Editing Madrid, New Mexico (section)

===Beginnings===
Lead mines in the area around Madrid captured the interest of Roque Madrid in the 17th century.<ref name="Toponym">{{cite book|last=Julyan|first=Robert Hickson|title=The Place Names of New Mexico|publisher=[[University of New Mexico Press]]|location=Albuquerque|year=1996|page=216|isbn=0826316891|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p3fMJnT1gx0C&q=Madrid+New+Mexico+pronunciation&pg=PA216|access-date=9 December 2013}}</ref> It is unclear whether the current name of the community comes from that of earlier residents or the capital of [[Spain]].<ref name=Toponym /> The dominant English pronunciation of the name differs from that of the Spanish capital, with emphasis on the first syllable: MAD-rid.<ref name=Toponym /> [[Coal mining]] began in the area around 1835.<ref name=Toponym />

[[File:Coal plant, Madrid c. 1935.jpg|thumb|left|[[Anthracite]] coal breaker and power house buildings, Madrid, circa 1935. Anthracite coal was preferred for passenger trains, as it burned cleaner.]]

The coal deposits were called the Cerrillos Coal Bank following the arrival in early 1880 of the New Mexico & Southern Pacific Railroad (as the [[AT&SF]] in New Mexico was organized), named after the nearby mining and railroad town of [[Los Cerrillos, New Mexico|Cerrillos Station]]. After a dozen years at the Coal Bank of [[wildcatter|wildcat]], unpermitted, and unorganized mining the AT&SF acquired the property on December 10, 1891, and through purposefully-created subsidiaries solidified its control. The Cerrillos Coal & Iron Co. developed the layout for the town, mines, and facilities, and the Cerrillos Coal Railroad Co. built the {{convert|6.25|mi|km|abbr=on}} [[standard gauge]] spur from the AT&SF main line at Waldo Junction.<ref name="Evans. 2013">{{Cite book|title=The Turquoise Trail|last=Evans.|first=Frantz, Laurie|date=2013|publisher=Arcadia Pub|isbn=978-0738596556|location=Charleston, S.C.|oclc=815383811}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of western railroad history|last=B.|first=Robertson, Donald|date=1986|publisher=Caxton Printers|isbn=0870043056|location=Caldwell, Idaho|pages=188|oclc=13456066}}</ref>

In late August 1892, the spur finally terminated at the relatively new mining camp of Keeseeville (an illegal trespass settlement, however one whose 20-acre [[plat]] had been approved by [[Santa Fe County]]). At the site of Keeseeville, which the Cerrillos Coal Railroad co-opted, the town of Madrid was built. More accurately the Cerrillos Coal Railroad transported-in, section by section, [[Prefabricated home|prefabricated]] wooden miner's cabins from as far away as [[Topeka, Kansas]]; there were insufficient carpenters and suppliers in the region to provide the instant infrastructure that was needed for the town.<ref name="Evans. 2013"/><ref>{{Cite book|title=Ghost towns of the Southwest : your guide to the historic mining camps & ghost towns of Arizona and New Mexico|author=Hinckley, Jim|date=2010|publisher=Voyageur Press|others=James, Kerrick.|isbn=9780760332214|location=Minneapolis|pages=163|oclc=402541313}}</ref>

Madrid celebrated its "founding" in 1895. Since the town was for the next 80 years wholly owned by a series of corporations, the town itself was never incorporated.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/madridrevisited00rich|title=Madrid revisited : life and labor in a New Mexican mining camp in the years of the Great Depression|last=Richard.|first=Melzer|date=1976|publisher=Lightning Tree|isbn=1580960006|location=Santa Fé|oclc=3017537|url-access=registration}}</ref> In the late 1940s, the demand for coal withered: [[Natural gas]] gradually replaced coal as the preferred home-heating fuel, and the AT&SF was replacing its coal-fired [[steam locomotives]] with [[diesel-electric locomotive|diesel-electrics]]. By 1954 the Albuquerque and Cerrillos Coal Company ceased to operate and most of the residents moved away. The railroad spur was removed shortly thereafter.