Richard Madison owns Mayes Lumber, Roswell, N.M.. The 84-year-old yard with the adobe façade serves customers from a jumbled interior that lives up to its motto: “It’s All Here Somewhere.” Roswell is famous for the 1947 incident in which a reported UFO crashed and alien bodies were rumored to have been in the wreckage. The Army disavowed the story as a weather balloon gone astray, but a UFO museum—situated a block from Mayes Lumber—continues to tell the tale.
Seek and Ye Shall Find
This is a throwback store; we’re not pretty. We have stuff hanging everywhere. It’s like you’d see in the 1950s, and people here like it that way. There is nothing OSHA-approved in this place.
In the Beginning
My grandfather, Ridge Mayes, started this in 1933. He was a pretty good chunk of Cherokee Indian. He had managed a yard in Clovis, N.M. My mother met my dad when he came here during summers to work for his uncle’s creamery. When Dad came home from WWII, he partnered with my grandfather and bought him out in the 1960s. I was in banking in Albuquerque when my father asked if I was interested in coming in. I worked for Cashways to see if I wanted to do this and decided I did.
Supplying Niche Markets
I keep hardwoods and some exotics in stock. We also cut countertops and install them; we get some of our best leads from Home Depot. I have a market in reclaimed doors from folks who are going to throw them away. We also do a lot of business selling chemicals for above ground pools.
About Those UFOs
When I was growing up, nobody ever mentioned the Roswell Incident. Turns out, I knew pretty much all the people involved in it. We bought a building from the local mortician, who said he took caskets out to the base and talked to an Army nurse there who had seen the bodies. They were all pretty matter-of-fact that it happened. I don’t disbelieve it. It certainly put Roswell on the map.—As told to Kate Tyndall
