Ghost Towns of New Mexico

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Bard, NM

County: Quay
Zip Code: 88411
Latitude / Longitude: 35°7’43N 103°14’44W
Elevation: 4,000 ft (1,000 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Bard is an unincorporated community in Quay County, New Mexico, United States. Bard is located at Exit 361 off I-40, about 31 miles (50 km) east of Tucumcari, the county seat of Quay County.
Remains: From October 8, 1909, to April 23, 1913, the community was officially known as Bard City. Bard had a post office from January 30, 1908, to November 26, 1991; it still has its own ZIP code, 88411.
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Blackdom, NM

County: Chaves
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 33°09’49N 104°30’32W
Elevation: 3,638 ft (1,109 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Blackdom is a ghost town in Chaves County, New Mexico, that was founded by African-American settlers in 1901 and abandoned in the mid-1920s. Founded by Frank and Ella Boyer under the requirements of the Homestead Act, the town experienced significant growth in the first decades with settlers from throughout the United States moving to the community. A drought starting in 1916 caused many of the settlers to relocate and the town became uninhabited in 1921. The Blackdom site is located eight miles (13 km) west of Dexter, New Mexico and 18 miles (29 km) south of Roswell. The altitude is 3,638 feet (1,109 m).
Remains: The community of Blackdom was started in 1901 centered largely around Frank and Ella Boyer’s house. Frank advertised in a number of newspapers for African-American homesteaders to join the community and by 1908, the community had 25 families with about 300 people and a number of businesses (including a blacksmith shop, a hotel, a weekly newspaper, and a Baptist church) on 15,000 acres (61 km2) of land. Blackdom was officially incorporated in 1921. Blackdom was to be 40 acres and 166 lots in the original plan. However, by the time it was recognized as a town, most of the population had relocated because of the water problems. Juneteenth celebrations in the community were well known as many white ranchers in the area were invited to the community for a large festival and baseball game.
Current Status: October 26, 2002, was proclaimed Blackdom Day by the governor of New Mexico, and a historical marker was erected at a rest stop on Highway 285, between Roswell and Artesia. Former Blackdom residents and descendants of settlers were on hand for the dedication ceremony. Local and state community leaders are working to establish a memorial site in or near Roswell to mark the community of Blackdom. Archeological examinations of the homestead have been directed by the New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Authority.
Remarks: Henry Boyer, a Freedman from Pullam, Georgia, was a wagoner with the army units of Stephen W. Kearny during the Mexican-American War in 1846. Henry’s son, Frank Boyer, was raised hearing stories from his father about New Mexico before being educated at Morehouse College and Fisk University. While at school, he learned about the legal requirements for homesteading. Frank started teaching in Georgia and soon married Ella Louise Boyer (née McGruder), herself a teacher graduated from the Haines Institute. Frank began encouraging African-Americans to report and challenge abuses in the Jim Crow-era South. When his life was threatened by the Ku Klux Klan, Frank’s father encouraged him to move to the West for his safety. In 1896, Frank traveled to New Mexico with two students, Daniel Keyes (who married Ella’s sister Willie Frances) and one with the last name of Ragsdale, on foot picking up day labor work along the way. Ella and their four children followed in 1901. Frank’s idea was to found a self-sustaining community which would be free from the hindrances that existed in the South.

Bland, NM

Cabezon, NM

Carpenter, NM

County: Grant
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Comments: Carpenter was a settlement in Grant County, New Mexico, United States. It was located on the west slope of the Mimbres Mountains, but its exact location is not now known. The site was reported to be a small lead-mining camp established ca. 1882, and so named because many of the prospectors were carpenters by trade before coming to the mine.
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Chloride, NM

