For those travelers touring New Mexico's Turquoise Trail, Madrid will surely be high on the list of "must-see" locations. Even if art galleries and coffee shops aren't your thang, most people like food and the Mine Shaft Tavern has the best burgers around.   
​     Personally, I have no interest in being where the tourists are but there is another secret destination that makes Madrid worthwhile.

     Lemitar, New Mexico is a census designated place in Socorro County. The town lies along NM 408 and is easily seen from I-25. I would always notice it from the car window on the way to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. 

     In it's hay day, the small town of San Antonio, New Mexico boasted a population of around 1250. Over the years, a series of natural disasters and unfortunate world events has left the town with barely 100 residents. 
     To quote the late Kenny Rogers, "Know when to walk away, know when to run".

     I went to San Acacia because I found it in a book about New Mexico's ghost towns. What the author failed to mention is that San Acacia not a ghost town at all.     

These photos were shot on September 15, 2019

      This abandoned house is on NM 55 is just a few miles south of Mountainair. If you make it all the way to Gran Quivira, you passed it about 20 minutes ago. Every room in this house, including the back hallway, is packed with overturned furniture. The desk and chair pictured below are about the only things sitting right side up. The other rooms of the house were very dark and piled high with all kinds of crazy stuff. One room had about seven mattresses in it. Here in the main room, there are what appears to be diner booths that are tossed about willy-nilly like the tornado version of Joanna Gaines arranged the furniture. 
     If you come here, wear boots and don't touch anything. Hantavirus is real, y'all.