Pie Town is an unincorporated community and census-designated place located along U.S. Highway 60 in Catron County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 186. Its name comes from an early bakery that specialized in dried-apple pies; it was established by Clyde Norman in the early 1920s. Pie Town has been noted for its colorful place name. Pie Town is the location of a “Pie Festival” on the second Saturday of each September. Pie Town is located immediately north of the Gila National Forest and not very far west of the Plains of San Agustin, the location of the Very Large Array radio telescope, which is also located along U.S. 60. In addition, one of the ten large radio antennas that form the Very Long Baseline Array of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory can be seen from U.S. 60 just east of Pie Town.
Pie Town and its people were photographed in 1940 by Russell Lee, a photographer for the Farm Security Administration of the U.S. government, during the Great Depression. Pie Town, Lee’s photos, and the local restaurant the Daily Pie Cafe were the subject of an article in Smithsonian magazine in February 2005. In 2014, a feature length documentary, Pie Lady of Pie Town, was produced. CBS News Sunday Morning aired a story about the town in 2015.
Leave a Reply