The Hermit of Hermit's Peak

At roughly ten thousand two hundred sixty feet above sea level, the mountain behind you carries the memory of one of the strangest figures in New Mexico history. From eighteen sixty-three until about eighteen sixty-six, an Italian wanderer named Juan Maria Agostini lived alone near the summit, having walked from Canada through the American Southwest in a lifelong act of religious penance.

Agostini carved crucifixes and devotional objects from wood and traded them to the local Hispano and Pueblo communities in exchange for food. His solitary life on the peak earned him a reputation for holiness across the region. Pilgrims climbed up to seek his blessing.

He eventually moved on, wandering south into Chihuahua, where he was found murdered in a cave in eighteen sixty-nine. No one was ever charged. The mountain he once called home still bears his name, remembered as Hermit's Peak.