Francisco de la O to James Wiley Magoffin, Hacienda de la Rosalía, 23 March 1861, Magoffin Home, I3-14a. Translation by Rick Hendricks Hacienda de Santa Rosalía, 23 March 1861 Don Santiago Magoffin Fort Bliss My dear sir of my particular appreciation and respect, I have received…
The town of Cerrillos was founded in 1879 as a mining camp. The Cerrillos Hills mining district, now an historic park, has a unique tri-cultural history of mining dating back to 1000 AD. Cerrillos, New Mexico and Mining in the Cerrillos Hills by Emmy Levitas The prospect and practice…
By Rick Hendricks Beginnings The history of copper mining in southern New Mexico always brings to mind Santa Rita del Cobre and later the Chino mine. What is less well known is that another mine located some four miles north of Santa Rita actually out-produced the more famous mine…
By Jamie Bronstein, Ph.D. The economy of New Mexico has long centered on the state’s natural resources: empty spaces that can be used for military testing, vast tracts suitable for ranchland, natural features that attract tourists, and the extractive industries. While the benefits, for a relatively poor state, of…
by Traci Brynne Voyles Beginning in the 1930s with the Navajo Soil Erosion Control Project, Navajo land and people became the subjects of intense federal scrutiny; in subsequent decades, this project and others such as those run under the Defense Minerals Procurement Agency and the Atomic Energy Commission catalyzed…
Mt. Chalchihuitl is the largest known prehistoric turquoise mine in North America, with turquoise artifacts found from the site dating from around 1000 AD. Native miners excavated thousands of tons of waste rock at Mt. Chalchihuitl before Spanish invasion in the 16th century. Archeologists have recovered cultural materials at…
Mt. Chalchihuitl; Turquoise Mining in North America Mt. Chalchihuitl is the largest known prehistoric turquoise mine in North America, with turquoise artifacts found from the site dating from around 1000 AD. Native miners excavated thousands of tons of waste rock at Mt. Chalchihuitl before Spanish invasion in the 16th…
By John P. Conron As the tracks crept ever nearer to the New Mexico border throughout the 1860s and 1870s, the conflicts among entrepreneurs and builders grew more influential in the affairs of New Mexico. The upright Boston capitalists, who backed the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Rail Road,…
lime, plaster; Use of Lime in Colonial New Mexico; Documentary Evidence for Lime Kilns in El Paso An Essay by Rick Hendricks, PhD Background One of the earliest recorded uses of whitewash or plaster in New Mexico dates from 1583. In Diego Pérez de Luján's account of the…
Christmas, Pretty Sam, mining, miners; Kingston Christmas Audio file "Centennial Journeys" radio program 2012 Claude Stephenson, State Folklorist, Department of Cultural Affairs Rick Hendricks, State Historian, State Records Center and Archives Pretty Sam planned the biggest Christmas celebration the mining town of Kingston ever saw. He didn't disappoint.
