While blessed with natural resources, New Mexico's landscape is also fickle. While Indigenous peoples have developed techniques to survive and thrive in this precarious place, the later Spanish and American settlers in this terrain often tied their fortunes to resource-intensive industries like ranching, mining, or logging. As the fortunes of these industries rose and fell over the years, they left ruins in their wake.

In this book, explore a county-by-county guide to the modern ruins of New Mexico. Each profile provides detailed directions, information about avoiding private property, and the history of each town's development and demise. From grandiose ruins of long-dead mining concerns to the unassuming homes of Hispano ranchers, the New Mexico landscape is dotted with reminders of the past.

By Donna Blake Birchell. The History Press, 2022. Paperback, 185 pages.