Silver City/Grant County, New Mexico

New Mexico Business Journal, August, 1990 by Gene Peterson

special exhibits, contemporary

Southwest artists. * March -- Gila Trappers Rendezvous * April -- Square Dance Festival; the

Great Race/Soap Box Derby * May -- Cinco de Mayo Festival;

Endurance Horse Race; Bluegrass Festival * June -- Retire Month; tour of the Gila

Bicycle Races; Senior Scramble Golf

Tournament * July -- Frontier Days Celebration (July

4); Society of Persons Born in Space;

Cowboy Poetry, gathering * August -- Professional Cowboy Rodeo;

Gila Fish and Game Show * September -- Mining Days

Celebration; Gem and Mineral Show; Men's

Golf Tournament; Mexican-American

Chamber of Commerce Fiesta; Blue-grass

Music Fiddlers Contest; Cliff-Gila-Grant

County Fair * November -- Christmas Grand

Opening * December -- Christmas Part and

Activities

Area Attractions

Many areas in and around Silver City offer unspoiled beauty to attract and delight visitors. There is an aura of timelessness about old Indian ruins; the green, cool majestic wilderness areas; the quiet ghost towns; and the old diggings long since abandoned by the lone prospectors.

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in the Gila National Forest is a unique area of cave homes used by prehistoric Indians in the area, offering a glimpse of the life and times of people who lived in the area in the 13th and 14th centuries.

The Mimbreno Indians of the Mogollon Culture, who lived in the area between 950 and 1500 in the Mimbres Valley, are remembered by their distinctive pottery. Western New Mexico University Museum houses one of the outstanding collections of ancient Mimbres artifacts in the world.

Billy The Kid, whose real name was Henry McCarty, lived in Silver City from 1873 until 1875 in a log cabin at the corner of what is now Broadway and Hudson streets.

Silver City is also near a fly-way for migrating birds, offering bird-watchers a wide variety of species to spot.

Rock hounds find a wide selection of minerals and rocks near Silver City. Although the rich silver and gold strikes of Silver City's early years are in the past, people still pan for gold in the streams in the area.

The Gila National Forest offers hiking backpacking and camping across 3.3 million acres of publicly owned forest and rangeland rising above the desert. Within the forest lies the Gila Wilderness, selected by Congress in 1924 as the world's first designated wilderness area.

The Catwalk follows the route of the old pipeline built in 1897 to carry water to the town of Graham. About a quarter mile above the parking area is the beginning of the unusual 25-foot metal causeway clinging to the sides of boulder-choked White-water Canyon. Trout enthusiasts enjoy five area lakes and the Tularosa River and San Francisco River Box. Other trout fishing areas include Willow Creek, Negrito Creek and parts of Mogollon Whitewater Creek and Bear Canyon Reservoir.

Mogollon is a town 3.5 miles north of Glenwood and nine miles east of Highway 159. There are many old buildings, miners' shacks and remains of old mines and mine dumps to explore.

Southern New Mexico is one of the few places where it is possible to hunt seven different species of game in one season within a radius of 75 miles.