Bayard

George Dashiell Bayard, for whom the fort and then the town were named, was wounded at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, and died the next day. The first depot, Hall's Station, stood near the present one with a house for the station agent, O. M. Johns, and his wife; Bayard Station was little more than the depot and a homesteader's ranch house. Later, families whose houses were moved from Santa Rita as the pit swallowed it settled here. Bayard incorporated as a city on August 20, 1938.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Bayard Bayard Station was first called Hall's Station, a depot on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe, serving a tuberculosis sanatorium at nearby Fort Bayard, which was named after Brigadier General George Dashiell Bayard. A settlement grew around the depot and became Bayard when a post office opened in 1902. But people lived there long before, including the Mogollon and Mimbres people. Warm Springs Apaches introduced Spaniards to the area's abundant copper deposits by 1801, and in 1910 open -pit mining began at nearby Santa Rita, eventually consuming that town. Many of its residents-and their Santa Rita homes- moved to Bayard.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Santa Rita Copper Mine — 5.8 mi
  The copper pit east of Silver City that swallowed the town it was named for, beneath a spire of volcanic rock long said to look like a nun at prayer.
• City of Rocks State Park — 14 mi
  Pinnacles of volcanic tuff up to forty feet high standing in the grassland between Deming and Silver City, worn out of an eruption 34.9 million years ago.

More markers nearby

• Bayard — 1.5 mi
• Santa Rita Copper Mines — 2.9 mi
• Fort Bayard - 1866-1900 / Fort Bayard National Cemetery — 3.0 mi
• Ladies Auxiliary of Local 890 — 4.3 mi