Silver City Bound: New Mexico

Winter is the time to consider prospects for upcoming travel destinations once spring and summer arrive.

Always on the list for prospective travel here at Under Western Skies is New Mexico.

The southwestern portion of New Mexico is less-visited than the areas near Albuquerque, Santa Fe/Taos or — in the mountains and desert of the southeast — Ruidoso, Las Cruces and Carlsbad Caverns.

I’ve given the southwest of New Mexico short shrift in this blog. Silver City and the nearby Gila Wilderness are worthwhile travel destinations.

Four hours from Albuquerque, 3 hours from Tucson, Silver City sits at 5,900 feet elevation, and is a base from which to explore the area. The old downtown preserves much of the character of the picturesque old western mining town. Here’s Bullard Street.

The tall building on the left is the town hall. You can see a view of Bullard looking north from a live camera on top of City Hall at this link.

Mining Town

Soon after the arrival of Spanish explorers, copper and then silver mining became primary businesses, hence the town’s name. The vast Santa Rita open pit copper mine still operates a dozen miles east of town on Route 152. I wrote about its intriguing history here.

Silver City was a rough-and-tumble place. It was also poorly planned. In 1895, heavy rain sent a wall of water down Main Street, parallel to Bullard, one block east. Main Street became — and remains — a 50-foot deep ravine. The buildings along the east side of Bullard once fronted on Main, but over the years they’ve been reconfigured to have their front entrances on Bullard, which is now the main street. Here it is at first light on a summer morning.

21st Century Shifts

The downtown reflects the attraction Silver City now has for artists and craftspeople, with galleries and boutiques scattered throughout the dozen or so blocks. The local Mimbres Region Arts Council sponsors numerous festivals and events throughout the year. Check their calendar at this link.

There are some local restaurants downtown, and two old theaters. The Silco opened in 1923 and has a checkered past, converting several times from theater to retail and back again. Once again a theater, it show movies in a 156-seat venue. When I was there, a number of years ago, the Silco’s exterior was unrestored, and I didn’t notice it. 311 N. Bullard St.

I did notice the Gila Theater.

Built in 1950, it’s also had its ups and downs. As the photo above shows, it had been vacant for several years when I was last in Silver City. According to Cinematreasures.org, the interior features large murals of native American scenes. The space now houses a wellness center, but I can’t attest to the condition of the murals. 413 N. Bullard St.

There’s a wide variety of architectural styles and periods in the old section of town. There are some idiosyncratic ones, like this sort-of-southwestern-adobe Art Deco.

A portion of the downtown is an official National Historic District.

There are traditionally styled Victorian and Edwardian area residences, including this one on Broadway.

Silver City is the county seat of Grant County. The courthouse is an incongruously monolithic block of severe, Streamline Moderne, built in 1930.

The Silver City Museum occupies the quirky Italianate brick H. B. Allman House of 1881.

I didn’t tour the museum. Its website suggests most of its collection focuses on the area after the arrival of the Spanish, but there are at least some artifacts from the region’s remarkable Mimbres culture (see below for the Mimbres). The museum is located at 312 W. Broadway. Closed Mondays and the four major holidays. Check the website for hours.

Also a University Town

With about 3,500 students, Western New Mexico University is a little less than a mile northwest of the Town Hall.

I highly recommend a visit to the WNMU Museum in Fleming Hall, 1000 W. College Ave. Open weekdays, but check the website. They’re just completing a major renovation as I type, due for a 2019 opening.

The museum has the world’s largest collection of pottery from the prehistoric Mimbres culture, which flourished in the Mimbres River valley near Silver City from about 1000 – 1130 c.e. They were potters of prodigious imagination and skill.

Space won’t permit me to tell a fraction of the Mimbres story, a farming and hunting culture who built large semicircular pueblo-style communities around open plazas. They were contemporary with portions of the Chaco Culture to the north, a little before the prime of the Mesa Verde cliff-house culture in Colorado.

These Mimbres wares were photographed in the University of New Mexico Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, but are representative of the Mibrenos’ brilliant work. Click on the photos for larger views:

Much of their cultural remains were destroyed by looters, making the existence of the WMNU Museum collection critically important.

There is one extant Mimbres site now open for visitors to see. I haven’t visited it, because it only opened to the public after my trip there. Here’s the website for the Mimbres Culture Heritage Site, on highway 35 east of Silver City. It’s open daily from April to November, Friday through Sunday the rest of the year, but check the website to make certain.

Daily Life

Silver City does offer a variety of retail, grocery, services, accommodations and restaurants. They’re primarily located along U.S. Route 180, northeast of downtown.

City of Rocks

I wrote previously about one local attraction, 32 miles into the rocky desert southeast of the town: City of Rocks State Park.

It’s worth a few hours’ visit. Camping and some facilities available onsite.

Into the Wild

A primary reason to stay in the Silver City area is to visit the wild, beautiful Gila National Forest, north of the town, which includes significant wilderness areas, as well as prehistoric structures at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument.

Click on this link to read my article about Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument and the surrounding Gila Wilderness.

I wrote at greater length about the Mimbres culture at this link.

Have you visited the area? What else do you suggest for visitors? Leave a comment.

© Brad Nixon 2019. Some photographs also © M. Vincent, used by kind permission. Photographs of Mimbres wares by Brad Nixon and M. Vincent, properties of University of New Mexico Maxwell Museum of Anthropology.