Waldo was named after Henry L. Waldo, chief justice of the supreme court of the territory of New Mexico. The community was very small until the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad came to town. The railroad was interested in the coal mines in Madrid. Eventually coal mining started around Waldo also and the Colorado Fuel and oil Company built 15 ovens for smelting. By 1906, the company had folded, but the town survived by serving the needs of the surrounding mining camps. Of course, when Madrid died in the 1950's, so did Waldo.

Submitted by: Paul Lessard

I have a considerable amount of info on Waldo that was not in the article here. My father, R. D. Smith of Santa Fe, bought Waldo and surrounding area in Sept. 1937 from Grubnau Chemical Co. [a zinc floation plant]. My father's company, called R. D. Smith Salvage Co. completely salvaged every possible thing at Waldo, including brick they had chipped the morter from. The whole salvage thing took several years. My uncle, William Preston Smith and his wife and three children lived in what we called the big house at Waldo. It was where today you can see only a small fireplace and the remains of a concrete shower stall (plus lots of cow dung). The two oldest children went to school in Cerrillos. I stayed with my aunt and uncle there at Waldo quite a bit. We used to watch the flash floods come down the Galisteo River - we saw the big one that took out the bridge that was never rebuilt. My Dad sold the Waldo property to John Reba and W. S. Patterson - deed dated July 9, 1942. By that time it looked very much like it does today and the Waldo site and surrounding area was used by Henry Trigg of Cerrillos for grazing cattle. I must get my material together in and organized fashion and I will get back to you. Oh yes, the deeds mentioned are on record at Santa Fe County Courthouse. More later... JOYCE SMITH WALKER