Separ is an unincorporated desert

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

Grant County Grant County may refer to: Places ;Australia * County of Grant, Victoria ;United States * Grant County, Arkansas * Grant County, Indiana * Grant County, Kansas *Grant County, Kentucky Grant County is a county located in the northern pa ...

in the ''bootheel'' of southwestern

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, in the southwestern United States. Although it is called a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

by some on the internet, it currently has a small population.Julyan, Robert (1998) "Separ" ''The Place Names of New Mexico'' (revised edition) University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, page 331, . Separ lies in the

endorheic An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

Guzmán Basin; as a result the

continental divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

passes both to the west and east of it. Located alongside the tracks of the

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

, it flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century as a watering station and livestock transfer point. Separ is located alongside

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

, about southeast of Lordsburg and west of Deming. Today it is a "service point for truck and car traffic".

History

Separ was a watering and overnight stop on the

Janos Trail The Janos Trail was a trade route from the mountains of southern New Mexico to Janos, Chihuahua. It was the main route for copper ore from Santa Rita del Cobre to the smelters in Chihuahua. History The route of the Janos Trail follows an old ...

, which conveyed copper ore south to smelters in Chihuahua and mining equipment and trade goods north to the copper mines. It was originally called Sepas.Pearce, T. M. (1965) "Separ" ''New Mexico place names; a geographical dictionary'' University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, page 153, . When the railroad came through in the 1880s, it became a loading station for cattle. At about 8:00 pm, on July 20, 1896, the

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them. ...

Black Jack Christian Black Jack Christian, aka 202, or Ed Williams, (September 5, 1871 – April 28, 1897) was an outlaw of the Old West. He was a leader of a group known as the High Fives, which operated mostly in New Mexico Territory. Early life He was born William ...

and his High Five Gang robbed a

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

in Separ belonging to John D. Weems. Bob Hayes and Bob Christian probably waited outside to watch the horses and keep a lookout while Black Jack, George Musgrave and Code Young went in with masks over their faces. The bandits took about $250 in cash and merchandise, including a large

Navajo blanket The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (10 ...

, six wool blankets, three boxes of

cigar A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and Fermentation, fermented tobacco leaves made to be Tobacco smoking, smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct comp ...

s, and some whiskey. They also robbed the post office next door. A couple of months later, deputies eventually found the Navajo blanket at a residence in the foothills of the

Chiricahua Mountains The Chiricahua Mountains massif is a large mountain range in southeastern Arizona which is part of the Basin and Range province of the west and southwestern United States and northwest Mexico; the range is part of the Coronado National Forest. T ...

. It had been given away by Code Young. In March 1905, George and Edwin Gates, two infamous outlaws, were killed in Separ.Burton, Jeffrey (2009) ''The deadliest outlaws: the Ketchum gang and the Wild Bunch'' (second edition) University of North Texas Press, Denton, Texas
page 450
.

Notes

External links

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in New Mexico Ghost towns in New Mexico Unincorporated communities in Grant County, New Mexico