A flash flood tore Silver City’s main street out of the ground in 1895. The town rebuilt one block over and left the hole alone. Bullard Street has faced that canyon ever since. Main streets across New Mexico hold intriguing histories. Cloudcroft sits at 8,676 feet inside the Lincoln National Forest. Tucumcari began as a railroad camp known as Six-Shooter Siding. Tour unforgettable main streets lined with local shops, cultural festivals, Native art, and landmarks found nowhere else.
Truth or Consequences
In 1950, the town of Hot Springs voted to rename itself after a radio program. Ralph Edwards had offered to broadcast the tenth-anniversary episode of his NBC game show from any town that would take its name, and Hot Springs took the deal. Broadway still runs over the geothermal rift that made the place: mineral water surfaces at around 110 degrees, and the 1930s bathhouse motels along the strip let you walk in off the asphalt and drop into a hand-cemented indoor tub. Truth or Consequences Brewing at 410 Broadway Street works as the town’s front room, with food-truck fare and a mixed crowd of soakers, artists, and travelers. Fiesta arrives the first full weekend of May with a parade down Broadway, live music, and the junk boat race on the Rio Grande at Ralph Edwards Park. The Geronimo Springs Museum on Main Street holds Mimbres pottery, a pioneer log cabin, and a room devoted to the broadcast that renamed the town.