Truth seekers find it in N.M.

THE name “Truth or Consequences” jumped out at me from maps of New Mexico for years. But it was only four months ago that I actually landed here. I needed to be in the area for work, so I booked a room at Riverbend Hot Springs, a “budget resort” where I could soak in outdoor, natural baths and bring my dog, Shiva.

I showed up tired and ready to relax after a five-hour drive from Flagstaff, Ariz. Dismay set in immediately. Riverbend was a resort on a budget, all right: singlewide mobile homes split into rooms, dwarfed bathtubs, moth-eaten blankets and unrelenting forced-air heat.

“They should pay me to stay here,” I thought.

I softened up in the hot springs as evening fell, then joined some of the other guests who were playing harmonicas and guitars around the outdoor stove. That’s when Mark Theall, one of the workers, let me in on a secret: If you can’t afford the $35 to $55 a night for a private room, you can trade three hours of work per night. He had been doing it for months.

I drove away two days later, half admiring my willingness to clean rooms in the name of thriftiness, and half wondering how exactly I’d been sucked into this wormhole.

Turns out that happens a lot.

“Just off the top of my head, I can name 12 people who came to Riverbend and now they have houses,” said Mike Quinn, who was on his way to Hawaii 10 months ago when he stopped off at T or C -- indefinitely. “It happens all the time. People just stay.”

Truth or Consequences is a single-stoplight town planted in the high desert and ringed by low mountains. It’s sunny and friendly, full of passersby who offer a hello rather than just a smile. It has absorbed perhaps more than its share of modern plagues, including methamphetamine and mental illness, although most locals and the police insist tourists are safe. It was cursed, but it’s healing. And it is vaguely, unspeakably strange.

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What’s in a name

A couple of the Riverbend workers planted the seeds for my return. They told me that people honor the name T or C by becoming more fully themselves, which often means they become eccentric. They said that if I came back to stay for a year, I would collect enough material for a bestselling novel. I was willing to try a week.

Some newspapers, like this one, tell travel reporters to work anonymously to discourage special treatment at restaurants and hotels. Still, it felt a little dangerous to conceal anything in a place called Truth or Consequences. I held out for almost 24 hours.

No one else seemed capable of lying either. Det. Ron Huff of the T or C Police Department put it bluntly: “We have, pretty much, a higher percentage of people with mental problems. Per capita, we have an extremely high meth rate, and an extremely high homicide rate.” The city had five killings in the last two years -- a lot for a community of 8,000.

But tourists aren’t crime targets, he added. “You can be comfortable walking from one end of town to the other.”

Truth or Consequences used to be called Hot Springs, touting the naturally heated waters that seep out of small faults near the Rio Grande. But in 1950, host Ralph Edwards challenged any city to change its name to “Truth or Consequences” to mark the 10th anniversary of the radio quiz show. The prize? A live broadcast from that community. Residents, eager to publicize their little resort town, voted by a ratio of 4 to 1 for the change.

The Geronimo Springs Museum, next to the T or C visitor center, features more exhibits than I could process in a single tour: mammoth bones, a miner’s cabin, local art and truckloads of pottery. A whole room is dedicated to “Truth or Consequences,” which was later a TV show. A steady stream of episodes plays on video.

LaRena Miller, the museum’s director, has lived in T or C since the 1950s. Back then, she says, the healing powers of the hot springs were a major draw. Attendance waned in the 1960s and 1970s as people turned toward prescription drugs.

Interest in natural healing has increased in the last decade or so, but the benefits are just starting to trickle down to T or C.

Tourism hit a wall here, as it did almost everywhere, after Sept. 11. But 2001 brought two local crises as well. That January, a pizza truck drove into a propane tank near the center of town, causing an explosion that injured 17 people and destroyed homes and businesses for blocks. And in late September, a man was sentenced to 224 years in prison for torturing women in Elephant Butte, only five miles away.

Whatever tourism is rebounding from, it has shown a steady increase. In 2002, 4,096 people signed in at the museum and visitor center. In 2005, more than 6,500 stopped by.

I was there in the off-season, winter, and I sometimes felt like the only out-of-towner when I walked around. But even during the week, some of the locals became familiar. There’s Ruth, who goes by only that single name, a silver-haired abstract painter who wears her color-smudged smock to the deli for lunch. She left Manhattan to live in T or C. “When people asked me where I live,” she explains, patting her heart, “I wanted the first thing I said to be ‘Truth.’ ”

And there’s Dan Huffman, a large man who rides around town on a large man-sized tricycle. “Hang on!” he says when I start to snap his picture in the street one day, “Let me get my hat!” He returns with a gigantic paint-splattered sombrero.

Most locals expect the pace to pick up -- and there are indications they’re right. In the last few years, young couples relocating here have started a handful of trendy businesses.

