Empty churches, deserted mansions: An exploration of New Mexico’s abandoned places
A ghostly monument in El Morro National Monument in southern New Mexico.
(Nick Iwanicki, NPS)
If you want a map, look for any map that shows the most famous, and most visited, monuments, trails and sites. If you find one then you need to know where to go. If you do not find one then you need to get out and look for one.
I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have visited New Mexico’s National Parks and Historic sites. But the truth is that there are so many, and all the best places seem to be closed to the public. In some cases the parks and historic sites are abandoned or closed. In other cases the only way in is to pay a hefty entrance fee. But even then, you need to do that in order to see what is inside.
But when you leave a place, if you want to give it back to the people who created it, then you need to take a few things with you.
The first and most important thing is to look for people who are willing to give it back. The second is to look for those who are willing to pay to maintain it. And I am not talking about dollars here. I am talking about giving the place a life, or a new life.
And those two things, looking for people who are willing to give it back and looking for people willing to pay to keep it alive, are what led me to this exploration and this blog.
One of the great American authors, John Steinbeck, wrote a book called A Winter’s Day. A Winter’s Day is about a small town in Utah. One afternoon while walking through it, Steinbeck is surprised to see that not a single soul in the town, nor anyone working in the town, is there. He looks around and notices that not a single person is walking down the main street, nor are any cars driving on it.
So Steinbeck decides to go to the local library and see if anyone in a library can help him find people in the town. And that is what led me to create this blog. I decided that I would create one for people who want to find people who want to preserve the places that they
