Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
341
Way Beyond Silver
Silver City has become an artists' mecca, as creative people retreat to the small
town for the peace it offers. You can spend a fun day wandering the streets.
Some of my favorite shops and galleries include
Silver City Trading Company's
Antique Mall,
205 W. Broadway (
&
575/388-8989
), which is packed with a
range of items, from fun junk to Western antiques.
Copper Quail Gallery,
211-A
N. Texas St. (
&
575/388-2646
), offers wonderful regional paintings and pottery.
Imaginative fiber art adorns the walls at
Yello on Yankee,
108 W. Yankie St.
(
&
575/534-4968;
www.susanszajer.com). Meanwhile
Elemental Arts,
106 W.
Yankie St. (
&
575/590-7554;
www.gourdweb.com), offers fabulous folk art,
much of it made out of gourds, by Valerie M. Milner. Also look for oil paintings
here by Chris Alvarez.
Hudson St.) in 1875 at the age of 15, after being convicted of stealing from a Chinese
laundry, but he escaped—a first for the Kid. The grave of Bonney's mother, Catherine
McCarty, is in Silver City Cemetery, east of town on Memory Lane, off US 180. She died
of tuberculosis about a year after the family moved here in 1873.
Silver City Museum
This very well-presented museum of city and regional his-
tory contains collections relating to southwestern New Mexico history, mining, Native
American pottery, and early photographs. Exhibits include a southwestern New Mexico
history timeline, a parlor displaying Victorian decorative arts, and a chronicle of com-
merce in early Silver City. A local history research library is available to visitors also. The
main gallery features changing exhibits. The museum is lodged in the 1881 H. B. Ailman
House, a former city hall and fire station, remarkable for its cupola and Victorian man-
sard roof. Ailman came to Silver City penniless in 1871, made a fortune in mining, and
went on to start the Meredith and Ailman Bank. Guided historic district walking tours
are offered on Memorial Day and Labor Day. There's also a museum store. Take a fun
trip up into the cupola for a nice view of the city.
312 W. Broadway.
&
575/538-5921.
Fax 575/388-1096. Free admission. Tues-Fri 9am-4:30pm; Sat-Sun
10am-4pm. Closed Mon except Memorial Day and Labor Day.
11
EXPLORING THE AREA
NORTH OF SILVER CITY
The virtual ghost town of
Pinos Altos
, straddling the
Continental Divide, is 6 miles north of Silver City on NM 15. Dubbed “Tall Pines”
when it was founded in the gold- and silver-rush eras, Apache attacks and mine failures
took their toll.
The adobe
Methodist-Episcopal Church
was built with William Randolph Hearst's
money in 1898 and now houses the Grant County Art Guild. The town also has the
Log
Cabin Curio Shop and Museum,
set in an 1866 cabin (
&
575/388-1882
), and the
Buckhorn Saloon and Opera House
(see below).
SOUTH OF SILVER CITY
City of Rocks State Park
(
&
575/536-2800
), 25 miles
from Silver City via US 180 and NM 61, is an area of fantastically shaped volcanic rock
formations, formed in ancient times from thick blankets of ash that hardened into tuff.
This soft stone, eroded by wind and rain, was shaped into monolithic blocks reminiscent
of Stonehenge. For some, the park resembles a medieval village; for others, it's a collection
