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Tucked into a remote canyon in northeastern New Mexico, Sugarite Coal Camp created a true melting pot for mostly immigrant miners slinging picks and shovels. The coal they labored to produce heated homes across several states for decades. In a bountiful place long used by native peoples and then by cattle ranchers, coal mining debuted in Sugarite (Sugar-eet') Canyon in the early 1900s. The St. Louis, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific Company quickly ramped up full-scale mining operations, building an orderly town of sturdy block houses perched upon canyon slopes. A store, school, post office, and clubhouse served camp residents, many hailing from Eastern Europe, Italy, Greece, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Mexico, and even Japan. With the rumble of coal cars as background music, poor mining families lived a rich life making wine, dancing, and playing sports. Today, visitors to Sugarite Canyon State Park tour ghostly remains of the camp, one of the few accessible to the public.

Albuquerque is a city of crossroads and cultures. Located at the southern end of the Rocky Mountains, at the edge of the Great Plains, and in the high desert along the banks of the Rio Grande, it is the junction where historic Camino Real crosses venerable Route 66. Although officially founded as a Spanish Colonial villa in 1706, native people have lived in the Albuquerque area for over 10,000 years. Thousands of ancient petroglyphs are testimony to the endurance of today's pueblo peoples. Explorer Francisco Vazquez de Coronado overwintered his famed expedition here in 1540-1542. Albuquerque has been a boomtown several times, from the coming of the railroad to its role as a health mecca, and from postwar urban growth to recent sunbelt immigration. This mile-high city has always attracted outdoor enthusiasts, as this chronicle of its parks and magnificent open space system attests. Contributions of Aldo Leopold, Clyde Tingley, Harry Kinney, and many community activists have melded with native and Hispanic traditions to create a place unlike any other.