Framedlight

By the time we left the church the weather really looked to be on a downturn. Black clouds were rolling in and the temperature was falling. We continued down Railway Avenue to the water towers that were used when the railway came to Lake Valley. A branch line of the Santa Fe Railroad was built to Lake Valley to serve the mines and later to provide goods for the town's merchants. The railway arrived in 1884, but by 1934 its use was so limited that the line was dismantled. We looked beyond the fence to where the line once ran. We could also see where the railroad ran up to mines There was a wooden storage type building by the railroad said to be the coal sorter. The other form of transport was the stage coach that ran between Lake valley and Hillsboro and Kingston, both mining towns to the north, and Nutt to the south. This was a much riskier form of transport, subject to attacks by bandits and the rough unmade roads it had to negotiate. At one time the stagecoach was operated and ru

 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