Mark Arrowsmith - ‘The American’

Tucked away in a renovated historic cottage in Arrowtown is an unassuming American Kiwi and former Santa Fe antique trader whose dad sold jewellery to Elvis Presley and western art to John Wayne.

Mark Arrowsmith has had many careers, once a very successful cosmetic dentist to the stars in New Mexico. However, with his dad a highly regarded Indian trader and art dealer trading was in the Arrowsmith blood.

Mark worked in his father Rex’s trading post in Santa Fe from a young age, where Rex also rented out props to the many Western movies being shot in the area, rubbing shoulders with heroes and villains of the silver screen like Roy Rogers and Clint Eastwood.

“My great-grandfather was a wild west cowboy and railroad detective. My grandfather, part Native American, was a magician and part of a 1920's flying circus of barnstormers.”

Mark’s dad sold to many Hollywood A-listers, a kind and generous man, always helping out the Native American people on the reservation where he sourced most of his handmade pieces.

“My mum was a great cook, and Dad was always bringing clients home for dinner,” he says. “Anyone from rocket scientists, famous actors and authors to the Indian medicine man could turn up,” Mark grins. “My brother and I sat there in awe quietly listening. John Wayne came for dinner one night, but I was at uni. I met him at other times when he and my father were haggling over Western art.”

Mark sometimes accompanied his father on trading trips to the reservation and witnessed many unforgettable, mystical secret ceremonies, which were strictly off limits to most white people, and hosted by a Hopi medicine man.

Tourist signs along the Route 66 highway advertised everything from handmade belts to ‘hold the rattlesnake’ stalls.

“Once I was with Dad at his trading post when a lady with a strong Southern drawl poked her head into the front doorway and asked, "Do y'all have any rattlesnakes in here? My husband is deathly afraid of rattlesnakes!" My father, puzzled, said "No, ...no rattlesnakes here." She said to someone on the other side of the door "It's OK, Johnny, you can come in now."  It turned out to be Johnny Cash, dressed in black, and she was June Carter!”

 Mark earned an honours degree in Animal Science from Texas Tech University with plans to be a veterinarian, but says through a twist of fate, he turned out to be a dentist, setting up a successful practice in Santa Fe. “I had an artistic nature, so I leaned towards cosmetic dentistry and found it to be more satisfying than the mundane drill and fill, and soon developed a following.”

He was once called on to do an emergency fix on an actor who had a scene coming up in a movie being filmed locally. “He was so grateful that he invited me back to the set and I spent an afternoon sitting in a director's chair next to Robert Redford."

In 1986 Mark discovered New Zealand, while giving a talk about cosmetic dentistry at the Otago University Dental School, and touring both islands. “I fell in love with the place.”

Once home in the US he received a letter from the university asking if he’d be interested in coming on staff as a lecturer. “I accepted the offer without hesitating, selling my practice, and moving to Dunedin in a matter of months,” Mark says. However, in less than two years his dental career ended due to detached retinas in both eyes, likely caused by a skiing accident, leaving him with permanent damage.

Out of options, and with a Kiwi wife and newborn son to support by then, Mark moved the family back to Santa Fe and reopened his father's trading post.

“I realised, ‘This is what I'm meant to do. It's in the Arrowsmith blood’.”

Miraculously, the right specialist surgeons had just happened to be on hand in Dunedin for the retina emergencies, saving much of his sight, but Mark says the disaster of a ruined career turned out to be “a blessing in disguise”. “I never really enjoyed dentistry.”

After 10 years back in Santa Fe selling rare antiques of the American West to the rich and famous, the family had expanded with their fourth child on the way.

“My yearning for the simple New Zealand way of life had grown too strong. I wanted my children to grow up here,” he says.

Mark sold the gallery, buying a beautiful farm and homestead in Alexandra, moving the family back to New Zealand.

“That move back to small-town Alex was a real culture shock,” he grins. “The previous week I’d been a guest at Ralph Lauren's birthday party. The next I was a nobody, known only as "The American.”

 With a love for animals and a relevant degree under his belt, Mark turned Kiwi deer farmer, gleaning extra knowledge from helpful local farmers. “I got inspiration from "The Horse Whisperer", using some of the same techniques in handling the sometimes jittery animals.”

 A cherry orchard was next, but failed crops over two consecutive years - once from heavy rain and the next from ravenous swarms of birds, put paid to that career.

After a divorce, the farm was sold, the proceeds used to purchase a luxury lodge at Lake Hayes in 2003.

In 2009 he married his Australian wife, Sue, who had four young daughters, and became father to a blended family of eight kids. " We likely hold the record for the most children through Wakatipu High School,” he grins.

Other careers include a season as DOC regional concession compliance ranger and 15 years as a biosecurity officer for MPI locally, once boarding a cruise ship thrilling ‘Action Man’ style having to leap for ropes in challenging seas.

Mark’s also worked as a landscape consultant and gardener at Stoneridge Estate. " I really had to hustle to feed all those kids." he grins.

While he retired in 2020, Mark only recently gave up skiing after racking up 61 consecutive seasons.

Still true to the Arrowsmith tradition his “retirement career” is sourcing beautiful antique jewellery and selling it through the Gold Shop in Arrowtown.