County: Sierra
Zip Code: 87943
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Comments: An Englishman named Harry Pye, a mule skinner, and prospector, was delivering freight for the U.S. Army from Hillsboro to Camp Ojo Caliente in 1879 when he discovered silver in the canyon where Chloride is now located. After completing his freighting contract, he and two others returned to the area in 1881 and staked a claim. A tent city grew up nearby and then a town, originally called Pyetown, then Bromide.
Remains: The name “Chloride” was finally selected after the high-grade silver ore found there. It became the center for all mining activity in the area, known as the Apache Mining District. During the 1880s, Chloride had 100 homes, 1,000-2,000 people, eight saloons, three general stores, restaurants, butcher shops, a candy store, a lawyer’s office, a doctor, boarding houses, an assay office, a stage line, a Chinese laundry, and a hotel. Residents even hoped the town would become the county seat. The “Black Range” newspaper operated from 1883 until 1897. (Apaches attacked the Chloride store on Jan. 18, 1881, killing two and injuring one. Harry Pye was killed by Apaches a few months later, apparently, because his gun jammed.)
Current Status: Area mines continued producing ore mostly copper, lead, and zinc — from the turn of the century until about 1931. The post office was open until 1956. About 20 people still live in Chloride, including Mr. and Mrs. Don Edmund. They own a number of the old homes and buildings in town and are restoring the Pioneer Store to open as a museum.
Remarks: About $500,000 in silver and other ore was taken out of the mining district. There was a total of 480 prospector holes, including at least The richest mine Apache Mining District, was the Silver Monument, about 10 miles west of town at the head of Chloride Creek. It produced about $100,000 by 1893. Other mines in the area included the Grey Eagle, the White Eagle, the U.S. Treasury, the Mayflower, the St. Cloud, the Colossal, the Midnight, the Mountain King, the Wall Street, the White Mountain, and the New Era. Chloride and the surrounding area began to decline with the silver panic of 1893 when the country went on the gold standard and silver prices dropped about 90 percent.

Cuchillo, NM

County: Sierra
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Latitude / Longitude: 33° 14′ 9 N, 107° 21′ 38 W
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Comments: Cuchillo is an unincorporated community in Sierra County, in the U.S. state of New Mexico.
Remains: A post office has been in operation at Cuchillo since 1883. The community took its name from Cuchillo Negro Creek.
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Clairmont, NM

County: Catron
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Latitude / Longitude: 33°26’41N 108°46’46W
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Comments: Clairmont is a ghost town located 19 miles northeast of Glenwood in Catron County, New Mexico, United States.
Remains: As early as 1822 the site is reported to have been a mining camp, surviving through the 1880s as a supply center for prospectors.
Current Status: Located near Copper Creek, today there are old log cabins and a corral on the site. In 1883 the town had a post office. Clairmont is noted by historians as having been a significant mining community.
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Cloverdale, NM

Cooney, NM

County: Catron
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Latitude / Longitude: 33°25’22N 108°48’28W
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Comments: Cooney is a ghost town in Catron County, New Mexico, United States, east of Alma. Cooney was once home to gold and silver prospectors in the nearby Mogollon Mountains.
Remains: In the 1870s Sergeant James C. Cooney of Fort Bayard found a rich strand of gold in the Gila Mountains near the future site of Mogollon, New Mexico. His find led to the development of several different mines in the area, as well as the settlement of the towns of Mogollon, Alma, and Glenwood. Several settlers from Cooney were killed, including James Cooney, during an event called the Alma Massacre. The town was washed away in a flood in 1911.
Current Status: Cooney Cemetery is a small graveyard found near the Cooney townsite in an isolated area east of Alma, New Mexico. It is located in the southern part of Catron County, approximately 7 miles east of Alma on County Road 7. Cooney Cemetery was created when James Cooney’s brother, Captain Mike Cooney, and friends carved a sepulcher out of a rock in the canyon where he was killed and buried him there, sealing the tomb with the silver-bearing ore taken from the mine he discovered. The main part of the cemetery is located behind the above tomb and contains seven burials.
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Cuervo, NM

