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Madrid (emphasis on the first syllable as in "á-crid")
In the 1900's, Madrid became the center of activity along the Turquoise Trail. When the railroad reached the coal fields here in the 1880's, a joint venture of the Santa Fe line and Colorado Fuel & Iron began the job of extracting large quantities of ore. Following the centerfold of bituminous and anthracite coal 3,000 feet down a 16
° drift, they came up with some impressive figures. Production by 1890 was 500 tons of coal a day. In 1928 the workforce was up to 725, and the output 87,148 tons of anthracite, 97,502 tons of bituminous. Anthracite is rare in the western United States. The coincidence of both types of coal is unique. And thirty square miles of ore kept the operation going for over half a century.
The Company Town
"The Company" owned the rails and rolling stock, the utilities, the power plants, (a 1000KW generator and two 375W standbys), the mills, the mines, the town, the production; in short: the works. Oscar Huber managed and later owned Albuquerque & Cerillos Coal Company, keeping a close watch on operations and employees. Here's a description from Sytha Motto's book, Madrid and Christmas in New Mexico:
"Madrid was a Company Town and Oscar Huber was The Company. Madrid flourished under a benign, just understanding and generous company that used Nature's largess to provide work for the wage earners, market for the coal, administered law and order, provided and rented the comfortable two bedroom houses for thirty dollars a month, including free electricity for lights, heat and cooking (or coal if preferred) water and garbage disposal: conducted the businesses, Hotel, Drug Store, Tavern, Automobile Garage, Fire Station, Barber and Beauty Shops, the Mercantile Store that supplied food, clothing, electrical appliances, as radios, record players, heaters, refrigerators, etc. "
Sytha Motto, Madrid and Christmas in New Mexico; Alpha Printing Ltd., Albuquerque, NM 1973.
A less charitable account from Richard Melzer states that Oscar Huber kept the miners busy and in debt.
"Miners were paid by the tons of coal they produced, but with numerous deductions from their wages, it was often difficult, if not impossible for them to make ends meet. In January, 1940, for example, a miner listed the following deductions from his monthly pay:
| $5.00 | powder and fuse |
| 1.50 | mining lamp |
| . .75 | Employees Club dues |
| 18.00 | Rent |
| 3.50 | Coal |
| $28.75 | Total * |
* In addition, I found that each employee paid $3.00 per month for doctors' services, and every household paid $1.00 per month for drinking water. Miners were paid in scrip; used as cash or credit at company-owned stores.
The miner's income averaged $50.00 per month in the winter of 1940, which left this individual less than $22.50 for his family's food and clothing for the next thirty days."
Richard Melzer, Madrid Revisited; life and labor in a New Mexican Mining Camp in the Years of the Great Depression . The lightening Tree, Santa Fe, NM 1976
Water Because the local aquifer was polluted, the company hauled in about 150,000 gallons daily in special railroad tank cars. Even this volume was not enough to extinguish a fire in 1906 that ignited in the largest bituminous mine. The fire burned until all the coal was consumed.
Things to See 
A different Madrid prospers in the new millennium. When mining operations ceased in 1954, the site was put up for sale. It languished for twenty years without a buyer until the parcel was broken up and sold in lots: $7,500 each and 10% down. The water supply was sulfurous, the houses leaked heat and leaned on wood foundations, and the location was a long commute for wage earners. A few adventuring prospectors and rumored East Coast dropouts took up the challenge. Joined by other like-minded pioneers, they have created the colorful array of enterprises that draw visitors from around the state and across the country.
Shops, cafes and galleries fill the old buildings that are stapled to the edge of Madrid's main street. But the slagpiles and former mineworks dominate the view.
Museum Entrance 
Baldwin
locomotive
Waz McDaniel, curator of the Old Coal Mine Museum will guide you through a field of ore carts, pumps and augurs bedded down in cinders. He points out a sand dryer used for traction under the wheels of a 1900 Baldwin 2-8-0 steam locomotive.
Down the adit to one of the drifts, he mentions the
methane gas explosion that resulted in twelve deaths in 1932. You heft one end
of a ten foot miner's hoe, and consider the strength it took to rake a day's
worth of coal from the stope. A miner would fill 16 ore carts, (one ton each),
in a shift. Here's the verse that made the hard work famous:
"Well, I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine.
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mines.
I loaded sixteen tons of Number Nine coal,
And the straw-boss hollered, "Well, bless my soul.''
CHORUS
You load sixteen tons and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go,
l owe my soul to the company store."
Lyrics as recorded by George Davis, WKIZ, Hazard, KY, Nov 15-16, 1966, reprinted ibid.
The
Madrid Ball Park was once the home of a championship baseball team, the Madrid Miners. Employees Club volunteers did all the leveling and masonry work on the steps, walls and ramps. For night games, they constructed the first lighting system in the country, and the first covered grandstand in the state. Games were very popular, as were July 4th fireworks displays and the annual Christmas pageants.Today you can sit in the stands suspended on the same 30-foot composite beams between the columns. The park is filled on weekends with crowds attending the Madrid Ballpark Jazz and Blues Festival. (
http://www.flash.net/~nmjw/madr2001.htm ).Check out the Turquoise Trail site for other events.
(http://www.turquoisetrail.org/)
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