Mine Shaft Tavern

Madrid was a thriving coal mining town of 3,000 in the early 1900s, but shrunk to 13 after Los Alamos, the last major customer for its coal, switched to gas in 1959. The tavern was the last of the company town buildings to be erected, in 1946, and feels like it could be even older. The 40-foot lodgepole pine bar is the longest stand-up bar in New Mexico, and most of the tavern's furnishings are original.

A sign by the side of the stage, however, actually came from Madrid, Iowa. It reads: "Madrid has no town drunk. We all take turns."

The tavern and the town have returned to life together. Artists, gallery owners and folks seeking an alternative lifestyle were able to buy the abandoned mining shacks for very attractive prices in the 1970s, and today the town of about 400 is a bustling stop along the Turquoise Trail.

The Mine Shaft's house beer is called Dead Canary Ale, and the tap handle has a bird cage on top with a canary on its side. Santa Fe Brewing, a few miles to the north on New Mexico 14, makes the beer in what was formerly a motorcycle restoration shop. The brewery used to operate out of a horse barn in Galisteo. Its brewhouse is the same one used by the Boulder Brewing Co. when it was founded in a Longmont, Colo., goat shed.

"When we bought this place (in 1996) we had a two-keg cooler," said Mine Shaft owner Carol Hayes, and those taps poured domestic beers. "I personally don't care for those beers." About six months after taking over the bar, Hayes began talking to Ty Levis and his Santa Fe partners about producing a house beer.

"We were already carrying their beer in bottles and they are great people," Hayes said. Soon the Mine Shaft was offering six beers on tap, most of them microbrewed beer or quality imports. Last summer the tap selection expanded to 12, and two Santa Fe handles were added. Miller Genuine Draft is the only domestic.

The tavern still sells plenty of Budweiser in bottles. On a weekend when the weather is decent several motorcycles will be parked out front. "They come in for the Bud," Hayes said. They also come for live music each Sunday afternoon and at least one weekend night, and for a hearty menu that includes sandwiches and Southwestern fare.

There are few roadhouses like it left, and fewer still that serve interesting beer.

April 1999