Dawson, NM

County: Colfax
Zip Code: 87740
Latitude / Longitude: 36°39’20N 104°46’23W
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Comments: Dawson (also Mountview) is a ghost town in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. Dawson was the site of two separate coal mining disasters in 1913 and 1923. Dawson is located about 17 miles northeast of Cimarron, New Mexico. Dawson was a coal mining company town founded in 1901 when rancher John Barkley Dawson sold his coal-rich land in northern New Mexico to the Dawson Fuel Company. The Dawson Railway was built connecting the town to Tucumcari, New Mexico. The mines were productive, and by 1905 the town boasted a population of nearly 2,000, later reaching around 9,000.
Remains: In 1906, the mines were purchased by the Phelps Dodge Corporation. The corporation needed to attract workers to the remote location, so they built homes for the miners, along with numerous other facilities including a hospital, department store, swimming pool, movie theater, and a golf course. With these amenities, Phelps Dodge was able to maintain a stable employment rate despite the inherent dangers of mining and the isolation of northern New Mexico. Many of the miners were recent immigrants.
Current Status: The town of Dawson is now largely gone, with only a few buildings remaining. The tall smoke stacks of the coking ovens were eventually demolished in the early 2000s because they represented a liability to the current owner of the property. The only significant landmark remaining in Dawson is the cemetery, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The cemetery is filled with iron crosses painted white marking the graves of many miners who died in the mines. Other markers show the burial locations of other residents of Dawson. Dawson can be reached by taking Route 64 approximately 12 miles east of Cimarron and then heading north onto A38 at the striped sign and proceeding on that road for another 5 miles. After A38 crosses the adjacent railroad tracks a second time, turn onto the dirt road on the right (which proceeds east of A38 for approximately 1000 feet) to reach the site of the Dawson cemetery. The ruins of Dawson can be seen by continuing north on A38, which turns into Barus Road and then splits into Lauretta Road and Rail Canyon Road.
Remarks: Dawson did not become a ghost town until 1950, when the Phelps Dodge Corporation shut down the mines. At closure, Mine 6 was the largest producer, and several other mines had been previously closed out because of declining demand. The closures were also due in large part to the completion of the twenty-five year coal contract with the Southern Pacific Railroad. The entire town was sold or razed, with some of the miners’ houses moved to other locations.

El Ojo Del Padre, NM

Elizabethtown, NM

County: Colfax
Zip Code: 87718
Latitude / Longitude: 36°37’9N 105°17’4W
Elevation: 8,481 ft (2,585 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Elizabethtown is a small unincorporated community in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. It is located just off New Mexico State Road 38, between the communities of Eagle Nest and Red River. It is just east of the Carson National Forest. The community is a former mining town, and lies northeast of Scully Mountain, and west of Baldy Mountain.
Remains: Mostly a ghost town now, Elizabethtown began in 1866 with the founding of area gold mines and the Mystic Copper Mine. It was New Mexico’s first incorporated town. Founded by the commander of Fort Union (north of Las Vegas, New Mexico), Captain William H. Moore, and named for his daughter, Elizabeth Catherine Moore. Nicknamed “E-Town,” the town grew to over 7000 residents at its height of prosperity in 1870, and it was designated the first seat of the newly formed Colfax County. In 1872 there were only about 100 residents left as the mines dwindled, and the county seat was moved to Cimarron. The town revived somewhat when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad passed nearby in the early 1890s, making mining feasible once again. The village was also part of the Colfax County War.
Current Status: A fire took most of the town in 1903, and the town mostly died out by 1917 with the decline in the mines.
Remarks: Serial killer Charles Kennedy lived between Elizabethtown and Taos, luring weary travelers to dine and stay with him at his cabin; he may have killed 14 or more people. Kennedy was killed by a group of angry vigilantes, led by the notorious Clay Allison.

Gage, NM

County: Luna
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Latitude / Longitude: 32° 13′ 46 N, 108° 5′ 10 W
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Comments: Gage is a former town in western Luna County, New Mexico, United States. It is found on Interstate 10/U.S. Route 70 twenty miles west of Deming. As of 1930, the population was 102.
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Current Status: For some time, it survived as a ghost town, but the ruins have now been razed. A truck stop is all that remains.
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Glenrio, NM

