MacDonald Merchandise Building

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

From the record

One of 38 National Register listings published here for Socorro County · listed in 1980 · category: Building.

Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. U.S. 90, Magdalena, 87825
When was it listed? September 1980
Category. building
Census division. Magdalena
National Register reference number. 80002573 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

44 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 44 fires within 5 miles of MacDonald Merchandise Building between 1992 and 2020, burning about 228 acres in total. 25 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	25
Debris and open burning	8
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	4
Recreation and ceremony	2
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Smoking	2
Fireworks	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
31 August 2018	Natural	under an acre	Cibola National Forest	JORDON CANYON
3 August 2003	Natural	under an acre	Cibola National Forest	ELLIS
25 August 1997	Natural	under an acre	Cibola National Forest	MILL
9 July 2013	Natural	under an acre	Socorro Field Office	KELLY
4 July 2007	Fireworks	under an acre	Cibola National Forest	HWY 169
28 July 1993	Natural	under an acre	Cibola National Forest	not named
28 July 1993	Natural	under an acre	Cibola National Forest	not named
26 July 2006	Natural	under an acre	Cibola National Forest	NORTH PEAK

Every fire recorded in Socorro County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 57 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 57 workings within 5 miles of MacDonald Merchandise Building: 32 past producers, 18 prospects, 3 occurrences, 2 unknowns. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Zinc, Lead, Silver, Gold, Zinc, Silver, Lead, Copper, Lead, Zinc. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Anchor	Zinc, Silver, Lead	Past Producer
Belle Claim Patented In 1882	Lead, Silver, Copper, Gold, Zinc	Past Producer	1957
Cavalier	Silver, Lead	Prospect
Cavern and Grand Ledge	Lead, Copper	Past Producer
Ellis Canyon Prospect	Silver, Copper, Lead	Past Producer	Replacement
Germany	Lead, Copper, Zinc, Silver	Past Producer
Gofor and Spire Mine	Gold, Copper, Silver	Occurrence	Chalcocite, Covellite, Pyrite
Hardscrabble	Zinc, Lead, Copper, Silver	Past Producer
Heister	Lead, Barium-Barite	Occurrence
Jack Frost Mine	Lead, Silver, Zinc, Copper, Vanadium, Barium-Barite, Fluorine-Fluorite	Past Producer	1925

Every working recorded in Socorro County

Storms near this property

13 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Magdalena, the town this property stands in, in 13 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 5 flash flood, 4 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2022	Flash Flood	Magdalena	$50,000	Forest thinning in the Magdalena Mountains resulted in a flash flooding event that made it easier for water to rush down an unnamed canyon. Floodwaters left behind a pile of debris 6 feet high and 20 feet wide that included steel fence posts and barbed wire, damaged trailed, and boulders that were 200 to 300 pounds. Damages are estimated.
August 2008	Lightning	Magdalena	$30,000	no account filed
July 2010	Flash Flood	Magdalena	$10,000	A large landslide washed out the dirt road leading to the Magdalena Ridge Observatory and Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research.
August 2012	Flash Flood	Magdalena	$5,000	Sixty feet of forest service road 101 washed out and remained closed for over twelve hours. Culverts along road washed out as well with estimates that water was four feet deep. Public works and local law enforcements ferried 40 people living in the canyon that work in Magdalena with large four wheel drive vehicles after the water receded.
September 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Magdalena	-	A trained spotter in Magdalena reported an estimated peak wind gust of about 60 mph from a severe thunderstorm.
July 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Magdalena	-	A trained spotter near Magdalena estimated 60 mph wind gusts from a severe thunderstorm.
August 2019	Flash Flood	Magdalena	-	A large amount of boulders, rocks, mud, and debris damaged a section of Water Canyon Road.
August 2015	Flash Flood	Magdalena	-	U.S. Highway 60 closed due to high water at mile marker 124.
May 2012	Hail	Magdalena	-	Half dollar size hail reported in Magdalena.
May 2007	Hail	Magdalena	-	Funnel cloud reported by EMT north of Alamo.
August 1998	Funnel Cloud	Magdalena	-	A funnel cloud was spotted from the Langmuir Lightning Research Lab in the Magdalena mountains.
July 1998	Hail	Magdalena	-	A brief hail storm damaged trees and broke several winds.
June 2003	Hail	Magdalena	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Socorro County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Salome Store	under 500 feet	1982
Salome Warehouse	under 500 feet	1982
Aragon House	under 500 feet	1982
Bank of Magdalena	0.1 miles	1982
Main Street Commercial Building	0.1 miles	1982
MacTavish House	0.1 miles	1982

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 80002573 in Record Group 79.
Socorro County	All 38 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.