Monticello - A Ghost Town With a Heart - New Mexico

[Music] good morning everyone it's stephen and andrea from pin in the atlas [Music] where are we this morning we are in a very very remote location called monticello which is a ghost town dating back to 1856. now at that time it was called cottonwood canyon and it wasn't until the 1880s that it was renamed monticello remember that old saying circle of wagons when the wagon trains used to go into a circle to help prevent against the attacks by the natives when monticello was built in a similar way it was built in a square and that helped the residents against attacks from the natives most of the buildings here are the original adobe you also have an 1860s catholic church and an old cemetery and a schoolhouse that's meant to be haunted let's explore this wonderful building look at the entrance this was at one point let's see if we can get a good look in as you can see it makes sense a general store a dance hall and at one time it was even the post office really cool old building and from here the town square this house directly in front of us that used to be the stagecoach stop as well as it had some rooms as a hotel and then just continuing down that road are supposed to be the school and the cemetery up on top of the hill let's go see if we can find them [Music] so here we are outside monticello public school now the date at the top says it was built in 1935. however it didn't last very long legend has it that there was a chemistry explosion which caught fire and uh the school is meant to be exceptionally haunted let's take a look i'm gonna walk around this side here on approach look like we might be able to get a better view in and it looks like yeah it's wide open here up the steps look at this old brickwork here and the plaster over the top and then it is massively overgrown you see there along the bottom there's the slats where the the floor would have been the trusses for the floor so you can barely even see the other side over there [Music] see if we can walk around back get a good look in and here's the back side of the school [Music] so imagine sitting in your classroom this would have been what you overlooked you know when you were bored [Music] listening to the teacher drone on about something just kidding stay in school pay attention [Music] but this is really unique plaster work i like i like the look of this you see it's kind of bowing out right there [Music] and this is what i wanted to come over and get a look at see the trees growing through this looks like this could have been the basement area and here's some spots wide open let's uh [Music] let's crouch down take a look [Music] get a different impression from down here very ghostly let's carry on go through this doorway now last time that that was pretty much completely blocked off i could see some kind of a metal metal thing over there can't get to it that's too blocked off remember last time we were in a basement like this caught some voices talking in the background or a voice saying something in the background would be great if we caught something here as well [Music] that's cool so this was [Music] the entryway to the basement [Music] let's head on up at the other end now here back at the front of the building the main steps [Music] imagine how many kids walked up these steps every single day to go to school [Music] i wonder what they think of it now [Music] now ghost towns have lots of stories lots of legends just like the school however another story about the school was it wasn't an explosion in the chemistry lab in actual fact what really happened was the gentleman that bought the school after it closed down started raising chickens in here and all the lights overheated and caught fire that's the true story however the other one's more fun here we are up on top of the hill at the monticello cemetery on our way up here in the town square we saw a woman walking her dog we stopped for a little chat realized she's a local her family owned this land and donated it so everyone buried in here could be buried for free isn't that such a noble thing to do [Music] that's a small stream but it's moving fairly quickly this goes through the back side of town just outside the main square and off to the right here this building was the hotel [Music] i'm walking back into the town square the stream's just back there now this one this was the original hotel [Music] and there's the church [Music] and that building that we think is probably or was probably the general store [Music] and seemed much like the school the original adobe brick still surviving to this day look at this you can see the roots and the rocks that are still in there was made to last and it has lasted [Music] let's see what else we can see up here see this is an original building possibly somebody's home i've tried to do some modern touches to it which has added to the state it's in right now unfortunately and i'll show you what i mean [Music] now the doorway against the back wall there just above it you can see how the roof is sagging the reason that's made worse is they put modern bricks up top there i'm sure they filled them with concrete and that's just a little bit too much weight for these adobe brakes that's what's causing the ceiling to cave in you see right above the door that one cement block is cracked from the weight and the adobe's that's just not enough to sit modern concrete and modern brick on top of [Music] but still look at the plaster neat nonetheless now the local we spoke to earlier said the house in the corner was the original stagecoach stop the uh butterfield i believe it was stagecoach stop but the look of these doors makes us think that uh it could be right here i like the wrought iron on there great detail so it is looking more and more like this was the stagecoach stub house look at that porch [Music] now normally i try not to uh get people's homes or anything on on camera because i like to respect everybody's privacy this one however i have to make an exception because i find something so incredibly serene about this house so inviting that front gate the picket fence [Music] i love it okay everyone that's going to wrap up this video on monticello ghost town the thing about ghost towns is there's a lot of ghost stories and a lot of things that go with them especially throughout the history so we're not sure what exactly is a hundred percent accurate and what's not so we'll try to put in as many facts as we possibly can but we're probably going to miss a few so please bear with us with that we hope you've enjoyed our tour now remember get out there put another pin in the atlas and we will see you on our next [Music] adventure [Music] do [Music] [Applause] you