Written By Ken Hulsey
Nestled along New Mexico State Road 14, also known as the Turquoise Trail, between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, lies the small, eclectic town of Madrid. Today, this town is home to several shops, restaurants, and a museum. However, nearly eighty years ago, Madrid was anything but small. During its heyday, it boasted the largest coal mining operations west of the Mississippi River, a professional baseball team, and a Christmas celebration that attracted thousands from around the world.
Indeed, Madrid, New Mexico, is a town with an incredible history. Few places can claim to have been a booming town, a ghost town, and then regain fame all within a few short decades.
Let me share my experience of wandering into Madrid over thirty years ago. I had a day off from work with nothing planned, so I packed my camera and jumped into my car for a solo day trip into the mountains. I headed east from my home in Albuquerque on Interstate 40. At Tijeras, I turned onto Highway 14. Rather than taking my usual route on the 536 toward Sandia Peak, I decided to continue on Highway 14 to see where it might lead.
Eventually, my journey brought me straight into Madrid. Back then, the town resembled a ghost town more than it does today. Upon seeing this almost perfectly preserved frontier, I hit the brakes and pulled over.
What a perfect place to practice my photography!
Madrid was like a time capsule, a place where it looked as though the residents had just walked away and left everything behind. There were numerous old houses, vintage cars, mining equipment, and surprisingly, a vintage Santa Fe steam locomotive.
As a train enthusiast, discovering an old steam locomotive hidden deep in the New Mexico mountains was a delightful surprise.
I spent the day photographing everything I came across in Madrid. It was like a living museum, with countless interesting items to capture in pictures.
In the years that followed, I took several friends from Albuquerque to see Madrid, all of whom, like me, had no idea it existed.
Eventually, I moved away from New Mexico and returned to my native California, causing my memories of Madrid to fade into the background of my life.
Interestingly enough, yesterday, while on a road trip to Lafayette, Louisiana, with my granddaughter, thoughts of Madrid resurfaced. As my wife and child slept during our journey back home, images of the town popped into my mind, though I couldn’t recall its name.
Once we got home, I searched Google Maps and quickly recognized that the town I was thinking of was indeed Madrid.
Being a research enthusiast, I decided to learn more about this intriguing New Mexico town that had sparked my curiosity three decades earlier.
What I discovered truly surprised me.
During its peak, Madrid boasted a population of over 4,000 and housed the largest coal mining operations west of the Mississippi due to the abundant resources in the nearby hills and the Santa Fe Railroad’s demand for coal to power its fleet of steam locomotives across the western United States.
Remarkably, the coal miners of Madrid even formed a professional baseball team, the Madrid Miners, which attracted fans from far and wide. The team was so skilled that it included players who would eventually make it to the major leagues, and their stadium was the first in the West to have electric lights, allowing them to play night games.
As the saying goes, what goes up must eventually come down. Madrid's prosperity was tied to the Santa Fe Railroad's need for coal; when the railroad phased out coal-powered steam locomotives in the 1950s in favor of diesel engines, the mine shut down. The town's population dwindled as people moved away, leaving it virtually abandoned for decades.
Today, however, Madrid is very much alive again, featuring shops, restaurants, and a museum showcasing items from the town’s mining history.
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