Mogollon is one of those exciting ghost towns that has
refused to die. Silver, gold and copper boomed it into a roaring
settlement of saloons, gambling halls and pleasure places.
Miners' tents and cabins filled the deep canyons and wandered
up rocky hillsides. It all started when the new s of Jim Cooney's
rich strike flooded the fortune-hunting territory of New Mexico. By
the late 1880' s ore-loaded freight wagons were clattering over
the narrow stage road to Silver City eighty miles away.
No one knows just how much wealth came out of Mogollon,
but during a ten-year period, the district produced over $5, 000,
000 in copper and gold. Some of the big producing mines here
wore such colorful names as the Bloomer Girl, Little Charlie, the
Maud S, the Last Chance and the Leap Year.
Mogollon had its whiskey-fired shootings, its feuds and claim-
jumpings. It had schools and churches and solid citizens. It had
Indian trouble, for it lay in the heart of the Apache hunting
grounds. But most of all it had the fabulous mountains.
Today, you walk the ghost streets of a Mogollon that lies in
the silence of a dead now. Wind-wrinkled paths lure you by
broken- windowed houses S Daggle-toothed chimneys stand cold
and lone- some in brush-grown yards. The weary streets are
hummocked by foundations that remind you of passing through a
graveyard. Perhaps, you'll see more burros here than people, for
the town's permanent population is only ten. No hotels, TV or
super markets.
Mogollon's charm lies in its magnificent mountain setting.
Pine, and spruce and fir forest this primitive land of fishing
streams and quiet valleys. Bear, deer and elk stray into town from
the near-by Gila Wilderness Area.
Right now, tourists are "discovering" Mogollon and the old mines.
These visitors shoot with cameras instead of six-guns. Trout are
caught instead of horse thieves and claim-jumpers.
To reach Mogollon turn off US Highway 260 five miles north of
Glenwood onto State Highway 78. Your destination is eight
scenery- filled miles away.
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