Almost Ghost Towns

 In the tiny town of Magdalena I found that the library was the train depot a hundred years ago. But the depot was moved at some time and doesn't sit where it did when it was used as a depot. And the train tracks are now gone. I did talk to a man for a few minutes that said when he was a kid (I would think in about the 1950's as he looked about my age) that he would watch the trains go by as his home was near the tracks. He tried to tell me where that was but not knowing the town I wasn't sure where he meant. The librarian was telling me that in late May there would be a talk given by a man over 90 years old who had been an engineer on the last train to go though Magdalena. It would be interesting to hear by I don't think I can go back.

This looked to be an older building in the town of Magdalena and it said there was still a newspaper in one end of it.

There was a windmill museum in the town of Pie Town, named that many years ago back in the 1930's when a man decided to sell pies to the travelers on this road. He made a good business of it and the little town grew but there have been times when there were no places that sold pies. Now it has become a tourist stop for the pies and there were 3 cafes that sold pies. Very good ones, in fact, with a favorite being the apple pies with jalapeno peppers and pinion nuts added to the pie filling. Jalapenos are a very well known New Mexico hot pepper usually used in Mexican foods and the pinion nut comes from the pinion tree which is the New Mexico state tree and a kind of pine tree found only in the southwest states. Pinion nuts were ( and are still well liked) a staple in the diets of native American Indians in the southwest states.

 This old building, the old car, and sign were near the Pie-o-neer Café.

 This church was in the town of Quemado, NM. I couldn't find any information on it but do not think it was the old, just made to look that way. The deer horn tree was in Quemado, also. Not much else there but a gas station and some other basic business'. All of these towns had once been thriving mining and ranching towns but almost became ghost towns until more traffic on the highways brought in more business.