Tres Orejas lost one of its more notable long time residents this week, Mike Mabry. He passed away last Wednesday after a long and interesting life. He left behind his wife Peg, a daughter, four sons and many grandchildren. He and his family first moved to Tres Orejas in 1981 where they built a house in the then sparsely inhabited and remote community. He was known for his friendliness and defiant attitude towards authority in all of its forms, great and small. He saw Tres Orejas as an opportunity for himself and others to own a home without the usual constraints of mortgage payments, home owners associations and the rules of normal society. He was a professional photographer before he moved to the Taos area in the 1970s. If you visited him, he would tell you many interesting stories of his former life starting from his childhood in Mississippi in the 1940s to his service in the US navy on a submarine and earning a living from photography in the 1960s. He was fascinated by ancient Egypt and developed radical theories that, true to his spirit, contradicted the accepted knowledge on the subject.

He was always concerned about and an activist in the affairs of his own community. Long before medicinal marijuana was even a concept and legal cannabis was even thought possible, he was a proponent of the virtues of this ancient plant. In 1988 in the midst of the full on war on drugs, he confronted then congressman and future governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, about the military helicopter surveillance of Tres Orejas that occurred from the late 1980s until 2009. He pointed out to the politicians of the time that not only were these flights warrant less surveillance but that they were in violation of FAA height limits and a potential safety issue for our community. He was vindicated in 2010 when the courts invalidated the last fly over prosecutions as a violation of the 4th amendment. He fought to keep access to the Klauer Spring open which for many years was the only source for water haulers in this arid environment. In all of these issues he was a determined fighter unwilling to compromise.

Age slowed him down but never stopped him. He always had a warm smile on his face and was devoted to his extended family up until the end.