Next up on 66 is the small village of Budville, NM..Flossie and Bud Rice built this home and service station and general store in 1938 and it appears to still be lived in to this day. As you might guess from the "amazing coincidence", community was named after Bud who had been a long term resident of Cubero where he had established his first service station in 1928. The filming of "Desert Song" took place here; Lucy came and stayed after leaving Desi; and Papa Hemingway came to stay awhile and wrote "The Old Man and the Sea" while he was a guest.
Still heading west we see McCartys, NM. Here we see Santa Maria de Acoma Church..The parish of Acoma, originally established in 1629, dates as the oldest in the Gallup diocese and probably the oldest in the United States. The early Spanish history in Acoma records both dedicated parish priests and martyrs. This mission, dedicated to St. Stephan, the protomartyr of the Catholic Church, was established in the year 1629 by Friar Juan Ramirez, one of the early Franciscan Missionaries to New Mexico. The church, built in the early Pueblo style of architecture is unique and the largest of the early New Mexico Missions. It is built of adobe brick and mortar and was ten years in building. All the adobe bricks as well as all materials for the building had to be carried to the top of the Rock by the Acoma Indians of those days. The work was done by the Acoma Indians under the direction of Friar Ramirez. Whether the Mission buildings were destroyed in the great Pueblo Uprising of 1680, or not, is a disputed question. Some claim the present building is the original; others claim the original was destroyed in 1680 and rebuilt in 1699.
