Sadie Orchard (1860-1943)

Sadie Jane Creech was born in Mills County, Iowa, and started in Kingston with a brothel on Virtue Street. Moving to Hillsboro, she married James Orchard on July 17, 1895, and the couple ran the stage line linking Kingston, Hillsboro and Lake Valley; she drove four- and six-horse teams herself. In 1896 they opened the Ocean Grove Hotel, now the Black Range Museum. After their 1901 divorce she kept his name, the line and the hotel, and opened a second. She died in Hillsboro on April 3, 1943.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Sadie Orchard (1860-1943) Arriving in the silver mining boomtown of Kingston in 1886, Sadie Jane Creech Orchard is arguably the most colorful woman in New Mexico history. Sadie opened brothels, worked as a prostitute, built and operated hotels, restaurants, and co-owned and drove for a regional stagecoach line. During World War I she tended to the less fortunate, and in the 1918 flu pandemic nursed children and cared for the sick and dying. New Mexico writer Erna Fergusson wrote of her, "For a bad woman, Sadie was one of the best." Official Scenic Historic Marker New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative The New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative was founded in 2005 by members of the New Mexico Women's Forum in a statewide effort to recognize women's contributions to New Mexico history on the state's Official Scenic Historic Markers. The Initiative ensures that women's diverse histories will be remembered and told, and will inspire and provide a guide for future generations. The 2006 Legislature funded the project.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• City of Rocks State Park — 33 mi
  Pinnacles of volcanic tuff up to forty feet high standing in the grassland between Deming and Silver City, worn out of an eruption 34.9 million years ago.

More markers nearby

• Hillsboro — steps away
• Percha Creek — 2.2 mi
• Caballo Mountains — 15 mi
• Truth or Consequences — 21 mi