Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Madrid on The Turquoise Trail

Because it's still the winter season, this is one of the few open shops in Madrid on the Turquoise Trail.  It's much busier in the summer when the  town is a draw for the tourists. Madrid (pronounced Mah-drid) and the neighboring village of Cerrillos, not far from Santa Fe,  were in a fabled turqoise-mining area dating back to prehistory. Gold and silver mines followed, and when they faltered, there was coal.  The Turquoise Trail towns supplied fuel for the locomotives of the Santa Fe railroad until the 1950's when the railroad converted to diesel fuel. Madrid used to produce 100,000 tons of coal a year but the mine closed in 1956.  Today this is a real funky town of craftspeople and artists, shops and import stores and ramshackle houses.  I've been told that it was a haven for hippies in the 60's, and by the looks of it, I wonder if any of them left?!

14 comments:

  1. Nice shots on your blog. Have a nice day !

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  2. Oh! I would SO love to go into that store and spend time looking over the goods! It looks like a fascinating place ... maybe it's just a tourist trap, but it looks a lot more interesting than that!

    When we were travelling through Utah we found a little 'trading post' place outside of the main route and it was full of wonderful things, some at nearly half the cost of the same kind of thing in the hot spots. This looks like that kind of place!

    Thank you so much for your comment on my 'Depp Effect' page. I'll email you, since if I continue to answer comments there, it will just get hard for people to read.

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  3. te voila maintenant a Santa Fé. J'aime bien ce type de vetement.

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  4. A nice storefront, I'd like to see better the wooden bench!

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  5. Thanks a bunch for visiting my Brookville Daily Photo and for the comment. Sometimes I don't know what to post each day but it is usually something that I just took a picture of that caught my eye. This post is like that. I was experimenting with shutter speed and aperature to see if I could stop motion and it seemed to work in this photo you saw.

    I always enjoy coming here and seeing what you discovered in Santa Fe. I have always been fascinated by turquoise and silver and was enamored with the natives making stunning jewelry in New Mexico and Tucson. Mostly pueblo natives as I recall but am probably wrong. My brain is over 75 years old now and sometimes what I recall wasn't filed right.

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  6. My sister used to live in Albuquerque. She loved the New Mexico atmosphere. She's a bit of a "born-too-late" hippie. You'll have to revisit the shops when they are busier. Looks like a cute place!

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  7. I like to see the peppers drying in the sun. Looks like a place worth a visit.

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  8. Wow, it's so pretty. I'd love to be there, for sure!

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  9. No think they are still all there

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  10. I agree about the hippies...we always loved that part of the country but haven't been there in years (we used to live in Phoenix)...sounds like you're having a wonderful time and we appreciate your sharing these great photos from Mah-drid and other places!

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  11. My sorta town! Would love to visit all this region, Kate. I envy you this trip and am so enjoying it through your eyes.

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  12. I think it would be fun to hand a string of those chilies in our kitchen! We already have a "Navajo chicken" in our kitchen!

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