Hey hey USA - 16th October - Lake Valley ghost town, part 1

 The old town of Lake Valley lies in a stunning location in the Black Range Mountains of Southern New Mexico. It is entirely deserted and mainly in a tumbledown state, although now it is cared for by the Bureau of Land Management who are trying to keep the buildings from deteriorating further. It is free to visit but you can make a donation.

We drove up to the old school house which had a small parking area in front of it. This is the only building which is habitable and it is used as visitor centre and museum. Here you can get a map for a self guided tour of the town.

You can see Monument Peak otherwise known as Lizard Mountain rising above the town to the east.

Following the suggested route we walked down a path through scrubland and turned right on to Main Street. This area was once the business district but it burned down in 1895 and was never rebuilt.

Silver had been found in massive quantities when the Bridal Chamber Mine was tunnelled in 1882. At that time the American Mint used silver for currency and the silver from this mine was so pure it did not need to be smelted before it was shipped. In fact the Bridal Chamber Mine produced a block of pure silver so large that it had to be broken up to extract it from the mine. The leader of the syndicate that owned the Bridal Chamber Mine, George Daly, never lived to see the riches hidden there. He was killed by the Apaches the day before the chamber was discovered. By  1883 the Bridal Chamber had yielded all her riches but other prospectors came into the area, filed claims, and many more mines were dug.

The town boomed, there were more than 4,000 people living here at one time with a school, churches, saloons and hotels to provide for them. But in 1893 the US Mint changed to a gold standard and the silver market died. By 1895 when the business district burnt (it was arson) Lake Valley was almost deserted.

On the path, the first building you get to has had various uses, in 1893 it was a school and in 1902 it was a saloon. Its last use was as a petrol station and general store which was provisioning the local rural population.

You can only imagine what it would have been like to live here in the boom town days. Blazingly hot in the summer and icy cold in the winter, there are no trees for protection, only the desert scrub. In the early days there was constant fear of attack from the Apaches who had been evicted from the land. It was also a mile's trip to obtain the nearest fresh water.

Turning right up the dirt road once known as Railroad Avenue we came to the Nowlin House. Blanche Wilson married Mr Slim Nowlin who became the railroad superinendent for Lake Valley and later the local Conoco dealer. He died in 1937 but Mrs Nowlin stayed on until her death in 1982. Every morning she would walk to Lizard Mountain by way of exercise.

Everywhere we went there was detritus under our feet, bottles, rusty cans, and some larger objects like the safe from the burnt out bank, had also been abandoned.

You could see to the north the remains of a mine and a spoil heap. This was not the Bridal Veil Mine but a manganese mine which was used briefly during the 1920's, and then through the Second World War and into the 1950's. The spoil heap is associated with this mine.

The next house along from the Nolans' is the Martinez House. It had previously been the Bella Hotel but Pedro and Sabina Martinez lived here until 1994. Mr Martinez had arrived in Lake Valley in 1904 at the age of only two years and so had lived here for 90 years, much longer than anyone else.  This was the last house to be occupied permanently.

Round the back, looks like the upturned privy!

Opposite the Martinez house is an adobe house once occupied by Judge Neil. He was judge on a coroner's court in 1921 investigating the deaths of several cowboys after a shoot out over the rights to a water well, south of Lake Valley. Lake Valley had a reputation for lawlessness. In the 1880's there was much cattle rustling from the neighbouring ranches and also stage coach robberies. Things got so bad that in 1882 gunfighter and lawman Timothy 'Long Hair' Jim Courtright was hired as the town marshall. He returned to Texas within the year and was shot dead in a gunfight and so in 1883 the Territorial Militia were drafted in to help sort out the cattle rustlers. 

Next to the Martinez house is a chapel. This is made of adobe and was built in 1920. It was originally a home before being converted to the Chapel of St Columba. It has been restored and services are still held here occasionally. We went inside were there is a wooden altar, lectern and pews.

As this is a rather extended story I will continue it in a second blog.