Another Ghost Town: Cedarvale

With so many restrictions on what we can/should do these days, it seemed like a good time to explore some New Mexico ghost towns.  We packed a picnic lunch and the camera and headed off looking for an abandoned place.

In the early 1900's, hundreds of homesteaders from other states arrived on “immigrant trains." Most were looking to plant pinto beans. The relatively high altitude (6,384 ft) and short growing season of central New Mexico was good for the beans, which could be dry farmed and were in demand, particularly once World War I began and pinto beans were used to feed soldiers. Come fall, the harvest was stored in Cedarvale’s three elevators.  The school was built in 1917.  Bad farming practices and drought eventually exhausted the soil, and by the late 1930's, the population began to depart.  The school was closed in 1953, and is now beyond restoration.  Nearby, there is a side road with maybe 6 or 7 houses, two or three of which appear to be inhabited.  Otherwise, there is a vast expanse of desert with some fencing and a few cows and horses.  There appears to be nothing else between the school and the distant mountains.