Noel Leavitt and his wife, Jessica, for instance, moved from New Hampshire and opened the deservedly popular Happy Belly Deli. So many artists have flocked to T or C that a twice-monthly evening art walk features 15 galleries in a nine-square-block area.

No fewer than nine establishments are capitalizing on the hot springs. They include the upscale and elegant Sierra Grande Lodge and Spa in town, as well as more humble options, including Riverbend, along the banks of the Rio Grande. Most complement the healing potential of the natural baths with massage, facials and other body-energy treatments such as reiki. Riverbend relies solely on the healing waters, however.

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Relaxing in hot pools

MY impression of Riverbend was much sweeter the second time around. Theall had repainted my room, ripped out the old green carpeting and replaced it with sleek tile. He turned down the heat and showed me how to open the tricky windows. It became comfortable to bask in a gorgeous climate, at a humble place, amid precious little expectation of productivity.

My stay included a hike up nearby Turtleback Mountain, shopping in thrift stores and eating tasty meals in a handful of restaurants. I also spent ample time soaking in the hot pools at Riverbend, engaged in long conversations, or doing nothing at all, which everyone took as a good sign that I was acclimating to their slow pace of life.

Somehow, these activities took so long that I was hard pressed to work off my stay at Riverbend. One day, Theall and I painted one of the trailers sky blue to a soundtrack from Country Music Television. I took a couple of shifts in the office -- fielding perhaps three calls in twice as many hours.

Many credit Lee and Sylvia Foerstner, Riverbend’s husband-and-wife owners, for much of the change now taking shape in T or C.

When the Foerstners arrived in the 1980s, they were told the springs had been cursed after a murder nearly 100 years earlier. So, when they began transforming old bait-shop minnow tubs into mineral baths, they also arranged for nearby tribes to lead a healing dance. “All I can assume is the curse is lifted and this is a place where you can make a choice: You came for healing, heal,” Sylvia says.

Other boons to Sierra County tourism may arrive with the new Turtle Mountain Resort and Golf Course in Elephant Butte and a proposed NASCAR-type racetrack in the same area. Thirty miles east, British entrepreneur Richard Branson plans a $225-million spaceport, where he will work toward his dream of offering commercial space flights.

Lee Foerstner thinks T or C is a fitting place to become a portal into space. I’d have to agree; I think it’s already a portal into something.

Tricycle-riding resident Dan Huffman told me that he once said he would never leave Michigan’s North Woods. Now he lives in a tent in a T or C RV park. “New Mexico is the land of enchantment,” he’s fond of saying. “Truth or Consequences is the land of entrapment.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Secrets of a single-stoplight town

GETTING THERE:

Albuquerque International Sunport is about 150 miles north of Truth or Consequences on Interstate 25. Restricted, round-trip airfares from LAX start at $198. United, Southwest have nonstop service; American and America West offer connecting (change of planes) service.

El Paso, Texas, International Airport is about 118 miles from T or C, and Southwest offers nonstop service from LAX. America West, American, Continental, United, Delta and Frontier have connecting service. Restricted round-trip fares start at $218. Car rentals from most major agencies are available at both airports.

WHERE TO STAY:

Sierra Grande Lodge & Spa, 501 McAdoo St.; (505) 894-6976, www.sierragrandelodge.com. Higher-end accommodations in the center of town. Restaurant, mineral baths in indoor-outdoor tubs. Spa treatments extra. Doubles from $115.

Firewater Lodge Bed & Breakfast, 309 Broadway; (505) 740-0315, www.firewaterlodge.com. Charming, homey accommodations downtown. $75 buys a room with its own indoor hot tub.

Riverbend Hot Springs (hostel), 100 Austin St.; (505) 894-7625, www.nmhotsprings.com. On the extreme rustic end, private rooms are $35-$55 with much cheaper arrangements, including shared dorms ($17) and work-for-stay, often available. Private or shared hot mineral baths under the stars.

WHERE TO EAT:

Happy Belly Deli, 313 Broadway St.; (505) 894-3354. Bagels, pastries and generous, tasty sandwiches starting around $6. Closes after lunch.

White Coyote Cafe, 113 Main St.; (505) 894-5160. Vegetarian sandwiches and creative daily specials in colorful Southwestern ambience. Open for lunch daily, dinner Fridays and Saturdays only. Entrees start around $6.

La Pinata, 1990 S. Broadway; (505) 894-9047. There are other good Mexican restaurants in town, but this one’s the most popular with locals. Dinners start around $5.

Los Arcos Steak House & Bar, 1400 N. Date St.; (505) 894-6200. Full-course meals in a pampered setting with entrees starting around $12.

CONTACT:

City of Truth or Consequences and Sierra County Chamber of Commerce, 400 W. 4th St., Truth or Consequences, NM 87901; (505) 894-3536, www.truthorconsequencesnm.net.

-- Anne Minard