Marking NM’s Historic Women: Sadie Orchard

Photo Credit: Palace of the Governors Photo Archives
(The notorious) Mrs. Sadie Orchard on right, in front of Ocean Grove Hotel, Hillsboro, New Mexico
Photographer: George T. Miller (?)
Date: 1895 – 1902?
Negative Number 076560

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 and 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.”

Roadside Marker Location: Hillsboro, SierraCounty, NM Hwy 152

You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.

You can view a map of the Historic Women Mile Markers at www.nmhistoricwomen.org

March is Women’s History Month. During this month we’ll be highlighting some of the women featured on New Mexico’s Historic Women Roadside Markers. Text provided by our colleagues at New Mexico Historic Preservation Division