Area Information

Grant County was created from Dona Ana County, New Mexico.  An act of Territorial Legislature on January 30, 1868 changed the name from San Vicente de La Cienega to Grant County in honor of General Ulysses S. Grant who became president. From 1884 to 1921 Grant County was reduced to form parts of Sierra County, Luna County and to create Hidalgo County.  The County covers 3,966 square miles.  Grant County is rich with copper, gold and other metals. It contains part of the Gila National Forest. Farming and ranching are major businesses.

The original county seat was Piños Altos (Tall Pines), was a mineral rich area where Mexican miners worked the arroyos and canyons from placer gold in the 1850's.  As the fame of this gold camp spread, Anglo miners and settlers moved into the area beginning about 1863.  It was once a thriving gold mining town of 9000 people when Silver City was but a tent or two.  Piños Altos is full of historic century-old buildings of the once booming county seat.  Places of interest include: Buckhorn Saloon and Opera House - circa 1860s, Piños Altos Historical Museum - circa 1860s, and many more.

In 1871 Silver City became the seat of Grant County; the town was incorporated in 1878.  The little valley with its spring and marsh had long had been an Apache camping site.  La Cienega (Marsh) de San Vicente as named by the Spaniards became Silver City, named for the silver found there in the summer of 1870.  The town-site began as a tent city shortly after local rancher John M. Bullard opened an early silver mine called Legal Tender.  Within a year many more settlers had come to the valley in search of silver and gold.  Banks, saloons, retail stores and services as well as several newspapers sprang up in Silver City, along with the requisite brothels and gambling halls.  Silver had recently been discovered at Choloride Flats, Georgetown, in the Burro Mountains, and other spots in the area.  Tales from those early days tell of characters like Billy the Kid, Geronimo, Judge Roy Bean, "Dangerous" Dan Tucker, and the Hearst family.

One of the earlier settlers included the Antrim family.  They moved to Silver City from Santa Fe in 1873.  Catherine Antrim died of consumption in September of 1874 and her young son William Bonney was left to move in and out of foster homes.  On September 23, 1874 Billy the Kid was arrested for stealing laundry, on September 25th he escaped jail and ran away.  Located at the Silver City Grant County Chamber of Commerce is a replica of the cabin the Antrim family lived in while in Silver City.

In 1881, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad reached Silver City which became a terminus.  The H.B. Ailman House, also built in 1881, is the current home of the Silver City Museum.  Built by a man who struck it rich with a Silver Mine, the Ailman House has been preserved through the decades by the community that followed from those early silver strikes.

On February 11, 1893, the Territorial Legislature of New Mexico passed "An Act to Establish and Provide for the Maintenance and Government of the Normal Schools of New Mexico." Silver City was chosen to be one of the locations of these teacher-training institutions.  In the early 1920's the New Mexico Normal School became New Mexico State Teachers' College and in 1963 Western New Mexico University received its current name. 

The first hospital built in the area was the Silver City-Grant County Charity or Ladies Hospital in 1885; it was renamed Hillcrest & Swift Memorial in 1938 and is now Gila Regional Medical Center as named in 1985.  In the early 1900's Silver City became known as a great area for tuberculosis patients and many Tubercular Sanatoriums were opened.

In 1865 a new Fort was commissioned in Southwest region. The post was named in honor of Gen. George D. Bayard. The 125th Infantry arrived at Fort Bayard in 1866 under Lieutenant James Kerr.  Soldiers from the fort battled many of the most famous apache war leaders, including Victorio, Nana, and Geronimo.  The first all-black regular army units made up of enlisted personnel, referred to as Buffalo soldiers, were organized in 1866 in the close of the Civil War.  In 1899, the Army deactivated Fort Bayard and established it as a tuberculosis hospital and research center.  In 1922, the hospital was transferred to the Veterans Bureau.  Since 1965, the post has been a public nursing home under the jurisdiction of the New Mexico state hospital system.  The Fort Bayard National Cemetery was designated as a National Cemetery in July 1976 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 7, 2002.  Today, the fort maintains many historic buildings and monuments, including the life-sized monument to the Buffalo Soldiers stationed here. Fort Bayard also hosts an annual historic re-enactment of fort life in the 1800's.

