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Sugarite, NM

2009.10.01

Settled in 1909, the coal-mining town of Sugarite lasted until 1944 when the post office closed its doors forever. In the meantime, the town provided for its population of five hundred residents a school, a theater, the Blossburg Mercantile Company, the Bell Telephone Company, an opera house, physician, justice of the peace and a music teacher. The town grew with the construction of concrete, stone, and hollow-tile buildings in neatly arranged terraces along the side of the canyon. In 1941, it was announced the mines would be closed. All families were given plenty of time to relocate. Homes were moved to Raton, the population scattered, and Sugarite was deserted. Some ruins still exist but a person could drive past the townsite never realizing that a thriving community once existed there.

Sugarite Canyon State Park

Northeast region of New Mexico Located on the Colorado border, Sugarite Canyon State Park near Raton features heavily wooded mountains and meadows painted with wildflowers and butterflies.

An extended cliff of basaltic rock columns, often referred to as "caprock" is the dominant geologic feature at the park. About 12 million years ago, broad sheets of molten lava erupted from a nearby volcano, forming layers of basalt rock 10-100 feet thick.