Spanish and American prospectors discovered gold, silver, and copper mines in southwestern New Mexico in the 1800s. This volume explores the further development of these mining operations into the early 1900s. During this time period, improvements in technology made mining profitable, and eastern corporations invested in New Mexico mines. World War I created a demand for copper, and this era saw the development of paternalistic company towns. Miners faced difficult and dangerous working conditions, but their lives improved compared to previous generations. Many of the towns and the people in southwestern New Mexico owed their livelihood, in whole or in part, to mining. Some of these places have disappeared entirely, some are ghost towns, and others are thriving communities.

Spanish and American prospectors discovered gold, silver, and copper mines in southwestern New Mexico in the 1800s. This volume explores the further development of these mining operations into the early 1900s. During this time period, improvements in technology made mining profitable, and eastern corporations invested in New Mexico mines. World War I created a demand for copper, and this era saw the development of paternalistic company towns. Miners faced difficult and dangerous working conditions, but their lives improved compared to previous generations. Many of the towns and the people in southwestern New Mexico owed their livelihood, in whole or in part, to mining. Some of these places have disappeared entirely, some are ghost towns, and others are thriving communities.

Given in memory of Ethel A. Tsutsui, Ph.D. and Minoru Tsutsui, Ph.D.

For centuries, the stunning panoramas of Arizona and New Mexico served as the backdrop for a veritable cavalcade of human history. From Anasazi cities built within towering canyon walls to early outpost villages of an expanding young nation, the Southwest served as the home to a range of communities that first thrived and ultimately demised in the region's rugged, sprawling landscapes. Today, the Southwest lures visitors with its majestic natural scenery and links to a fascinating chapter in our nation's history. In Ghost Towns of the Southwest, Jim Hinckley and Kerrick James present the colorful stories, colorful characters, and colorful landscapes that bring to life these landmarks of our past.

Abandoned New Mexico: Ghost Towns, Endangered Architecture, and Hidden History encompasses huge swathes of time and space. As rural populations decline and young people move to ever-larger cities, much of our past is left behind. Out on the plains or along now-quiet highways, changes in modes of livelihood and transportation have moved only in one direction. Stately homes and hand-built schools, churches and bars--these are not just the stuff of individual lives, but of an entire culture. New Mexico, among the least-dense states in the country, was crossed by both the Spanish and Route 66; the railroad stretched toward every hopeful mine and outlaws died in its arms. Its pueblos are among the oldest human habitations in the U.S., and the first atomic bomb was detonated nearly dead in its center. John Mulhouse spent almost a decade documenting the forgotten corners of a state like no other through his popular City of Dust project. From the sunbaked Chihuahuan Desert to the snow-capped Moreno Valley, travel through John's words and pictures across the legendary Land of Enchantment.--Back cover.

Organized at the turn of the century in northeast New Mexico, Dawson grew into one of the Southwest's major coal producers. It was once a bustling town of more than 6,000 people. Run by the Phelps Dodge Corporation, Dawson also became a place that was different than any other company town. Coal Town tells the story of the ordinary people of Dawson, it follows the town's rough-and-tumble beginnings through its glory years just before World War I. It tracks the community's struggles during the Depression, and, finally, its demise in 1950.

Photographs and text describe some of New Mexico's ghost towns, providing information on their history, role in the state's development, why they have become ghost towns, and how some have been transformed.

The rock-ribbed hills surrounding Cerrillos, New Mexico, are honeycombed with mineshafts and it is these mines that have shaped the history of the town and of the district over which it presides. The Pueblo Indians for untold ages took out turquoise; the Spaniards in their turn found gold, silver and lead; and finally, the Anglo-Americans exploited all of these in addition to copper, zinc and coal. Mining gave life to Cerrillos and to neighboring towns such as Bonanza City, Carbonateville, Waldo and Madrid. And when the boom passed and the mines closed, that life ebbed away. Scattered over the hills and in the valleys everywhere are skeletal remains of mining activity: deserted buildings, black and foreboding entrances to shafts, broken tools and equipment, fallen timbers from the windlasses, gallows and hoist houses, tailing dumps and slag heaps. These offer silent testimony to the once prosperous past of the Cerrillos mining district and are an appeal for all students of history.