County: Quay
Zip Code: 88434
Latitude / Longitude: 35° 10′ 44 N, 103° 2′ 32 W
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Comments: Glenrio, formerly Rock Island, is an unincorporated community in both Deaf Smith County, Texas, and Quay County, New Mexico, in the United States. Located on the former U.S. Route 66, the ghost town sits on the Texas–New Mexico state line. It includes the Glenrio Historic District which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
Remains: The community was founded in 1903 as a railroad siding on the Rock Island Railroad. Its name is derived from Scots “glen” + Spanish “rio” (meaning “river”). Originally a railroad town, the village was renamed from Rock Island to Glenrio by the Rock Island and Pacific Railroad in 1908 and began receiving motorists on the dusty Ozark Trail in 1917. Its original structures were adobe buildings. The circa-1910 Angel House was in New Mexico.
Current Status: On June 25, 2008, the State of New Mexico opened the Glenrio Welcome Center on Interstate 40 at the Texas state line. The center includes such things as a pet walk, a livestock corral, wireless Internet access, a movie theater, and information kiosks. Built to accommodate one million visitors per year, it includes green features such as recycling of greywater for grounds irrigation, and a wind turbine that will generate 20 percent of the center’s energy.
Remarks: The location of Glenrio on Texas and New Mexico’s border led to some interesting business practices. At one point, all fuel was dispensed in Texas due to New Mexico’s higher gasoline taxes. The 1930s State Line Bar and motel were built in New Mexico because Deaf Smith County, Texas, was dry at the time. The railroad station was in Texas. The local post office, built circa-1935, was in New Mexico. A water tank and windmill in New Mexico were constructed circa 1945.

Gobernador, NM

County: Rio Arriba
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Latitude / Longitude: 36° 42′ 9 N, 107° 23′ 32 W
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Comments: Gobernador is a small, unincorporated community located in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. Although not on a Native American reservation, Gobernador is about 50 miles east of the Navajo Indian Reservation and 15 miles west of the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation. Carson National Forest also lies about five miles to the east. The community is situated near the junction of U.S. Highway 64 and New Mexico State Road 527. The nearest towns are Aztec, New Mexico, Dulce, New Mexico, and Arboles, Colorado. Gobernador lies in between the dry, arid land of northwest New Mexico and the forested, mountainous land of north central New Mexico, with sandy soil, smaller trees and other plants, and shorter mountains and mesas.
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Golden, NM

Gran Quivira, NM

Hagan, NM

County: Sandoval
Zip Code: 87047
Latitude / Longitude: 35°19’02N 106°18’50W
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Comments: Hagan is a ghost town in Sandoval County, New Mexico, United States of America, about 13 miles (22 km) southeast of San Felipe Pueblo.
Remains: In 1902 The New Mexico Fuel and Iron Company was established to develop coal mines in the locality. The name Hagan was chosen for the site in 1904, named after a local official of the AT&SF Railroad, no doubt to encourage the extension of a railroad spur to serve the mines. Initially, coal was hauled by wagon to the railroad main line at San Felipe. Work on the spur was begun in 1908 but was suspended within months, stalling development of the community of about 60 residents for a decade.
Current Status: Only the foundations and a few brick walls of the power plant, general store, reservoir, and a few smaller buildings remain. The site is visible from Indian Service Road 844/Madera Road which follows the railroad grade from San Felipe, but the ruins are on private land owned by the Diamond Tail Ranch and are usually not open to the public except by occasional organized tours.
Remarks: In 1919 a “gentleman entrepreneur,” Jean Justin DePraslin of New Orleans convinced investors to put up nearly $450,000 to develop the Hagan Coal Mine, including housing, mine buildings and a power plant. A further £300,000 was raised for a new railroad, the Rio Grande Eastern, and the line was completed in May 1924. As well as the coal, the railroad hauled brick and tile from a brick factory adjacent to the ruins of Tonque Pueblo, a few miles north of the town.

Hermosa, NM

County: Sierra
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Latitude / Longitude: 33° 9′ 27 N, 107° 43′ 48 W
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Comments: Hermosa is recognized as a populated place in Sierra County, New Mexico, United States. It is located in the Palomas Creek valley west of Truth or Consequences.
Remains: It was founded in 1883 by miners and grew to a town that had its own literary society. In 1889, Hermosa was hit by a devastating flash flood and never recovered.
Current Status: All that remains today is a mercantile, a hotel, and a log post office. It is currently part of a privately owned ranch.
Remarks: Hermosa was founded by J.C. Plemmons and was located in the center of the Palomas district. He established the first residence and mercantile along the southern fork of the Palomas Creek, where he positioned his cattle. He was most likely drawn to the area due to the presence of the Palomas mining camp, recognizing the possibility for a town.

