In New Mexico: Visions Along the Amtrak Line

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Along a railroad track in a ravine in Canyoncito, N. Mex., just north of the Lamy train station, there have been occasional sightings of curious apparitions. On this gloomy Sunday, passengers on the Southwest Chief have & been warned to keep their eyes open. Their train will be passing through Canyoncito between 2 and 3 in the afternoon.

Canyoncito is on wild, beautiful land 15 miles southeast of Santa Fe. The landscape is dotted with adobe ranch houses and corrals. Chamizas with yellow flowers, delicate violet asters, sage, pinons and cacti grow everywhere.

In the ravine the sky is overcast, and rain appears imminent. Two women emerge from a red Datsun pickup parked under the railroad trestle. A golden retriever stands guard by their side. Victoria Cross, 36, pulls on a long, flowing green-velvet mask that is sewn to a wrangler's hat. The mask has many gourds hanging from it. Sherie Hartle, 35, is putting on a white mask that resembles a death's-head. The masks are frightening; they are right out of a peyote dream.

Vicki and Sherie are in the process of transforming themselves into the "curious apparitions" that passengers on the Southwest Chief have been warned about. The performance that is about to begin is part of a project called "Apparitions and Amtrak," funded in part by a grant from the New Mexico Arts Division and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Vicki, who moved to Santa Fe 14 years ago, makes almost all of the masks and costumes used in the performance. She describes her favorite apparitions this way: "The Jester is a bedspread, some socks and curtains, beads and bells. Buttonface is pajamas, a favorite shirt, lots of buttons, a vegetable steamer, socks and an old cloth flag I used to fly in Arroyo Hondo. The apparitions are gentle reminders to the Amtrak passengers that dreams are important aspects of our lives."

Today Vicki is the Mexican Hat. Sherie, a massage therapist when she is not performing, will be the Winter One. Vicki's trunk, overflowing with costumes and masks, stands in the ravine about ten feet from the Galisteo creek. Sherie, doing a little dance in her robe and mask, suddenly slips on a flat, wet rock and falls hard on her back. "I'm O.K.! I'm O.K.!" she shouts through her mask, and she gets back up. Suddenly an old Subaru cuts down into the ravine, and Ifan Evans, 47, who is driving, brings the car to a sharp halt just a few feet from the creek. Four people all seem to exit the car at the same time, and there is much hugging and kissing. But there is little time to waste.

"What time is the train due?" Dianne Porter, 40, an "environmental visionary" who works in the Marcy Street Card Shop, asks Vicki. "In about 15 minutes. We have to hurry."

Dianne chooses a costume for herself and her daughter Bridey, 9. Dianne will be Spiral Head, and Bridey will be the Summer Bird. Vicki chooses the Baby Raven for Veva Burns, Bridey's friend, who is also nine.

Dianne adjusts Bridey's costume, and then she and Bridey and Veva go under the trestle and climb a steep incline that is strewn with boulders. The footing is slippery; they go cautiously and emerge on a concrete platform that is five feet from the railroad tracks.