A True Ghost Town
Feb 11, 2020 19:11:07 #
Another amazing ghost town in the southwest. Lake Valley, NM is situated at the base the Black Range....it was a place for the record books.
In 1878 prospectors George Lufkin and Chris Watson found the original samples that led to the excitement seventeen miles south of the town that had recently been named Hillsboro in South Central New Mexico. Eventually a syndicate headed by George Daly bought all claims in the area for a reported $225,000.
In 1881, blacksmith John Leavitt leased a claim that Lufkin and Watson had begun from the Sierra Grande Mining Company. After two days and ten feet of digging, Leavitt came upon the most wonderful cavern ever discovered in the history of mining: it was a vault the size of a living room that was virtually solid silver!
Miners could actually saw chunks of the precious metal into blocks. One piece was so large that it had to be broken up before it could be hauled out. A lighted candle could be held to the ceiling of the vault, which grateful miners named the Bridal Chamber, and silver would melt right off.
One piece of silver valued at $7,000 (when silver sold for a mere $1.11 per ounce) was featured at the Denver Exposition of 1882. And the largest chunk ever taken from the Bridal Chamber was valued at an astonishing $80,000; that's over forty-five hundred pounds of silver at $ 1.11 per ounce.
The Bridal Chamber was the richest concentration of silver ever found: 2.5 million ounces were removed - and removed so easily that a railroad spur was backed into the chamber and solid silver loaded directly onto ore cars. Total production of all mines in Lake Valley between 1881 and 1893 was 5.78 million ounces.
The leader of the syndicate that owned the Bridal Chamber, George Daly, never lived to see the phenomenal fortunes that were there: on the very day Leavitt broke into the Bridal Chamber, Daly was murdered by Apaches. And George Lufkin, who originally found the silver in Lake Valley, is buried in the town's cemetery in a pauper's grave.
It is difficult to imagine that this serene spot was, according to a western surveyor who came through, "Lake Valley, the toughest town I've ever seen. I'm satisfied a man died with his boots on every night." Population estimates vary from one thousand to four thousand for a town that was born in the 1880s and died, for all practical purposes, with the silver panic of 1893, although mining continued on a limited scale (manganese for use in WWII) into the 1940s.
Lake Valley is now owned and operated by the BLM and offers excellent walking tours. Its located about 30 minutes north of I-10 and about 30miles NE of Deming NM. The last resident of Lake valley left in 1994 and left the town abandoned, he was born there in 1901. Now maintained by the US Bureau of Land Management, the Historic Townsite is pretty much open to the public, except for some of the old structures which remain restricted due to their derelict condition. The BLM still maintains the school house for parties and high school events.
In 1878 prospectors George Lufkin and Chris Watson found the original samples that led to the excitement seventeen miles south of the town that had recently been named Hillsboro in South Central New Mexico. Eventually a syndicate headed by George Daly bought all claims in the area for a reported $225,000.
In 1881, blacksmith John Leavitt leased a claim that Lufkin and Watson had begun from the Sierra Grande Mining Company. After two days and ten feet of digging, Leavitt came upon the most wonderful cavern ever discovered in the history of mining: it was a vault the size of a living room that was virtually solid silver!
Miners could actually saw chunks of the precious metal into blocks. One piece was so large that it had to be broken up before it could be hauled out. A lighted candle could be held to the ceiling of the vault, which grateful miners named the Bridal Chamber, and silver would melt right off.
One piece of silver valued at $7,000 (when silver sold for a mere $1.11 per ounce) was featured at the Denver Exposition of 1882. And the largest chunk ever taken from the Bridal Chamber was valued at an astonishing $80,000; that's over forty-five hundred pounds of silver at $ 1.11 per ounce.
The Bridal Chamber was the richest concentration of silver ever found: 2.5 million ounces were removed - and removed so easily that a railroad spur was backed into the chamber and solid silver loaded directly onto ore cars. Total production of all mines in Lake Valley between 1881 and 1893 was 5.78 million ounces.
The leader of the syndicate that owned the Bridal Chamber, George Daly, never lived to see the phenomenal fortunes that were there: on the very day Leavitt broke into the Bridal Chamber, Daly was murdered by Apaches. And George Lufkin, who originally found the silver in Lake Valley, is buried in the town's cemetery in a pauper's grave.
It is difficult to imagine that this serene spot was, according to a western surveyor who came through, "Lake Valley, the toughest town I've ever seen. I'm satisfied a man died with his boots on every night." Population estimates vary from one thousand to four thousand for a town that was born in the 1880s and died, for all practical purposes, with the silver panic of 1893, although mining continued on a limited scale (manganese for use in WWII) into the 1940s.
Lake Valley is now owned and operated by the BLM and offers excellent walking tours. Its located about 30 minutes north of I-10 and about 30miles NE of Deming NM. The last resident of Lake valley left in 1994 and left the town abandoned, he was born there in 1901. Now maintained by the US Bureau of Land Management, the Historic Townsite is pretty much open to the public, except for some of the old structures which remain restricted due to their derelict condition. The BLM still maintains the school house for parties and high school events.
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Schoolhouse & Lizard Mountain
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Bridal Veil Mine
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Feb 11, 2020 19:16:37 #
Feb 11, 2020 19:19:09 #
Feb 11, 2020 19:19:25 #
Feb 11, 2020 19:23:29 #
kpmac wrote:
Nice series and a wonderful narrative.
Thanks kpmac, glad you enjoyed it....I can imagine how rough and desolate it was back in the 1890's, hard living.
Feb 11, 2020 19:31:40 #
Feb 11, 2020 19:34:51 #
Really nice! I've driven between Deming and Silver City several times and never heard of this place.
Feb 11, 2020 19:53:40 #
Feb 11, 2020 20:16:36 #
SWFeral
Loc: SWNM
It is a neat place, though I haven't been there for several years. I did a nice loop that began in Silver City and headed southeast, then east, then up the highway that goes through Lake Valley and back west through the Black Range (one of my favorite areas on the planet). I'm glad you visited and shared what you saw.
Feb 11, 2020 21:23:28 #
Feb 12, 2020 05:28:32 #
Feb 12, 2020 07:32:01 #
Feb 12, 2020 07:57:30 #
Thanks for narrative and pics - fires the imagination of a Brit remembering his schoolboy stories. 
Feb 12, 2020 08:02:30 #
One piece of silver valued at $7,000 (when silver sold for a mere $1.11 per ounce) was featured at the Denver Exposition of 1882. And the largest chunk ever taken from the Bridal Chamber was valued at an astonishing $80,000; that's over forty-five hundred pounds of silver at $ 1.11 per ounce.
Interesting, as the worlds largest Silver nuggett was mined from the Smuggler Mine in Aspen Colorado and weighed 1840 lbs. In 1894. It contained 93%pure silver.
Interesting, as the worlds largest Silver nuggett was mined from the Smuggler Mine in Aspen Colorado and weighed 1840 lbs. In 1894. It contained 93%pure silver.
Feb 12, 2020 08:12:03 #
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