Budaghers, Former trading post in Sandoval County, New Mexico, United States

Budaghers is a former trading post on Interstate 25 in Sandoval County, New Mexico, halfway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. At the south end of the West Frontage Road stands the Mormon Battalion Monument, a rock pillar topped with a wagon wheel and an information plaque on its east side. A brightly painted cylindrical metal tank also stands in the community.

Joseph M. Budagher arrived from Lebanon and, with his wife Sally, ran a trading post here in the 1950s, selling gas, Indian rugs, jewelry and pottery to drivers on the old road. The post declined after Interstate 25 bypassed it. The New Mexico Outlet Center mall opened in 1993, closed in 1997, and was redeveloped by Jim Long in 2000 as ¡Traditions!, now empty.

Joseph and Sally Budagher knew and traded personally with the Pueblo Indians of the area, and their post sold Indian rugs, jewelry and pottery alongside gas. The bar occupied only a small part of the building. The name Budaghers comes from the Lebanese immigrant family who ran the business.

The trading post sits directly on Interstate 25 and is easy to access when traveling between the two larger cities. Visitors should note that highway traffic can be loud and the location mainly serves those passing through quickly.

The painted cylindrical metal tank is not the only roadside marker: at the south end of the West Frontage Road stands the Mormon Battalion Monument, a rock pillar topped with a wagon wheel and an information plaque on its east side. As of June 2013 the tank showed skeletal cars on the south face, a misplaced saguaro on the east and jazz instruments on the north, with plain green paint and rust to the west.