Only in Your State: New Mexico | By Juliet White
New Mexico has hundreds of ghost towns! Some are empty patches of land where towns once stood; in others, mining equipment is all that remains to tell the town’s history. However, a few of New Mexico’s ghost towns are in better condition and exploring them can be an unsettling experience. Houses along with pieces of furniture remain, decaying before your eyes, but there isn’t a soul in sight. Lake Valley is one such place. Even the trees on the approach to this town are dead.
It feels like entering a movie midway through, after the zombies – or whatever other horror your imagination supplies – have attacked. This wasteland is all that’s left.
Shells of buildings still stand, windows long gone. An armchair molders on a front porch. These relics prove that this Sierra County town was once a much more vibrant place. So what happened?
Lake Valley was a true mining town, founded in 1878 when silver was discovered in the area. And we’re not talking about a little silver.
A whopping 2.5 million ounces of silver ore were extracted from the Bridal Chamber Mine. The silver was located only 40 feet under the earth.
The ore was so pure that it was sent straight to the U.S. Mint without any additional processing. One piece of silver from the Bridal Chamber Mine was featured at the 1882 World Exhibition in Denver.
At its peak, Lake Valley boasted 4000 residents. The town’s amenities included a railhead, saloons, hotels… All the usual businesses you’d expect to see. It was by no means a metropolis though, so residents sometimes held several different roles. Case in point, the woman who operated the nearby brothel in Kingston, also ran the town’s stagecoach line!
Lake Valley’s decline began in 1893, with the silver panic. This financial crisis had a dire impact. Before it could recover, a saloon fire burned the heart of the town. The commercial structures were destroyed within a 30-minute period.
Lake Valley’s economy experienced a brief resurgence during the 1950s. But it was too little, too late.
In 1994, the final residents vacated, turning Lake Valley into the ghost town you see today: 297 abandoned mines surround crumbling structures that are only home to rattlesnakes. The buildings include a chapel, schoolhouse, some homes, and a cemetery.
Unlike many New Mexico ghost towns, this one is only partially on private property and you can investigate the portion that is managed by BLM.
You’re allowed to take a self-guided tour Thursday through Monday, between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.
