On The Mother Road to Cubero, New Mexico

A fading spot on the map

     According to the New Mexico Office of the State Historian, the town of Cubero was established by Mexican settlers in or about 1834. Remember that New Mexico did not become a state until 1912. Today, Cubero is a census designated place located on historic Route 66 about 27 miles east of Grants. It is also on the route of the Santa Fe Railroad's first transcontinental line through the southwestern United States. I only saw about three people while I was there but the official population as of July 1, 2019 was 287. 
     To be fair, Cubero is not the ghost town that my photos make it seem. It's just that I go looking for the old, abandoned and creepy stuff and tend to avoid things like the General Store with modern cars parked out front. Cubero is also right next door to Budville, which is famous for different reasons but is also more of a legit ghost town.
     Funny thing, the whole reason I went to Budville and Cubero is because I was looking for a couple of old churches that I thought were in Cubero.  

Santa Rosalia Church in Moquino circa 2008.

While photographing the house above (and two pictures below), which is next door to Our Lady Of Light catholic church, a woman was leaving the church and waved hello. I flagged her down and showed her a picture of the churches on my phone. She kindly explained that the churches weren't in Cubero at all and were actually in a small town near Laguna Pueblo named Moquino.

     After realizing that the churches were not in Cubero after all, I did find some abandoned houses and a truck in a tree to make the trip worthwhile.  

Now, this here is a truck up in a tree!

Tech Specs

All photos of Cubero shot on January 11, 2020 with a Canon Powershot Elph 360 and edited with Adobe Photoshop using actions from The Luxe Lens.

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