Anaconda, New Mexico, New Mexico

Ghost town
In Anaconda, New Mexico
0.5 mi from Route 66

Anaconda, near Grants, NM, was a small company town built in the early 1950s for staff of a uranium ore mill beside Route 66. The Anaconda Copper Company ran the mill, processing ore from the Jackpile Mine, at the time the largest open-pit uranium mine in the world. The mill shut down in the early 1980s, after which the houses were removed, so this ghost town is now mostly a story told beside the road.

What is Anaconda, New Mexico?

A former mining community about 10 miles northwest of Grants. It held about 100 homes for supervisors and managers, with the mill on the same property. Residents simply called it Camp, a name left over from the tents used as housing while the plant was being set up.

The homes went up in three rounds, known as Old Camp, then Middle Camp, then New Camp. The first group of roughly 35 had cinderblock walls and exposed-beam ceilings, and a small block of four apartments for single workers was nicknamed the BQ, short for Bachelors Quarters. Later houses were wood frame with stucco. Despite rumors, no house there was built with radioactive material from the plant.

Visiting Anaconda, New Mexico: tips

Expect very little: after the mill closed, the houses were sold and hauled away and the land was reclaimed over about 20 years. It lies less than a mile off the old road. The aviation heritage museum in Milan is about 6.5 miles away and makes a better stop.