Kelly, NM

Lake Valley, NM

County: Sierra
Zip Code: 88042
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Comments: Lake Valley was a silver-mining town in Sierra County, U.S. state of New Mexico.
Remains: The ‘heyday’ of the town was from 1881 to 1893. The last resident departed in 1994. The present day ghost town is completely deserted. The townsite of Lake Valley is partly privately owned, and partly owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which has restricted access to the old buildings to daylight hours, to prevent vandalism. There is a self-guided walking tour for visitors. A rancher found the Lake Valley silver deposits in Sierra County in 1876. Two years later he sold his claims to an engineer, who began mining. The deposits are bedded manto-type deposits in Paleozoic limestone. The mines produced well for a few years after miners tunneled into a silver-lined cavity they named the “bridal chamber” that alone yielded 2.5 million troy ounces (78 tonnes) of silver.
Current Status: In 1881, a party of Lake Valley miners formed a posse to pursue a band of Apaches that had raided the town of Hillsboro. The Apaches caught them in an ambush. The bridal chamber was worked out by 1883. Although a railroad line reached Lake Valley in 1884, the mines struggled and were worked only periodically into the 20th century. Total production of the Lake Valley district through 1931 was 5.8 million ounces (180 tonnes) of silver. The mines reopened during World War II to produce manganese, and continued operating into the 1950s. Lake Valley had a post office from 1882 until 1955.
Remarks: In 1881 the property was sold to mine promoters George D. Roberts and Whitaker Wright, who split the property among five companies: Sierra Apache Co., Sierra Bella Co., Sierra Grande Co., Sierra Madre Co., and the Sierra Plata Co., and stock was sold widely in the east. Despite the brief wealth of the bridal chamber, shareholders in all five companies lost money.

Lanark, NM

County: Dona Ana
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Latitude / Longitude: 31° 58′ 12 N, 106° 48′ 59 W
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Comments: Lanark is a ghost town in Doña Ana County, New Mexico about 30 miles northwest of El Paso, Texas and close to Kilbourne Hole.
Remains: Lanark had a U.S. Post Office from 1905 until 1923. Extant is a “small collection of buildings, water tank, and fuel depot built for trains on the Southern Pacific Railroad track from El Paso, Texas to Los Angeles.”
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Mentmore, NM

County: McKinley
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Mogollon, NM

County: Catron
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Latitude / Longitude: 33°23’48N 108°47’39W
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Comments: Mogollon, also called the Mogollon Historic District, is a former mining town located in the Mogollon Mountains in Catron County, New Mexico, in the United States. Located east of Glenwood and Alma, it was founded in the 1880s at the bottom of Silver Creek Canyon to support the gold and silver mines in the surrounding mountains. A mine called “Little Fannie” became the most important source of employment for the town’s populus. During the 1890s Mogollon had a transient population of between 3,000 and 6,000 miners and, because of its isolation, had a reputation as one of the wildest mining towns in the West. Today Mogollon is listed as Fannie Hill Mill and Company Town Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.
Remains: In the 1870s, Sergeant James C. Cooney of Fort Bayard found a rich strand of gold in the Gila Mountains near the future site of Mogollon. A miner named John Eberle built the first cabin in Mogollon in 1889, after mines were developed in Silver Creek, which runs through the town. A jail and post office opened in 1890, and the first school was added in 1892. During this period of growth, Mogollon absorbed the population of nearby Cooney, and helped towns like Glenwood, Gila and Cliff grow because of their locations along the trail to the town. Between 1872 and 1873 the stagecoach from Mogollon to Silver City was robbed 23 times by the same assailant. He was eventually apprehended by agents of the Wells Fargo.
Current Status: With the decline in precious metal values after World War I, it was no longer profitable to continue operating the mines. The town grew again after a brief recovery in prices in 1937, but World War II again caused a slash in the demand for precious metals, and this, accompanied by the devastating fire of 1942, almost finished the town. In 1952 the Little Fanny was the only mine in operation; today it is shrouded in silence. When the Little Fanny mine closed down, Mogollon deteriorated.
Remarks: The entire Mogollon community was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Fannie Hill Mill and Company Town Historic District in 1987. It was cited for its industrial and architectural legacy from 1875 through 1949.

