Santa Rita, New Mexico
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Santa Rita was a ghost town in Grant County in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of New Mexico. The site of the El Chino copper mine, Santa Rita is located fifteen miles east of Silver City.
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[edit] History
Copper mining in the area was begun during the Spanish colonial era (1580-1700), but it wasn’t until 1803 that Chihuahua banker and businessman, Franscisco Manuel Elguea, founded the town of Santa Rita. He named it in full, Santa Rita del Cobre (Saint Rita of the Copper), after Saint Margarita of Cascia and the existing mine. In the early 1800s the mine produced over 6 million pounds of copper annually.[1] The crudely smeltered ore was shipped to Chihuahua for further smelting and then on to Mexico City on mule back.[1] Things were relatively peaceful even with the occasional attack from the Warm Springs (Mimbres) band of the Chiricahua Apache who were located nearby in the headwaters of the Gila and Mimbres rivers. However in 1837, an American trader, James Johnson, massacred the Apaches who were attending a trade fair, which resulted in general warfare. Almost all of the 500 or so inhabitants of Santa Rita were killed, only six managed to reach Chihuahua safely.[2] The town was abandoned until the U.S. cavalry established a command post in Santa Rita in 1849, calling it Cantonment Dawson.[3]
Martin B. Hayes reopened the mine in 1873[4] after Cochise signed a treaty of peace, however, the town continued to be subject to Apache attacks from Geronimo, Victorio and other Apache warleaders until 1886 when Geronimo surrendered for the last time. A post office opened in 1881 and the coming of the railroad in the 1886 spurred further development of the mine.
After the Santa Rita mine was converted to an open pit in 1901, the town was forced to move several times as the pit grew. Just after the town was moved again in 1957, heavy rains washed boulders and mud into the new townsite.[5] The townsite was abandoned once and for all in 1967, and the school system for the area was discontinued in 1972.[6].
The population of Santa Rita was about 500 in 1884, by 1915 it was 2500, and by 1920 it had reached 6,000. [4] It stayed at about 6,000 until, in the 1950s, significant layoffs at the mine started. [4]
[edit] Famous people
Santa Rita was the birthplace of baseball Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner[7], and geologist and Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt[8].
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b New Mexico Office of Cultural Affairs (1995) "Santa Rite" Enchanted Lifeways: The history, musueums, arts & festivals of New Mexico New Mexico Magazine, Santa Fe, N.M., p. 186, ISBN 0-937206-39-3
- ^ Sinclair, John L. (2003) "Santa Rita — the town that vanished into thin air" SouthernNewMexico.com
- ^ Staff (6 August 1970) "History Students Relive Conquest of Frontier" Silver City Daily Press Section Two, p.17
- ^ a b c Cooper, James E. (1975) "Santa Rita" Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of New Mexico University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK, pp. 188-191, ISBN 0-8061-1066-X
- ^ Staff (9 August 1957) "Flood Waters Hit Mine Pit" The Albuquerque Tribune 35(105): p. 1
- ^ Walz, Kent (30 August 1972) "Local School Systems Short of Projections" Silver City Daily Press p. 1
- ^ [ http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/Kiner_Ralph.htm "Ralph Kiner" National Baseball Hall of Fame]
- ^ [www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/schmitt-hh.html "Astronaut Bio: Harrison Schmitt" NASA]
[edit] References
- Pearce, T. M. (1965) "Santa Rita" New Mexico place names; a geographical dictionary University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, p. 149, OCLC 420847
- Julyan, Robert Hixson (1998) "Santa Rita" The place names of New Mexico (2nd ed.) University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, p. 326, ISBN 0-8263-1688-3
[edit] External links
- Sinclair, John L. (2003) "Santa Rita — the town that vanished into thin air" SouthernNewMexico.com
- "Santarita" Ghost Towns and History of the American West
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