The Baldy Mining District was one of the largest gold producing districts in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

. Also sometimes known as the Elizabethtown Mining District, it encompasses

Baldy Mountain (Colfax County, New Mexico) Baldy Mountain (official name), Baldy Peak, Mount Baldy, or Old Baldy is the highest peak in the Cimarron Range, a subrange of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. It is located in Colfax County, about northeast of Eagle Nest. It rise ...

.McLemore, V.T., 2017, Mining districts and prospect areas of New Mexico: New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Resource Map 24, 65 p., scale 1:1,000,000. There is no longer any large scale mining. Most of the land is now owned by the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...

as a part of

Philmont Scout Ranch Philmont Scout Ranch is a ranch located in Colfax County, New Mexico, near the village of Cimarron; it covers of wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the east side of the Cimarron Range of the Rocky Mountains. Donated by oil baro ...

. The Baldy Mining District is approximately 18,247 Acres.

History

Gold was originally found on Baldy Mountain in 1866. Early in the year of 1866, Native Americans (either from the

Ute Ute or UTE may refer to: * Ute (band), an Australian jazz group * Ute (given name) * ''Ute'' (sponge), a sponge genus * Ute (vehicle), an Australian and New Zealand term for certain utility vehicles * Ute, Iowa, a city in Monona County along ...

Jicarilla Apache Jicarilla Apache (, Jicarilla language: Jicarilla Dindéi), one of several loosely organized autonomous bands of the Eastern Apache, refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Athab ...

tribes) found a large deposit of copper bearing ores. They traded these ores with soldiers at Fort Union. With the

Civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

over, the soldiers decided that they could mine the copper for profit. One of the Native Americans showed a soldier where they had found the copper, on

Baldy Mountain There are a number of peaks named Baldy: Canada *Baldy Mountain (Manitoba), , *Big Baldy Mountain (Vancouver Island, British Columbia) Big Baldy Mountain is a mountain on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, located west of Gold River ...

, and the soldier staked a claim. Known as the "Mystic Lode" or just the "Copper Mine", this was the first mine in the Baldy Mining District. In October of that same year, three soldiers from Fort Union, Larry Bronson, Pete Kinsinger, and a soldier called Kelley were sent to the mine to continue work. When the men arrived at the mine, Bronson and Kinsinger cooked a meal while Kelley decided to pan for gold. Kelley found gold in the gravel, showed the others, and they all began searching for more. They spent a few days scouring the slopes for gold. They determined that although this gold was worth pursuing, winter was approaching and mining operations could not continue. They left the mountain with plans to keep the gold a secret and return in the spring. The secret spread within weeks and the gold rush on Baldy had started.

Towns

Elizabethtown

''Main Article: Elizabethtown'' Elizabethtown, also known as E-Town, was the first mining town established in the Baldy Mining District. Located at , it was established in 1866 along with the opening of local mines. Elizabethtown was the first incorporated town in New Mexico and once held the Colfax County seat. Growing and shrinking along with the booms and busts of the Baldy Mining District, the town was mostly abandoned by 1917.

Baldy Town

''Main Article: Baldy Town'' Baldy Town (1868-1941) was a small mining town which serviced a majority of operations on the east side of

Virginia City

In 1868,

Lucien Maxwell Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell (September 14, 1818 – July 25, 1875) was a mountain man, rancher, scout, and farmer who at one point owned more than . Along with Thomas Catron and Ted Turner, Maxwell was one of the largest private landowners in Uni ...

laid the groundwork for a prominent town in Moreno Valley which would serve as a hub of trade, transit, communication, supplies, commercial and industrial activity for mining operations in the Baldy Mining District. He named the prospective city after his daughter, Virginia. Although the town had investments, surveys, and plot allocation, it was never populated and abandoned immediately.

Mines

The mines in the Baldy Mining District produced mainly gold, silver, and copper.

References

{{reflist

External links

USGS Online Data
* High quality paper on the Baldy Mining District
Boom and Bust on Baldy Mountain
Geography of Colfax County, New Mexico Gold mines in the United States Mining in New Mexico Mining districts in North America