Mowry City, NM

County: Dona Anna
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Latitude / Longitude: 32° 30′ 51 N, 107° 54′ 52 W
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Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Mowry City is a ghost town first in Dona Anna County, then Grant County and finally in Luna County, New Mexico, about 25 miles (40 km) north of Deming. Originally the crossing point of Cooke’s Wagon Road on the Mimbres River. Mowry City was formerly the location of Rio Mimbres a stop on the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and Miembre’s River Station, a stagecoach stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail and later stagecoach routes, the town lasted from 1859 until the arrival of the railroad in southern New Mexico.
Remains: Mimbres River Station, a Butterfield Overland Mail relay station, was located 16 miles northeast of Ojo de Vaca Station and 18 miles west of Cooke’s Spring Station. Later Mowry City grew up around it. Mowry City was the result of one of the earliest land scams in the American Southwest. In the late 1850s, three promoters, Samuel J. Jones, a native of Virginia, Lewis S. Owings and Robert P. Kelley, resided in the town of Mesilla on the Rio Grande near Las Cruces, New Mexico. They owned a number of businesses in the town and also had interests in mining properties. They realized that the existing population base was too small for them to attain the prosperity they desired, so they concocted a scheme to establish a town site and promote it, to draw settlers into the area.
Current Status: In the Spring of 1860, gold was discovered at Pinos Altos, about 40 miles northwest of the new town site, and Mowry City began to establish a population, including Sherod Hunter. However, as a result of the Bascom Affair at the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Apaches began their campaign of attacks on all white settlers, miners and travelers throughout the region and this ended the promotion of Mowry City. The settlement lasted after the Civil War at least into the time of the arrival of the railroad.
Remarks: Kelley had met Sylvester Mowry in 1858, on a stage ride from Arizona to Missouri, from which he learned of Mowry’s fame and name recognition among eastern investors. Realizing the recognition value of the Mowry name, these promoters chose Mowry City as the name for their new town.

Old Hachita, NM

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Latitude / Longitude: 31° 54′ 50 N, 108° 25′ 58 W
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Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Old Hachita, is a ghost town in New Mexico. Once a bustling mining town
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Current Status: Hachita is now abandoned, its ruins slowly wasting away in the desert sun.
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Pinos Altos, NM

County: Grant
Zip Code: 88053
Latitude / Longitude: 32°51’48N 108°13’17W
Elevation: 7,011 ft (2,137 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Pinos Altos is a census-designated place in Grant County, New Mexico. The community was a mining town, formed in 1860 following the discovery of gold in the nearby Pinos Altos Mountains. The town site is located about five to ten miles north of the present day Silver City, New Mexico.
Remains: Originally named Birchville, after prospector and former outlaw, Robert H. Birch, one of three people who found the first gold, it later took the Spanish name Pinos Altos, meaning tall pines, because there were tall trees growing in the area. These were cut down as the town grew to a population of about 9,000 during the 1880s and 1890s before slowly being abandoned during the early 1900s. Today, many of the original buildings remain.
Current Status: Although once abandoned, the town is now a place for summer homes and caters to tourists. Its population was 198 as of the 2010 census.
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Pittsburg, NM

County: Colfax
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Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Pittsburg is a ghost town in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. In 1922 Ray Pittman and his brother Russell Pittman constructed and became proprietors of a grocery store located six miles northwest of Gladstone. During 1924 a Post Office was established in the community and was located in Ray Pittman’s store thus becoming known as Pittsburg, New Mexico. The Post Mistress was Bernice Martin Pittman, wife of Ray Pittman. The Post Office remained in the building, until 1932 at which time it was closed.
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Current Status: Pittsburg is no longer in existence; only a small pile of rubble remains where the store once stood.
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Red Hill, NM

