Historical Marker

Carthage-Tokay-Fraley

In the 1860s soldiers exploited a coal field east of San Antonio for heating fuel and for their smithies. Mining activity surged after 1883 when the Santa Fe railroad laid track to the Carthage coal field. Carthage was the site of the first sustained coal mining in New Mexico and had periods of significant activity until the 1960s, producing more than two million tons of coal. Tokay, southwest of Carthage, was founded in 1915. Coal production there steadily increased until the late 1920s when it began to decline. By the 1940s mining had ceased. Fraley, a town that developed around kilns processing high-quality lime, died when the rail line was removed in 1900. .