Photography

Old Town Plaza has been the center of Albuquerque community life since the city was founded in 1706 by Governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdez. Historically known as the crossroads of the Southwest, and reflecting an amalgamation of Spanish, Mexican and Native American cultures, Old Town Plaza has been home to many of New Mexico's proud ancestors--and still is. Ghosts of Old Town Albuquerque presents the evidence of their specters wandering the shadows, gathered by author Cody Polston, president of the Southwest Ghost Hunter's Association. Having tracked spirits for three decades, including in such landmarks as the Bottger Mansion and Casa de Ruiz, Polston vows that pragmatism still can't explain away many of Old Town Plaza's eerie wraiths.

As a 21-year-old German immigrant, Franz Huning could not have envisioned his future in New Mexico when, in 1849, he signed on as a "bull whacker" for a wagon train heading down the Santa Fe Trail. From his beginnings as a clerk in Albuquerque's Old Town, Huning's entrepreneurial talents flourished over the next half-century. He took on the roles of merchant, flour mill operator, and land speculator, helping to secure Albuquerque as a division point with a depot, offices, and major repair shops for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. Huning's 700-acre estate, home to the once-legendary but now-demolished Castle Huning, fronted Albuquerque's main thoroughfare midway between Old Town and the bustling new downtown one mile east. It was a front-row seat to the city's development after the flood-prone Rio Grande was stabilized. Huning's former estate is now home to fine, diverse homes near the Albuquerque Country Club, as well as historic Route 66, Tingley Beach, the zoo, the Little Theatre, and a Christmas Eve luminaria tradition.