Lodging

“We want people to move here,” he says. And after a night at the Tavern, you might find yourself giving the idea serious consideration.

The building dates to the early 20th century, when it was an auction house for cattle. In later incarnations, it was a grocery store, then a health club. Back then, Jurisin and his family were living in the penthouse above his Tavern Grille next door, and when extended family and friends came to visit, they had trouble finding a place to stay nearby.

If it seems a picture of a simpler time, that’s not an accident. The Hoffmans bought this land near the Blue River nearly 40 years ago with the idea of homesteading their dozen acres on the Arizona-New Mexico border. 

Occupying a small, unfinished cabin, they raised two children and an assortment of animals. They sent their kids to the old two-room school in Alpine, 13 miles north. When they built a larger home, they opened their cabin to guests. Eventually, they added three vintage aluminum trailers at the edge of an expansive lawn planted with bluegrass and fruit trees.