Silver City

Silver City's main street is a ditch. By 1895 the hills around town had been grazed nearly bare, and on the night of July 21 a flood came down in a wave twelve feet high and three hundred feet wide, carrying away half the business district and cutting Main Street as much as 55 feet below its old grade. The merchants turned their buildings around to face Bullard Street, whose reversed odd and even addresses still show it. Another flood in 1902 deepened the gulch, which served as a dump before becoming Big Ditch Park.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Silver City Population 9,887 - Elevation 5,895 Silver City is located in the midst of rich mineral deposits. The Santa Rita Copper Mines, opened in 1805, were the second such mines operating in what is now the U.S. A silver strike in 1870 began the commercial mining for which the area is still known. The Apache chiefs Victorio, Gerónimo, and Mangas Coloradas figure in its history.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Santa Rita Copper Mine — 13 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 — 22 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

• Anita Scott Coleman — 0.9 mi
• Old Silver City Cemetery — 1.6 mi
• Pinos Altos — 6.5 mi
• Fort Bayard - 1866-1900 / Fort Bayard National Cemetery — 7.6 mi