County: Catron
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 34°13’07N 108°52’20W
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Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Red Hill is a ghost town in Catron County, New Mexico, United States, west of Quemado.
Remains: Also known as the Quemado volcanic field, Red Hill is 24 kilometers east of the larger Springerville volcanic field and immediately south of the Zuni Salt Lake field. The area is made up of scoria cone and silicic dome fields The last eruption was 23,000 yrs B.P.
Current Status: In 1836 a prospector named Adams staggered into the town of Piños Altos. With multiple arrow wounds and close to death, he told several people gathered around him that he had been prospecting of in the north. When they opened his knapsack they found a fortune in gold. His only marker to tell where the gold field was a red hill in the distance, where he described gold lying everywhere. Adams died before he could give more details, and the place he described has never been found.
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Santa Barbara, NM

County: Dona Ana
Zip Code: 87937
Latitude / Longitude: 32°39’54N 107°9’31W
Elevation: 4,058 ft (1,237 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Hatch is a village in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,648 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Las Cruces Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town is experiencing moderate growth, along with its outliers of Salem, Arrey, Derry, and Rincon. Hatch is widely known as the “Chile Capital of the World,” for growing a wide variety of peppers, especially the New Mexican cuisine staple, and one of New Mexico’s state vegetables, the New Mexico chile.
Remains: Hatch was originally settled as Santa Barbara in 1851, however Apache raids drove the farmers away until 1853 when the nearby Fort Thorn was established. When Fort Thorn closed in 1859, the town was abandoned again in 1860. It was not until 1875 that it was re-occupied and at that time it was renamed for Indian fighter Edward Hatch, who was then commander of the military District of New Mexico.
Current Status: Hatch is 40 miles northwest of Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Interstate 25, and 34 miles south of Spaceport America, a new purpose-built spaceport being built by the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) with State and county funding. In 2012, the NMSA announced it would be building a spaceport visitor’s center in Hatch.
Remarks: The Hatch Chile Festival is an annual event that occurs each Labor Day. This event attracts people worldwide to a place known as the chile capital of the world. The small town has accommodated up to 30,000 people for this event. This small farming community is known worldwide for raising very good chiles. By 2012, Hatch chiles were being marketed under their name in most major urban markets in the US. Other crops such as onions, cotton, and corn are also raised there. Irrigation of local farms is accomplished by water wells as well as irrigation ditches which divert water from the Rio Grande and two lakes approximately 20 miles north of Hatch named Caballo (Spanish for “horse”) and Elephant Butte Reservoir (named after a rock formation in the middle of the lake that looks similar to an elephant).

Santa Rita, NM

County: Grant
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 32° 48′ 13 N, 108° 3′ 39 W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Santa Rita is a ghost town in Grant County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The site of Chino copper mine, Santa Rita was located fifteen miles east of Silver City.
Remains: Copper mining in the area began late in the Spanish colonial period, but it was not until 1803 that Franscisco Manuel Elguea, a Chihuahua banker and businessman, founded the town of Santa Rita. He named it Santa Rita del Cobre (Saint Rita of the Copper), after Saint Rita of Cascia and the existing mine. During the early 19th century the mine produced over 6 million pounds of copper annually. The crudely smeltered ore was shipped to Chihuahua for further smelting and then sent to Mexico City on mule back. The area was relatively peaceful, despite an occasional attack from the Warm Springs (Mimbres) band of the Chiricahua Apache, who lived nearby at the headwaters of the Gila and Mimbres rivers. In 1837, however, an American trader named John Johnson lured the Apaches to a gathering and then massacred them to sell their scalps for the bounty offer by the Mexican government. This caused open warfare and almost all of the nearly 500 inhabitants of Santa Rita were killed in an attack on the town; only six managed to reach safety in Chihuahua. The town was abandoned until 1849, when the U.S.Army established a command post on the site, calling it Cantonment Dawson. (See Apache-Mexico Wars)
Current Status: After the Santa Rita mine was converted to an open pit in 1901, the town was forced to move several times as the pit grew. Shortly after the town relocated in 1957, heavy rains washed boulders and mud into the new townsite. The town was abandoned once and for all in 1967, and the school system for the area was discontinued in 1972. The population of Santa Rita was about 500 in 1884. By 1915 it was 2500, and by 1920 had reached 6,000. It remained at 6,000 until significant layoffs at the mine started in the 1950s.
Remarks: Martin B. Hayes reopened the mine in 1873 after Cochise signed a treaty of peace; however, the town continued to be subject to Apache attacks from Geronimo, Victorio and other Apache warleaders until 1886, when Geronimo surrendered for the last time. A post office opened in 1881 and the coming of the railroad five years later spurred further development of the mine.

