In Grant County
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CONTENTS Day Trips Attractions Activities 4 Silver City 12 Gila Cliff Dwellings 9 Browse the Galleries Day Trip 1 Jump back 700 years in history Silver City and its wonderful as you walk through the cave 11 Rock Hounding homes of the ancient history will come to life as you 26 Birding travel with us on your tour. Mogollon Indians. 28 Hiking 10 Piños Altos 16 Mimbres Valley An ancient culture walked 30 Cycling & Biking Day Trip 1B these river banks, grew Walk through the 1860s in this crops—and disappeared. historic mining town in tall Today, modern life thrives. Maps pine country. 8 Silver City 16 City of Rocks 12 Trail of the Mountain Bring a vivid imagination when 10 Piños Altos Spirits Scenic Byway you’re among these beautiful Day Trip 2 weather-carved giants. 17 Day Trips Follow the footsteps of the 24 Mining prehistoric cultures—Apaches, 21 The Catwalk 31 Activities Spanish explorers, Mexican The Catwalk is a must. farmers, miners—those who Whitewater Creek frothing far walked this area . below you, rushing through the narrow canyon. = Birding Site 18 Gila High Country Day Trip 3 22 Billy the Kid Bill Evans Lake, the Gila In school, Billy grew up Our Cover Riparian Preserve, Glenwood, as a normal boy . and Deep into the Gila Cooney’s Tomb and more. then something Wilderness 1,500 foot changed. bluffs tower over the 20 Neighbors & peaceful meadows Ghost Towns 25 Ft. Bayard along the Middle Fork Day Trips 4 and 5 From Buffalo Soldiers to of the Gila River. Ghost towns and great birding tuberculosis sanatorium Photo by Joe Burgess combined with a visit to to veteran and geriatric the South. care—giving service since 1863. 24 Mining Day Trip 6 Copper mining from open pit to pure copper. View 200-ton trucks, giant shovels, & mod - ern technology . r GRANT COUNTY o n n o C Silver City Grant County ’ O Chamber of Commerce y k c e 201 N. Hudson Street B y Silver City, NM 88061 b o t (575) 538-3785 o h email: [email protected] P southwest newmexico .org Walk through history along the streets of old mining towns. 1-800-548-9378 Dance with the ghosts of dance - hall girls and miners attired in their ©Keith LeMay 2010. Special thanks to Jackie Blurton, Becky O’Connor, Terry finest. Mines like the Little Fanney, Humble, LeAnne Knudsen. Designed by Zia Publishing. Photos by Joe Burgess unless otherwise noted. Contributing Photographers: Bill Allen, Jackie Blurton, the Princess, the Bullfrog... make Ralph Fisher, Keith LeMay, Museum of New Mexico, Barry Nielsen, Becky history come alive. Some of the O’Connor, Bob Pelham. Contributing Writers: Jackie Blurton, Kevin Cook, Keith most historic happenings of the LeMay, Luis Pérez, Dorothy Watson, Betty Woods. Advertising Sales, LeAnne Southwest await you at the Silver Knudsen 575-388-4444 x 12. Funded in part by Grant County Lodgers Tax. City Museum. 2 – SCENIC TOURS WELCOME TO SILVER CITY We hope your stay will be enjoyable. Let us know if we can make your visit more memorable. We’re proud of our multi-cultural community... with our Four Gentle Seasons and warm hospitality. You’ll be attracted to the wonders of the area, the many n o t r u l ancient cultures, and climate zones ranging from 4,000 to B e i k c 10,000 feet. a J y b Browse through these pages... and be prepared to have o t o h P your expectations exceeded! WILLKOMMEN nach Silberstadt! Wir hoffen dass sich ihr Besuch lohnen wird. Vor Millionen von Jahren geschmolzene Felsen lagerten Auslaeufer von Kupfer, Silber und Gold hier ab, und machten diese Gegend die reichste des Suedwestens. Die ersten Indianer bauten Tuerkis ab, und in 1804 gruben die Spanier Kupfer. In 1870 endeckten amerikanische Schuerfer Silber in den Bergen. Silberstadt nutzte ihr trockenes und hohes Klima aus und oeffnete einige Sanatorien. Allmaehlich wurden mehr Mineralentdeckungen in der Umgebung gemacht. Silberstadt wurde das Zentrum des Handels. Wir hoffen dass Sie unsere Gegend geniessen werden! Auf baldiges Wiedersehen! ¡ BIENVENIDOS a la Ciudad de Plata! Esperamos que encuentres que tu visita valga la pena. As you walk through the Gila Cliff Hace milliones de años que piedra fundida llevó concentraciones de cobre, Dwellings, you can almost imag - ine what it would have been like plata y oro a la superficie aquí, e hizo esta area una de la más ricas del Sudoeste. to live here so many years ago. Los primeros indios minaron la turquesa. En 1804 los españoles minaron el Sacaton Mountain in the Gila National Forest supports an cobre. En 1870 buscadores americanos descubrieron plata en las montañas. abundance