Only in Your State | New Mexico | June 30, 2020 | Monica Spencer | Revised by Jaymi Firestone
Stumbling across a ghost town isn’t a difficult feat in New Mexico. The state is home to dozens upon dozens of sunbaked mining towns, military forts, and other relics of its Old West past. Some locations are more notorious than others. One spot in southwestern New Mexico tends to escape notice, but deserves to be in the spotlight.
Named for ancient lake beds nearby, Lake Valley, stands as a testament to time despite it being patched and crumbling.
Located approximately 35 minutes west of Hatch and 45 minutes north of Deming, Lake Valley was a mining town that is today managed and preserved by the Bureau of Land Management.
The town was originally founded in 1878, shortly after a nearby rancher located silver deposits in the area. Within a couple more years, the area was sold to mining companies and swelled to a boomtown that boasted a population of over 4,000 with saloons, churches, newspapers, a school, stores, and hotels to serve them. In those days, 4,000 was a large population for a pop-up mining town.
The largest silver chamber at Lake Valley bore millions of ounces of silver until 1883. By then, the chamber was depleted and the town’s population slowly died out. By 1893, the town, like many other gold and silver boomtowns, was wiped out by the silver panic. Then just 2 short years later, Lake Valley’s Main St. was destroyed by a fire.
Following the silver boom, the town was desolate and abandoned until it saw a fleeting moment of life in the late 1940s and early 1950s during World War II.
The mines were re-opened to extract manganese for the war efforts. Manganese is a chemical element often used in an array of industrial alloy, like stainless steel, and was used to make weapons, etc. during this time.
Lake Valley was only briefly alive again and died off in 1955, when then post office finally closed its doors. Few people remained in the area, and by 1994, the last resident departed what was left of this fading town.
Today, Lake Valley is a mere shell of its former self, depleted and left barren. The ghost town is slowly returning to nature, with most buildings standing sunbaked and decrepit in the desert.
In some buildings, you can spot evidence of the town’s heyday, whether it’s in the remaining vestiges of Victorian-era wallpaper or the preserved buildings and rooms that showcase a piece of life in Lake Valley.
New Mexico Bureau of Land Management has provided a way that you can partake in a self-guided tour walking around the town to see what’s left.
The Lake Valley townsite includes a chapel built in 1920, several old homes, the cemetery, and the old schoolhouse, which was built in 1904 and used until 1960.
Lake Valley Historic Townsite is located approximately 32 miles west of Hatch, via NM-26 and NM-27.
The townsite is accessible year-round for self-guided tours. It is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and visiting is free of charge. For additional details, visit the Bureau of Land Management website.
Website: Bureau of Land Management
Phone: 575-525-4300
