Editing Grants, New Mexico (section)

==History==
Grants began as a railroad camp in the 1880s, when three Canadian brothers – Angus A. Grant, John R. Grant, and Lewis A. Grant – were awarded a contract to build a section of the [[Atlantic and Pacific Railroad]] through the region. The Grant brothers' camp was first called Grants Camp, then Grants Station, and finally Grants. The new city enveloped the existing colonial New Mexican settlement of Los Alamitos and grew along the tracks of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad.

The town prospered from railroad logging in the nearby [[Zuni Mountains]], and it was a section point for the Atlantic and Pacific, which became part of the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway]]. The [[Zuni Mountain Railroad]] short line had a [[Railway roundhouse|roundhouse]] in town (near Exit 81 off [[Interstate 40 in New Mexico|Interstate 40]]) and housed workers in a small community named Breecetown. Timber from the Zuni Mountains was shipped to Albuquerque, where a large sawmill converted the timber to wood products that were sold across the west.

After the decline of logging in the 1930s, Grants-Milan gained fame as the "carrot capital" of the United States. Agriculture was aided by the creation of Bluewater Reservoir, and the region's volcanic soils provided ideal conditions for farming. Grants also benefited from its location as [[airway beacon]] and later by [[U.S. Route 66]], which brought travelers and tourists, and the businesses that catered to them. {{as of|2013}} the beacon and [[Flight service station|FSS]] building on the airport (KGNT) was being restored as the [[Western New Mexico Aviation Heritage Museum]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cibolahistory.org/aviation-heritage-museum.html |title=Aviation Heritage Museum - Cibola County Historical Society |access-date=2013-10-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930053323/http://www.cibolahistory.org/aviation-heritage-museum.html |archive-date=2013-09-30 }}</ref>

Perhaps the town's most memorable boom occurred when [[Paddy Martinez]], a [[Navajo]] shepherd, discovered [[uranium]] ore near [[Haystack Mountain (New Mexico)|Haystack Mesa]], sparking a mining boom that lasted until the 1980s (see [[Uranium mining in New Mexico]]). The collapse of mining pulled the town into a depression, but the town has enjoyed a resurgence based on interest in tourism and the scenic beauty of the region.{{Citation needed|date=June 2010}} Recent interest in [[nuclear power]] has revived the possibility of more uranium mining in the area, and energy companies still own viable mining properties and claims in the area.