Why the Little Town of Madrid, New Mexico, Is Worth a Visit

A Fortuitous Change in Plans

It was a windy and rainy Sunday morning in Albuquerque. I'd booked my very first balloon ride to celebrate my 40th birthday. This wasn't going to be just any balloon ride. My balloon was going to be among the hundreds of balloons to ascend during the final mass ascent of the 2018 Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

But at 5 o'clock in the morning, I was informed (along with hundreds of dejected fellow riders) that all balloon rides were canceled due to poor weather conditions. That left my family and me (along with our friends) an entire day to spend in Albuquerque. After some research, we decided to take a drive to Madrid, NM, about 46 miles from the city. Little did we know that this town would be one of the neatest places we'd ever visited.

The Red Pony From Longmire (Mine Shaft Tavern)

The idea of visiting Madrid came from my friend Ryan. We were both fans of the Netflix show Longmire. Ryan found out that the setting for the Red Pony bar featured in the show was the Mine Shaft Tavern, which is located in Madrid. I love visiting places where my favorite shows and movies are filmed, so I was all in. We packed up our families and headed out there.

The drive itself is a beautiful trip through the Sandia Mountains. The views and scenery are spectacular. Since I live in San Antonio, I don't get to spend much time around Grand Peaks. As we arrived in town, we saw the main road lined with neat little art galleries. Many of them had tables in front of their shops displaying their merchandise. We proceeded straight to what attracted us to Madrid in the first place: the Mine Shaft Tavern.

The Mine Shaft Tavern

The outside of the Mine Shaft resembles an old roadside bar from the 1950s. Upon entering, we read signs detailing the tavern's history and found out that the Mine Shaft was originally built as a bar for Madrid's coal mining community. Ryan and I took our seats at the bar while our families waited for a large table to open. We sat at the exact bar where Sheriff Longmire sits when he is consulting with his friend and confidant on the show, Henry Standing Bear. I asked for Rainier, the beer the Longmire character always drinks on the show, but I was told they don't have any. I ordered a nice amber from the locally brewed Spotted Dog Brewing Company. Ryan and I clinked glasses and proceeded to down our drinks.

Soon, a table opened up, and we all sat down. I ordered the Green Chile Burger, the Mine Shaft's signature dish, which is a cuisine popular in New Mexico. After we finished eating, we left the restaurant and walked along a passageway designed to resemble a mineshaft. The kids loved it. We exited the mine shaft at the Madrid Coal Mining Museum.

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The Madrid Coal Mining Museum

Ryan, myself, and our kids entered the museum and were greeted by a nice young woman. The museum appears small, but since we were there and the admission fee was only a few bucks, we decided to give it a go. I'm glad we did because this is one of the most unique museums in the world.

We entered the first room. This museum is different from most other museums. Gone are the immaculate floors and walls with perfectly curated exhibits behind several inches of glass. This museum looks just as it was when it was last used as a coal mine operations center in the 1950s. You can just picture and feel the activity that went on here decades before. I approached an office with a sign that said "Applications" above it. Inside, there were old-fashioned typewriters and phones. The neatest thing in there was a machine marked "Company Scrip Machine." Workers must have come to this office to apply for jobs and get their pay in scrip.

Around the corner, there was an old-fashioned dentist chair just sitting against a wall. It gives you a creepy feeling. A few feet away from that was a movie projector that looked like it was from the silent era. The coolest thing about this museum was that you could touch virtually anything. We went to the next exhibit, where there was actual coal you could pick up and feel. Around the corner, there was a Thomas Edison-manufactured voice recorder. Scattered around everything were various tools and miscellaneous items. I picked up a gigantic sledgehammer. I can imagine a big, tough coal miner using this all day. It humbled me.

We went outside, where we saw a full-size locomotive that was used for hauling cars full of coal. You could actually climb up and look into the boiler, where they used to shovel in coal to generate the stem used to power the train. Try getting this access at the Smithsonian!

Soon, it was time to leave. The kids fell asleep almost immediately after we got them in the car. We drove back to our house after one of the most unexpectedly cool trips we’ve ever had.

© 2018 George Johnson