History of Old Hauchita
This once-thriving mining town was founded in the late 1800s and played a significant role in the development of the American Southwest.
Old Hachita got its start as a mining camp in 1875 when silver was discovered in the nearby mountains. Within a few years, the camp had grown into a bustling town with saloons, a post office, and a school. At its peak, Old Hachita boasted a population of over 2,000 people.
Despite its remote location, Old Hachita was an important hub for transportation and commerce in the region. The town was situated along the Butterfield Overland Mail route, which provided mail and passenger service between St. Louis and San Francisco. Old Hachita also served as a supply center for nearby mining camps and ranches and a stopover point for cattle drives heading north to Kansas.
However, the boom times in Old Hachita were short-lived. By the turn of the century, the town was in decline as the silver mines began to play out. Many of the town’s residents moved on to greener pastures, and by the 1920s, Old Hachita was all but abandoned.
Today, Old Hachita is a ghost town, with only a handful of buildings still standing. However, the town’s rich history and legacy live on, and it remains a fascinating window into the early days of the American Southwest. So if you’re ever in the area, stop by and explore this historic gem!
Know Before You Go
- Region: Southwest United States
- Location: Southeast New Mexico
- Coordinates: 31.91806,-108.32028
- Costs: No Fees or Permits are Required
- Schedule: No closure, but daytime is suggested
- Attraction Type: Abandoned Mine
- Additional Resources: Legends of America
My Trip Story
I met up with a good friend, Brandon, and his family for some exploring. We met close to Old Hauchita, and he led the way. Following the coordinates he had, we followed an old dirt road through a gate and into the ruins of the mine itself. We parked our Jeeps and wandered around the area. Like many ghost towns and mines, we have explored the remnants of the long-gone inhabitants, left behind trash and tools barely hanging on to recognition despite the harsh desert conditions. Many glass bottles, cans, and other metal parts lay around the now-barren desert. Several buildings and mine entrances still barely stand. We kept our distance from the mine openings as there were no safety operations near them and, instead, were just open holes in the ground.
Palaces like this make you wonder about the type of lives these people had. Living in a harsh environment with everything around them trying to kill them all for fortune and fame. There is a second part of the area that we were going to go see, which was the old town itself. The road sadly was washed out enough that neither Brandon nor I felt comfortable crossing it in our Jeeps, and did not bring the proper equipment to make it passable. He had information about a secondary road; however, the information he had seemed incomplete, and we could not piece it all together with the maps we had access to at the time. With a limited cellphone signal, we decided it was better to call it a day than to risk it, especially with it being a hot day and there was nothing out there if we were to have any issues.
We were not sure going into it what would be there. The photos we found were limited, and even the maps did not show much in the way of structures and or roads. Old Hachita is the most degraded abandoned mine we had visited. Overall, it was a fantastic day, and I enjoyed spending the day with good friends wandering around the desert.
Photos of around the Old Hachita area
