MADRID, New Mexico

 

By

Gary B. Speck

 

 

 

Located east of I-25, and linking Santa Fe and Albuquerque is State Highway (SH) 14, the Turquoise Trail.  Strung out along this scenic byway are a handful of interesting old mining towns well worth a visit.

 

About 20 air miles southwest of Santa Fe, and nestled quaintly between two long ridges is the old coal-mining town of Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid, NOT Ma-DRID).

           

So many ghost town books show the rows of abandoned homes and the old steam engine, and rave about all the abandoned buildings and ghostly air. They comment on how this classic ghost town is one of the best in the West. Well folks, that just ain't so ... anymore. Madrid has been reborn.

 

The rows of houses are still there, but many have been rehabilitated, while others are still boarded up.  At the time of our visit in 1987, the downtown area was bustling, and over the top of a fence the historic old locomotive could barely be seen. To see it up close, you had to go through the museum. Many of the old stores have been refurbished by potters, painters and other artistic types, while sales of handcrafted items, Indian goods, antiques and other touristy stuff were brisk. If you remember the hippies and their craft shops of the mid to late 1960s, you know what Madrid is like.  I felt as if I had been kicked back twenty years to the days of love-beads, love-bugs, and love-ins. Earth-mother dresses and flowers in the hair, beards and long hair were not out of place in this town that time forgot.

 

Madrid was born as a coal town, whose coal was first used in the 1830s by the Spaniards at a nearby gold mine. It wasn't until 1889 that the coal was mined in a larger scale. The old camp boomed, and within ten years boasted 3000 folks. Madrid was a major producer despite a mine fire in 1906, with production peaking in 1928. The Great Depression slowed mining, and by 1934 only 1300 folks remained. During WWII, coal was needed at Los Alamos, and the atomic city received 20,000 tons of the black fuel. Once the war was over, so was demand for the coal, and Madrid rapidly faded.

 

By the late 1950s, Madrid was a stereotyped ghost town. Hundreds of abandoned shacks, countless blank-eyed windows, and crazily tilted chimneys recalled a Hollywood version of an old western town. All that was missing was some long-lost cowboy wandering down the main street.

 

In the early 1970s, refugees from the modern-era rat race discovered this picturesque ghost town, and growth began. The owner of Madrid, who previously couldn't give anything away, suddenly found himself faced with an influx of squatters. He turned around and sold the town "shack by shack', for $1000 to $1500 each. This episode awakened the sleeping spirits, and Bohemia encroached, leaving no room for ghosts!

 

It has taken many years of toil to polish up the grimy coal-bin town, but today it shines, albeit a bit dusty. The tourists come, spend their money and leave, taking with them memories, and maybe a small trinket made in Madrid, by a genuine 'Madridite'!

 

Madrid is an interesting town, and well worth a stop.

 

 

 

This was our GHOST TOWN OF THE MONTH for October 2003.

 

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THIS PAGE

FIRST POSTED:  October 01, 2003

LAST UPDATED: March 20, 2005

 

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