Overlook dragons and dire wolves. In George R.R. Martin‘s nook of the realm — in any other case often known as Santa Fe, New Mexico — energy seems extra like a movie show, a short-haul railway line, a bookstore and a bar. And whereas winter is probably not coming anytime quickly, a stunning variety of enterprise ventures are.
Over the previous decade, the 76-year-old Sport of Thrones creator has been constructing his personal offscreen empire — a unusual, culture-loving kingdom in northern New Mexico, the place he owns or funds a rising variety of establishments. There’s the Jean Cocteau Cinema, the beloved artwork home theater he rescued in 2013. There’s Meow Wolf, the psychedelic artwork collective he helped fund (and home, in an outdated deserted bowling alley). And there’s the historic Santa Fe Southern Railway, which he’s not solely introduced again to life however became one thing of a film star.
Martin might have left Westeros unfinished, however on this sunbaked enclave, his world-building continues apace — one actual property acquisition at a time.
“I fell in love with Santa Fe after I first visited in 1978 — you will get in a automotive and get anyplace in 10 minutes,” he’s stated. A yr later, newly divorced and able to write full-time, Martin left his educating job at Clarke Faculty in Dubuque, Iowa, and relocated to the excessive desert, the place he would begin hammering out his epic saga about dragons, dynasties and deeply questionable household timber — the one that might make him Santa Fe’s most well-known scribe.
In 2013, he bought the Jean Cocteau Cinema — a long-closed, single-screen film home within the metropolis’s Railyard District — which he reopened as a venue for movie screenings, writer occasions and sport nights. Then, proper subsequent door, he opened Beastly Books, providing sci-fi and fantasy titles, uncommon editions and loads of GRRM swag. Tucked simply behind it’s Milk of the Poppy, a medieval apothecary-themed cocktail bar. All three are owned by Martin’s Highgarden Leisure.
In true Martin style, issues solely acquired extra sprawling. He purchased a shuttered bowling alley on the south aspect of city — a steal at $2.7 million — and turned it over to what he referred to as “a gaggle of younger, weird-ass Santa Fe artists.” These weirdos would go on to turn into the founding collective behind Meow Wolf, now a nationwide immersive artwork phenomenon. “Not one of the galleries wished them as a result of they had been too offbeat,” Martin recollects. “They took me right down to the bowling alley, defined their imaginative and prescient of different dimensions and bizarre aliens and pressed all my buttons.”
George R.R. Martin in his adopted dwelling kingdom.
Jane Phillips/The Santa Fe New Mexican/AP Pictures
In 2020, Martin joined an investor group to revive the historic Santa Fe Southern Railway. “We’re bringing the railroad again,” he introduced on his weblog (referred to as Not a Weblog) after the acquisition. “Not simply as a way of transportation, however as an entire new type of journey.”
In the present day, the road runs themed journeys between Santa Fe and Lamy, a tiny rail city about 18 miles southeast, and consists of vacation excursions with onboard music and immersive performances. Two of its classic prepare automobiles have even made it to the large display screen: Each had been featured in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
His companion on the undertaking, Invoice Banowsky, offers Martin full credit score for the railway imaginative and prescient: “It was his thought to color one locomotive like the pinnacle of a wolf, one like the pinnacle of a dragon,” he says.
Arising, Martin can also be about to interrupt floor on a city-street backlot for his Stagecoach Basis, the nonprofit he based in 2017 to offer free movie and TV job coaching for New Mexicans and to draw manufacturing to the area.
In fact, not everybody in Santa Fe is thrilled about Martin’s rising affect. Some locals fear that the inflow of vacationers and GRRM fandom helps to drive up congestion in a city already fighting gentrification. After which there are the readers who would actually simply want he end The Winds of Winter.
“I simply wish to make one factor clear,” he tells THR. “Whereas I’m an investor and an proprietor in a few of these issues, I don’t run them each day. Each time I announce one thing on the web, there’s all this loopy discuss. ‘Oh, he’s giving up writing the books!’ However I’m nonetheless writing. The [sixth] novel, the ‘Dunk and Egg’ story — these are what I’m centered on.”
Nonetheless, to many residents, Martin’s presence has helped protect and revive a few of Santa Fe’s cultural landmarks. Which is precisely what you’d count on from a person who is aware of a factor or two about constructing kingdoms — and preserving them alive.
You’re Not in King’s Touchdown Anymore
A short tour of George R.R. Martin’s Santa Fe sights.
1. SKY RAILWAY
430 West Manhattan Ave.
“Generally gunslingers raid the prepare,” says Martin of his rolling theater. “Often, one in every of our riders is murdered and the remaining must resolve who did it.”
Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal/ZUMA Press Wire
2. MEOW WOLF’S HOUSE OF ETERNAL RETURN
1352 Rufina Circle
In any other case often known as the defunct bowling alley Martin bought and rented to a gaggle of “weird-ass” artists.
ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy
3. JEAN COCTEAU CINEMA
418 Montezuma Ave.
Since Martin restored the 49-year-old theater in 2013, it’s achieved greater than display screen films — it’s hosted drag reveals, magic acts and writer occasions.
Jennifer Wright/Alamy Inventory Picture
4. MILK OF THE POPPY
418 Montezuma Ave.
Attempt the MOTP Milk Punch, made with pisco, white Armagnac, coconut matcha and turmeric cream.
Courtesy
5. BEASTLY BOOKS
418 Montezuma Ave.
Greatest place to choose up an autographed Sport of Thrones novel, or an opulent dragon.
Luis Sánchez Saturno/Santa Fe New Mexican/AP Pictures
This story appeared within the July 30 situation of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.
