All the towns on the Byway, with the exception of Gila Hot Springs near the Cliff Dwellings, were established as a result of mining activity in the area. The dramatic volcanic landscape of the Southwest contains ore bodies with high concentrations of the heavy metals gold, silver, and copper. Mineral resources range from native copper found on the surface at the Santa Rita Copper Mine (known as ‘El Cobre’ as early as 1780) to placer gold in the streams at Pinos Altos, to silver ore outcroppings at Silver City. A farmer and prospector, upon visiting silver workings in a district 50 miles from Pinos Altos in the late 1860’s, said "If that’s silver ore, boys, I know where there’s plenty of it!" And Silver City was born.
The Spanish began mining copper at Santa Rita for coinage around 1800; it was they who named the Kneeling Nun, a geological formation in the likeness of a nun in prayer above the present-day Santa Rita open pit mine. The Kneeling Nun is a key landmark distinguishing the area west of the Mimbres River. Santa Rita exists today only in the name of the pit: the town slowly disappeared to get at the heavy metals beneath it. A pullover on NM 152 allows the visitor a view of the pit where once there was a Spanish settlement complete with a fort for defense against the Apaches.
While Santa Rita ore acted as a magnet for entrepreneurs in the Spanish and fur trapper eras, Pinos Altos drew adventurers during the Civil War period. Once Fort Bayard was established in 1866 to protect Pinos Altos miners from Apache attack, the area became viable for further settlement. Santa Clara (junction of NM 152 and US 180) grew from the presence of the soldiers at Fort Bayard, becoming the first county seat. Silver City was established in 1870; Georgetown, also a silver mining town, appeared soon after.
Inevitably boom is followed by bust in mining districts. In the historic mining communities on the Byway, this cycle created various degrees of change. Georgetown died in the 1890’s, the original town site vanishing but for an extensive cemetery. Remnants of Georgetown survive in present-day Mimbres (MP4 on NM 35) where a mill once processed Georgetown ore on the bank of the Mimbres River. A brick powder magazine from that era is still visible behind the Mimbres post office. At the north end of Mimbres at the junction of NM 35 and the Georgetown Road (FR 73), stands the 1912 George Sibole store, whose antecedent operated in Georgetown. A 1912 adobe with rusting roof is highly evocative of the past and is much photographed by travelers on NM 35.
Pinos Altos was also rapidly dissolving when it was revived by a local businessman in the twentieth century; it exists today as an historic district surrounded by a small residential community appreciative of the setting and climate. While mining waned at Silver City, the town not only survived but eventually grew into the county seat, with a small university and the headquarters for the Gila National Forest. In the case of Santa Rita, the ore body on which it sat proved its undoing. It had grown from a frontier settlement to a company town, with two churches and a hospital. Shaft mining gave way to open pit mining in 1909: in the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s the town was chewed up bit by bit until the open pit mine is all that remains today. People born at the Santa Rita hospital have dubbed themselves "Society for People Born in Space": among them is the former astronaut and geologist Harrison Schmidt. Occasionally, the society holds a reunion and meets on the edge of the pit, the closest they can get to their hometown. A religious statue was removed from the Santa Rita Catholic Church (covered by over-burden in 1969) and installed at the nearby junction of NM 152 and NM 356. A roadside shrine was created around the rescued Madonna figure in a typically Hispanic fashion, and functions today as a memorial to vanished Santa Rita.
Methods of ore treatment have evolved with advancing technology. The only way known to the first Pinos Altos miners for extracting gold from ore was the arrastra method, introduced from Mexico. An arrastra was operated by a donkey or mule walking in a circle around an upright post to which was attached a wooden arm, which dragged boulders over the ore, crushing it. Near the end of the process mercury, then water, were added. The mercury bonded with the heavy gold: this amalgam was then heated in a retort which captured the gold once the mercury was separated in distillation. An arrastra site has been restored by the USDA Forest Service and a local fish and gun club just north of Pinos Altos on NM 15 (MP8).
After the arrastra came early stamp mills and reduction works. These methods required constant attention when in operation. Shaft mining in some places was supplanted by open pit mining, although both have been used in recent years. While crushing and smelting ore may continue for some time, new solvent extraction, electro-winning (SXEW) technology utilizes chemical reactions and electric current to capture copper from low grade ore. This method is currently in use at the Phelps Dodge Santa Rita and Tyrone operations.
Pinos Altos, seven miles north of Silver City on NM 15, is situated in a picturesque valley in the Pinos Altos Range. NM 15 climbs 1000 feet from Silver City to reach it. Pinos Altos attracted settlement when gold was discovered there in 1860. Gold seekers from the U.S. and Mexico quickly arrived and began mining operations using rocker cradles, washing gold out of stream gravels, and the arrastra, a primitive method of crushing ore and extracting heavy metals used in Mexico. Their hard work paid off, but because the town was located in the middle of Apache country warfare often interrupted mining activities. Some of the first arrastras were operated by Norero and Ancheta. One of the many shaft mines and stamp mills was owned by Phoebe Hearst, mother of William Randolph Hearst, who also owned the Santa Rita mine but only utilizing it for flux for recovering gold in Pinos Altos.
A unique meerschaum mine area can be found on the Byway near the junction of NM 15 and NM 35. Meerschaum, consisting of a light clay type mineral, is rare in the U.S. The meerschaum was discovered in 1875 and mining began in 1880. An estimated 2 million pounds were sent to New York to be processed into unique smoking pipes.
Mining booms have made communities here possible, yet the ore bodies do come to an end. In recent years the mining district in Grant County has experienced personnel layoffs and downsizing. New technology (SXEW) makes it possible to mine ever lower concentrations of metals, so mining continues today on the Byway, albeit in new forms.