of plant and animal La Ciudad de Plata aprovechó su clima seco y altura. Gradualmente se hicieron life. Standing like giants in the vast greatness of Southwest descubrimientos de más minerales en el área. La Ciudad de Plata se volvió un New Mexico are the natural mon - centro de comercio. uments known as the City of Rocks State Park. Esperamos que disfrutes nuestra area. Y que vuelvas pronto. SCENIC TOURS – 3 Sil ver City In 1870, a group of American prospectors discovered silver in the hills just above the ciénega (marshy area), and the rush was on. In ten short months, the newly chris - tened Silver City grew from a sin - gle cabin to over eighty buildings. Celebrating 110 Years Located in the downtown historic district. • Affordable Rates DAY TRIP 1 •18 Rooms & Suites SILVER CITY HIGHLIGHTS • Continental Breakfast Billy the Kid sites 3, 4, 5, 21 Tyrone Mine 8 106 W. Broadway Historic Downtown 10-17 Silver City, NM 88061 Big Ditch Park 10 Silver City Museum 12 575-388-1811 WNMU Museum 18 Reminiscent of a small hotel Reminiscent of a small hotel www.zianet.com/palacehotel Western NM University 19 in the European Tradition. Visit Ol West Gallery & Mercantile next door. 4 – SCENIC TOURS illions of years ago, fingers of molten rock deposited mthe copper, silver and gold that would make this one of the Southwest’s richest mineralized areas. Early Indians mined turquoise, and by 1804 the Spanish were digging for copper east of what came to be called the San Vicente Silver City Museum Ciénega (today’s Silver City). Silver Discovered. In the spring of 1870, DAY TRIP 1 the news reached Piños Altos of a big silver HISTORIC SILVER CITY strike at Shakespeare, near today’s Lordsburg. Map page 8 Captain John Bullard and his men rode DAY TRIP 1 will take you through the historic section of Silver City and on to the old mining town south to investigate. After examining the ore, of Piños Altos with a side trip to the Freeport-McMoRan Tyrone Open pit mine. Map page 8. one of the men said, “Boys, if this is what sil - 1. Visitors Center. Chamber of Commerce. (201 N. Hudson, NM 90) ver looks like, we have plenty of it at home.” 2. McComas House Site. (500 N. Hudson) Judge H.C. McComas (site They hurried back, and began to dig one half 9) in the early 1880s lived on the north end of present post office site. After mile west of the present courthouse. the floods, this area became Silver City’s famous red light district for 60 Ore from the Legal Tender assayed as high as years into the late 1960s, then known as “Millie’s.” 100 ounces of silver per ton, a real bonanza. 3. Billy the Kid Jail Site. (304 N. Hudson) These U.S. Forest Service News of the “Ciénega Mines” quickly spread. warehouses are on the site of the jail where in 1875 Billy the Kid, 15, was held for stealing from a Chinese laundry. He escaped out the chimney. Town of Silver City Originated. In ten Legend suggests Billy killed his first man or knifed a Chinaman at several short months, Silver City grew from a single sites. No evidence can be found. See Sites 4, 5, 21, and 23. cabin to over eighty buildings, and in 1871, 4. Billy the Kid Cabin Site. (Adjacent to Visitors Center) Billy the Kid Silver City became the county seat. During the spent part of his childhood here, in a cabin with his mother, brother, and stepfather. It was torn down by 1894; 1895-1903 floods destroyed the orig - early years of development, all of southwestern inal site. The cabin of that era sitting here was donated by Ron Howard’s New Mexico was harassed by Apache raids. The 2003 movie, “The Missing.” nearest railroad terminal was in Colorado. The 5. Star Hotel Site. (South across the street from Visitors Center) Billy county included what is today’s Deming and the Kid waited tables when he lived here with the Truesdell family follow - Lordsburg all the way to the Mexico border . ing his mother’s death. In spite of the crude methods, Silver City 6. Carrasco Mill Site. (To SW of Site 5) Lorenzo Carrasco had one of the first ore-grinding mills, which handled ore from Silver City, Piños Altos mills were producing $16,000 of bullion a and other mines. week by 1875. Turn right (west) onto Broadway to Site 10. OPTIONAL TRIP. Sites 7-9 on NM 90 to the It soon became the supply center for the south... a look at history and copper mining. 7. Harrison Schmitt School. (M40.5, NM90) Silver City’s Apollo 17 booming industry. By the end of 1872, a local astronaut/geologist, Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, later US Senator, was cho - brick plant enabled solid, well-built businesses sen for the Apollo 17 moon exploration.