Madrid

The coal forming swamps of the Cretaceous were mostly located between the rising rocking mountains and the eastern shoreline of a continually advancing and retreating interior ocean that extended all the way from the arctic to the gulf of Mexico.

The coal mined in Madrid was used mostly for small-scale local smelting and it supplied the growing city of Santa Fe. Something special about the coal here is that its anthracite…a very hard coal that's quite rare in the west. It occurs in a thin seam in the mountainside that today cannot be mined economically, which is precisely why Madrid is an abandoned coaling mining town.

In the early 1970's , artists and craftspeople began to convert the old company stores into shops, galleries and services. Today it is a thriving village mid-way along the Turquoise Trail Senic Byway and receives ample site-seers and day-trippers. The road is popular for motorcyclists in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and Madrid’s cafés and galleries provide the perfect weekend getaway.