In places like the valley town of Alma, once known to Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch, and through the dusty streets of San Antonio, where Conrad Hilton began his fabulous career by carrying luggage from the train station to his father's hotel, the Shermans have explored the past and present of New Mexico's famous and infamous ghost towns and mining camps.They have arranged for the reader a historical and pictorial journey through more than 130 of the state's old and defunct mining, farming, railroad, and lumbering communities. A cross section of New Mexico's legacy from the frontier past unfolds in an array of nostalgic photographs and highlights of the history and adventures of the people who lived there.

Town entries are arranged alphabetically for ease of selection. More than 450 photographs illustrate the past and the contemporary condition of these communities. Ten excellent maps and accurate township, range, and section coordinates locate each settlement.

Vacationers, ghost-town buffs, and armchair adventurers as well as serious historians can take a real or imagined trip to New Mexico's past with this book in hand.