mexican government established the community of Los Luceros on the site in the 1840s. The existing buildings may have served as a courthouse and a jail for the village.
Sometime in the 1850s, María Marta Lucero and Elias Clark built the 5,700-square-foot home, now known as Casa Grande.
Mary Cabot Wheelwright, a wealthy world traveler who founded the Wheelright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, purchased the deteriorating property in 1923 and worked on restoration until her death in 1958.
Georgia O'Keeffe called the property the second-most beautiful place in New Mexico, Cabot said. The artist stayed at the ranch occasionally, though usually when Wheelwright was away on one of her excursions visiting Navajos.
"They were both strong women," Cabot said.
The Cabots, Wheelwright's relatives, bought the property in 1999.
"We were just overcome by it," Frank Cabot said. "You feel the spirit of the people who have been here before."
