Historic Taos Inn
Pawnee Bill definitely partied here (and may have slept here too!).
Categories: Photo Gallery , Westward Home
By: Candy Moulton 04/01/2008
As a retired couple, Pawnee Bill and May often visited Taos, spending part of each summer in the community; they celebrated 50 years of marriage here on August 31, 1936.
The Tarleton House, now site of the Adobe Bar, also has a connection to the Wild West show era. Thomas Tarleton bought the house for his mother Minnie in 1926. His father Wallace had worked as a farmer in Ames, Iowa, with the Merchant Marine in England, and for Buffalo Bill one season in England and one season in New York.
Thomas eventually wound up working as a bellhop for El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon, where he met his wife, who worked as a Harvey Girl. When the younger Tarletons decided to begin a family, they left their employment at the Grand Canyon and moved to Taos. When Mrs. Martin built the hotel, she purchased the Tarleton house. The Tarletons then built a new home on Taos Pueblo Road, and Thomas eventually owned and operated Tarleton Motors.
Hotel Martin quickly became a hub of Taos’s social, intellectual and artistic society. When the business sold to new owners, it was renamed the Taos Inn. In 1952, the signature blue thunderbird neon sign was positioned out front.
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