Located minutes East of Silver City, the "Mining District" is made up of several small communities with humble beginnings which were rich in mining history.  The predominantly Hispanic population of these towns supplied labor to the nearby Santa Rita mine and smelter over the last several generations.  A mill was erected at Hurley in 1911, a smelter in 1939, a fire refinery in 1942.  In this area you will find a landmark and a culturally important place; the Kneeling Nun, a Monolith resembling a praying nun and with very little imagination the stone indeed resembles a woman kneeling in the attitude of prayer.  The Village of Santa Clara, formerly called Central, is the oldest settlement in the District because of its history of serving the soldiers at Fort Bayard.  What started as a railroad station serving as a supply terminal for Fort Bayard is now the town of Bayard.  It is the heart of the Mining District with the majority of commerce and the seat of the educational system.  Hurley began as a company town, owned by the Chino Mine branch of the Nevada Consolidated Copper Co. and later Kennecott Copper Corporation.  This sleepy town has seen an influx of retirees over the past few years.  Nearest to the Santa Rita mine is Hanover with just a smattering of homes. 

What is now the cavernous Santa Rita Mine was once the site of the town of Santa Rita.  The mine is one of the oldest continuously operating mines in the West.  The area was first worked by the Mimbreno Apaches for turquoise and copper for ceremonial purposes.  After discovery mining operations began in the early 1800's, the Mexican government sent convicts to work in the mine.  Mule trains of ore were sent to Chihuahua City, Mexico, and the deposits were a principle source of copper for the Mexican mint until 1845.  Several parties leased the mines over the next decades and J. Parker Whitney bought the mines in 1886.  John M. Sully established the Chino Copper Company in 1909.  By 1910, the company started digging, beginning the open pit mine of today. A mill began operating in nearby Hurley in 1911. In 1937, the Kennecott Corporation bought the Chino Mines and operated them until 1980 when it sold one-third of the Company to the Mitsubishi Corporation. Phelps Dodge Corporation bought the rest of the company in 1987. Phelps Dodge and Heisel Minerals Company now own the Chino Mines.  In 2004 local groups held a "Santa Rita Bicentennial" to recognize the 200th anniversary of the first land title transfer for the Santa Rita Mine and to celebrate "The People Born in Space."  One noteworthy person born in the former town of Santa Rita, located where the pit now exists would be the Astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt.

The Gila Cliff Dwellings offers a glimpse of the homes and lives of the of a small band of Native Americans known as the "Mogollon" (mug-ee-yone).  The peaceful Mogollon people lived in the Gila Wilderness from the 1280's through the early 1300's.  The cliff dwellings were occupied for about twenty years and it is unknown why they were abandoned.  There were about forty rooms within five sandstone cliff caves that were occupied by 10 to 15 families.  Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, containing 533, acres was established on November 16, 1907.  The one mile long trail heading towards the caves meanders across the west fork of the Gila River.  The caves are about one hundred and fifty feet above the canyon floor and are surrounded by the Gila National Forest and lie at the edge of the Gila Wilderness, the nation's first designated wilderness area. 

Located East of Silver City through the Black Range Mountains is Hillsboro, a small town with a rich history dating back more than 100 years.  The town was founded in April 1877, when two prospectors discovered gold on the east side of the Mimbres Mountains along Percha Creek.  When Sierra County was created in 1884, Hillsboro became its seat. Although it was smaller than nearby Kingston, Hillsboro was out of the Black Range Mountains and closer to the railroad station at Nutt.  With area mines producing millions in gold and silver it grew to about 1,200 people by 1907.  Numerous floods, followed by an influenza epidemic and the depression created a slowdown in the early to mid 1900s.  However, it was the loss of the county seat to Hot Springs in 1938 that caused largest exodus of the townsfolk.  Today Hillsboro is home to 150 full time residents, several restaurants, gift shops and galleries, a museum, a garage and grocery, a bed and breakfast, a saloon, a library, a post office and a bank.

Kingston started out as a mining camp called Percha City named for the nearby Percha Creek.  Kingston was founded in August 1882 when miner Jack Sheddon discovered a rich lode of silver ore at what would be one of the Southwest most famous mines: the Solitaire.  In its heyday Kingston was called the "Gem of the Black Range." In the 1880 - 90s Kingston boasted the largest population in New Mexico Territory; home to close to 7000 residents.  Kingston declined when silver prices dropped and deposits ran out. The post office closed in 1957.  A few historic buildings remain, notably the assay office, the Victorio Hotel, the Historic Black Range Lodge, several art galleries and the Percha Bank, now a museum.

Located in the Bootheel of New Mexico, Rodeo has a great history of Cowboys, Indians and raids from Old Mexican as it was once a center for local ranchers bringing cattle for shipment. Rodeo was founded in 1902, built by the Southwestern Railroad of New Mexico to serve as a siding, water stop and station.  Straddling the New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico borders it is located in a wide desert valley with the Chiricahua Mountains to the west and the Peloncillo Mountains to the east. When the railroad ceased operation, this town nearly became a ghost town, but still survives today and is now a growing ranching and arts community of several hundred persons.