The Incredible Trading Post In New Mexico That Has Been Left In Ruins
By Melissa Mahoney|Published March 26, 2024
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Melissa Mahoney
Author
I'm an east coast girl living in a west coast world. I grew up in New England before moving to SoCal for several years. I then lived in NYC or a year before moving to AZ in 2009. I worked in the entertainment industry for many years of my adult life and have a deep love for photography, writing, and traveling around the U.S. as well as to far-flung locations around the world. Travel is my life and writing about it is a dream!
In one of those long-forgotten Route 66 towns lies a relic from the past. The Budville Trading Company was once a thriving business but that changed with a gruesome incident in 1967. What happened turned this stretch of Mother Road upside down, and the Budville Trading Company eventually joined the long list of abandoned places in New Mexico.
Behind every abandoned building is a story, and, wow, does this building have a storied history! It all began in 1928 when a man named Howard Neal "Bud" Rice and his wife Flossie opened up a trading post that sold gas and groceries and had a service station catering to travelers along the Mother Road.
The business was orginally called "Bud's Service Station," but as the business grew, the name was changed to "Budville Trading Post." A small community expanded around the trading post and the area became known as "Budville."
Bud Rice himself became a pillar of the community. He befriended local law enforcement and even the governor of New Mexico. Talk about friends in high places! These friends even got him out of a few scrapes with the law.
While known for his caring nature towards members of the community, he also became quite greedy. The more his business grew, the greedier he got to the point where he started overcharging customers for car repairs among other underhanded ways to line his pockets.
The year was 1967 when Bud Rice and one of his employees were murdered by a stranger who came to town. The assailant not only murdered these men but robbed the trading post's cash register of several hundred dollars.
Because of this incident, Budville was nicknamed "Bloodville." Although the trading post experienced tragedy. Flossie Rice took over and ran it until she passed away in 1994. It has been abandoned ever since and the area surrounding it is now considered a ghost town.
What are your thoughts on the story behind the Budville Trading Co.? What are some other abandoned places in New Mexico you find fascinating? Let us know!
Have you ever taken a road trip along Route 66 through New Mexico? If you’re making plans to do just that, take a look at the Ultimate Road Trip Essentials Packing List as well as the list of road trip snacks before you hit the road.
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