Sheri McWethy-Kennedy is the full-time Innkeeper of our Bed & Breakfast, which is named for Sheri’s love of wild roses (the only ones hardy enough to grow at our elevation), and for her beloved rescued horse, Cimarron (Spanish for wild & untamed). Sheri purchased Cimarron as a spunky 7 month old colt in 1987 from a Washington State Indian Tribe where two herds of once domestic horses had been running wild for 15 years and faced a most certain near future of doom. After months of working on foot conditioning his band of 20 horses to enter a corral to eat – Sheri, with the support of a local Veterinarian and direct assistance of friends, caught him on St. Patrick’s Day 1987 and through trust, care, play and love, trained Cimarron herself to become a fabulous backcountry trail horse. Sheri’s deep and unique relationship continues with this life long companion as we celebrated his 25th birthday in 2011 and the 25th anniversary of his amazing rescue on St. Patrick’s Day 2012.
It saddens us greatly to inform our guests that the beautiful Spirit of our “Star” of Cimarron Rose joined those in the heavens above on November 10th, 2015. He enjoyed 29 happy and healthy years. Our hearts will always be filled with the wonderful memories and everlasting love, friendship and partnership that we shared. He was gently laid to rest in our pet cemetery where visitors are most welcome. We hope that you’ll enjoy the sculpture in the garden in his honor. We wish everyone the deepest sense of love and the most joyous experiences of happiness like those shared with our beloved Cimarron these past 28 years.
Sheri was raised in the Shoreline area north of Seattle, surrounded by diverse woodlands with natural lakes, peat bogs, clear streams, and rocky beaches with incredible tide pools. It’s no wonder that she has such an affinity for natural history, art, photography, gardening and animals (many of which she grew up with as beloved pets, including 5 orphaned squirrels she rescued and raised). Her deep caring for these animals led to a rewarding profession as a Veterinary Technician in Seattle and Albuquerque.
However, Sheri has worked most of her life outdoors supporting environmental education, conservation and visitor services programs with the National Park Service, Bureau Of Land Management, and the National Forest Service in Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Arizona and lastly in the area surrounding Cimarron Rose here in the Zuni Mountains where she “manned” all three fire look-outs on the Mt. Taylor Ranger District. It’s perhaps these twenty years of experiences combining solitude with the offering of professional visitor services in many Visitor Center venues that has contributed to an enjoyable and highly successful Inn-keeping profession at our Bed & Breakfast.
Tom spends most of his work week at Zuni Pueblo as the Director of Tourism for the Zuni Tribe at the Zuni Visitor and Arts Center. It’s hard to believe, that he has worked at Zuni for 21 years! The first seven were as Director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum (check out the Hawikku exhibit that he oversaw in 2002) and most recently has been directing the tourism program for the tribe. Tom insists that the main reasons for his longevity at Zuni, the largest Pueblo in New Mexico, is that “work there is endlessly fascinating, wonderfully unpredictable and thus never boring…”
Tom has also become involved in many regional and state tourism and cultural programs. He is a longtime member and former President of the three-county Northwest Region “Indian Country” Tourism Marketing Board, continues as President of the Trail of the Ancients Scenic Byway, developed and oversees the local Ancient Way Arts Trail, and serves on various other historic preservation and tourism committees. One exciting emerging Zuni project is designation and development as the state’s first Native American MainStreet. Tom is also working to develop the nationally significant Hawikku archaeological site into a more accessible Tribally operated venue.
Diverse interests that include culture, music, the arts, and natural history have resulted from a natural sense of inquisitiveness about the world and a lifetime of experiences – from an adventuresome childhood growing up in Nigeria, serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala & St. Lucia, working as a museum professional at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum as well as at museums in Santa Fe, on the island of St. Lucia and in Texas.
We invite you to stop into the Zuni Visitor and Arts Center where you are likely to meet Tom or perhaps at Cimarron Rose where he assists Sheri when time allows.
About This Website
We hope that you enjoy this “handmade” website as much as we have enjoyed putting it together for you!
All good things come in time and we appreciate your patience with us as we continue to fine-tune this unique, one of a kind site in 2014.
We love art and this site literally began by Sheri cutting and pasting construction paper around her new photographs and text to create a more interesting folk art effect ~ quite different from her original minimalist design of 1997. You may recognize some elements from that original site that we were happy to retain here.
Thankfully, we found the ultimate Web Master, Crystal Thomas, who, through her technical expertise and love of creativity, including all forms of art, craft and performance she can sink her teeth into (when she can make time for it while caring for her adorable family), was up to the challenge of building a site from scratch paper, which were Sheri’s colorful mocked-up pages. It takes a team effort to finish an endeavor as huge as this one, including the incredible patience and assistance offered by Tom.
During the time it has taken us to finish this project, Crystal has experienced the birth of another beautiful daughter. The gestation period however for this “baby” turns out to be just over two years!
All we can do is shake our heads, laugh and hope that you find the fun within the content.
We each wish you the best in your travels to our beloved Zuni Mountains
of
New Mexico!
