Ruth Laughlin was the author of two seminal books on Santa Fe history. In 1945 she wrote Caballeros, The Romance of Santa Fe and the Southwest, which depicted Spanish life at the turn of the 20th century. In 1951 she wrote The Wind Leaves No Shadow, a historical novel about Santa Fe’s Doña Tules, who ran a gambling house and brothel in the 1840s. The gambling madam grew wealthy and was well-received in society. She is buried under the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Laughlin’s father, N.B. Laughlin, came to Santa Fe from Texas in 1879 and became a Territorial Supreme Court judge in the early 1900s.
Founder of the Santa Fe Little Theater
In 1903 Mary Austin wrote the classic, The Land of Little Rain, about the people, terrain, and spirituality of the west. When Austin came to Santa Fe in 1918 she founded the Santa Fe Little Theater. Ernest Thompson Seton wrote 40 books on wildlife and nature. In 1933 he built Seton Village Castle southeast of Santa Fe, which became a National Historic Landmark in 2005.