Shakespeare, NM

County:
Zip Code: 88045
Latitude / Longitude: 32°19’32N 108°44’18W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Shakespeare is a ghost town in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, United States. It is currently part of a privately owned ranch, sometimes open to tourists. The entire community was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Remains: On November 9, 1881, Old West outlaws “Russian Bill” Tattenbaum and Sandy King, both cattle rustlers and former members of the Clanton faction of Charleston, Arizona Territory, were lynched in Shakespeare, and their bodies were left hanging for several days as a reminder to others that lawlessness would not be tolerated. The two had been captured by gunman “Dangerous Dan” Tucker, who at the time was the Shakespeare town marshal.
Current Status: Founded as a rest stop called Mexican Springs along a stagecoach route, it was renamed Grant after the Civil War, after General U. S. Grant. When silver was discovered nearby it became a mining town called Ralston City, named after financier William Chapman Ralston. It was finally renamed Shakespeare, and was abandoned when the mines closed in 1929.
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Steins, NM

County: Hidalgo
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 32° 13′ 45 N, 108° 59′ 22 W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Steins is a ghost town in Stein’s Pass of Hidalgo County, New Mexico. It was originally called Stein’s Pass after the nearby pass through the Peloncillo Mountains (Hidalgo County). The pass was named after United States Army Major Enoch Steen, who camped nearby in 1856, as he explored the recently acquired Gadsden Purchase.
Remains: The town can trace its origin to a small stop on the Birch Stage Line that was established in 1857. Properly founded in 1880, the town was named after United States Army Major Enoch Steen (whose name was sometimes spelled as “Steins”), who was killed by members of an Apache tribe in 1873. The town began to prosper when mineral deposits like gold, silver, and copper were discovered in the nearby Peloncillo Mountains. Further success was brought when the Southern Pacific Railroad established a rail line in 1878, and a local quarry was opened up. Steins had no natural source of water, so all water had to be brought in by train. In 1905 a rock-crushing plant was built to produce track ballast for the railroad.
Current Status: In 1944, toward the end of World War II, the railway ceased operations at the Steins quarry and gave notice it would no longer subsidize water deliveries. The railway offered the inhabitants of Steins free transport elsewhere with what they could carry; most of the population accepted this offer, leaving their houses and many of their possessions behind. The post office in the town closed at that time, and eventually Steins was completely abandoned; a later fire destroyed a good majority of what was left behind. In 1988, Larry and Linda Link purchased the locale and began offering ghost town tours. In 2011, however, Larry Link was murdered and tours ceased.
Remarks: It is unusual in the old West ghost towns in having been a railroad rather than a mining town. Steins Pass has been mistaken by some people for the pass at Doubtful Canyon near Steins Peak, a location to the northwest in the same mountain range, which was the location of a Butterfield Overland Mail station and the site of the Battle of Doubtful Canyon.

Tejon, NM

Twining, NM

Tyrone, NM

County: Grant
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 32° 38′ 30.5 N, 108° 19′ 31.5 W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Comments: Tyrone is a ghost town located in Grant County, New Mexico, United States, in the southwestern part of the state.
Remains: Tyrone was an elaborately planned community financed by the Phelps Dodge Corporation, based on Mediterranean and European styles, designed by well-known architect Bertram Goodhue and built in 1915 at a cost of more than a million dollars. A drop in copper prices in 1921 closed the mines and the town was deserted.
Current Status: The townsite was later destroyed as part of Phelps Dodge’s development of the Tyrone open-pit copper mine, which began operation in 1969.
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Baldy Town, NM