The El Camino Real Historic Trail Site museum, which wanted for visitors before it closed almost 10 years ago, is attracting supporters now that it’s about to be demolished.
The remote facility, 38 miles from Socorro and 44 miles from Truth or Consequences, was poorly attended before it closed in 2016. The state spent several years trying to find a new use for it. Finally, in December, the Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents unanimously voted to cut its losses and demolish it.
That demolition was initially scheduled to start in June. But advocates believe the state shouldn’t be so hasty.
Some lawmakers and others believe demolition of the multimillion-dollar site should be postponed, and the state should convert it into something it truly needs — such as a facility providing services to foster and other at-risk youth.
“A lot of our juveniles with severe problems, we have to send them out of state, and so it would be nice to have a facility that we could treat them in-state,” said Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque. “It’s a big deal, and it just felt to me that there should be some effort before it’s destroyed to look into what other state uses might be appropriate.”
The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs tried for years to find a better use for the remote facility, pitching the idea of transferring it to dozens of other state agencies and colleges.
Ultimately, they ran into the same problem: The facility is too remote, and repurposing it would be too expensive to make economic sense. In a letter to lawmakers on the issue, the department estimated it would cost at least $3.5 million to rehabilitate the facility, and noted doing so could require a massive overhaul of its electrical system.
Courtesy of Friends of El Camino Real Historic Trail
The demolition, estimated to cost nearly $900,000, is still on track, Department of Cultural Affairs spokesperson Daniel Zillmann wrote in an email. However, he said the agency is still in the process of hiring a contractor.
“We are taking this route in the best interest of taxpayer dollars for something that has become a liability for the state,” Zillmann wrote. “We are not postponing the demolition.”
Background
Courtesy of Friends of El Camino Real Historic Trail
Critics have long held the museum up as a multimillion-dollar failure by state government to wisely spend taxpayer money. Better, they say, to repurpose the building than to throw in the towel and demolish it.
The $4.2 million museum opened in November 2005 to commemorate a colonial-era trade route known as El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro that ran from Mexico City to San Juan Pueblo, now called Ohkay Owingeh.
Amid meager visitation numbers, the museum closed in November 2016. In a letter to lawmakers, the Department of Cultural Affairs said it cost the state about $400,000 per year to operate the museum, which was bringing in less than $5,000 per year in revenue.
In the past four years alone, the site has been the target of nine break-ins, trespassing incidents or vandalisms, according to a separate document provided to The New Mexican by the department.
One of those incidents happened April 28, when department staff were confronted by trespassers and temporarily blocked from leaving, according to the letter. Three people were charged with committing non-residential burglary in the incident, and a fourth was charged with conspiracy to do so, court records show.
Courtesy of New Mexico Historic Sites, via Wayback Machine
In January, the Socorro County Board of Commissioners asked the state to postpone the demolition. In response, the department conducted a new assessment that described the building as “currently uninhabitable due to the total failure of major building systems.” Saving it would requires “specialized remediation for biological hazards and significant vandalism,” the assessment concluded.
Search for repurpose
The Department of Cultural Affairs said it has worked for the past seven years to find a new purpose for the facility.
That included reaching out to 25 state agencies and 18 higher education institutions, including the New Mexico Department of Transportation, the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department and the University of New Mexico.
“While these partners recognized the architectural merit of the site, none identified it as a feasible location for their specific mission requirements,” the Department of Cultural Affairs wrote.
Courtesy of New Mexico Historic Sites
The agency redoubled its effort in recent months, but again, state agencies and local governments turned it down. The department urged the Socorro County board to put together a plan to postpone the demolition, but the panel responded in a letter provided to The New Mexican that “it does not currently possess the financial resources or the personnel necessary to move forward with the project.”
The Cultural Affairs Department and advocates also pitched the location to the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department. But CYFD and other state departments “all formally confirmed that their agencies do not have a viable use for the property,” the Department of Cultural Affairs wrote in its letter to lawmakers.
CYFD spokesperson Jake Thompson said while the agency received funding from the Legislature to expand services for high-risk youth, such as by providing mentoring for those involved in the justice system, the department could not make use of the facility.
“CYFD’s programs require proximity to the communities, families and wraparound services our youth depend on,” he wrote in a statement. “The El Camino Real property’s rural location places it too far from the population centers and existing service infrastructure needed to effectively deliver the range of programs CYFD provides.”
“For that reason, the department does not see it as a viable site for youth services,” he added.
Nancy Stephens, a licensed social worker, said remoteness could be a benefit for the type of youth services facility she and other advocates envision.
Stephens, who has worked with youth in New Mexico for decades, said the museum could become a therapeutic treatment facility that could help young clients gain life skills and become more independent.
At the end of the day, she said large state facilities with a lot of land around them — like the museum site — are in short supply, and repurposing the facility could help expand the state’s available behavioral health services.
“The state has invested a lot of money in this location, and it just seems so sad to destroy it if there are other ways that it can be used,” she said.