Abandoned Towns
A low adobe building with a rusted metal roof and a sagging porch behind a broken picket fence

Silver mining town

Lake Valley

A silver town made famous by the Bridal Chamber, a cave of nearly pure silver. The 1893 crash and an 1895 fire ended the boom, manganese kept a few people on, and the last two residents left in 1994. The BLM now keeps it as a historic townsite.

32°43′04″N 107°34′04″W · ≈5,380 ft

Photo: Plazak, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Overview

The Bridal Chamber town

Lake Valley's main street with the Pioneer Store, about 1890
Lake Valley's main street with the Pioneer Store, about 1890 · Photo: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Lake Valley sits along NM 27 in the dry hills of southern Sierra County, about 17 miles south of Hillsboro. Silver turned up near a ranch here in the late 1870s. Wikipedia dates the find to 1876; another account names George Lufkin and dates it to August 1878. In 1881 or 1882 miners broke into the Bridal Chamber, a hollow in the rock lined with silver so rich that it yielded about 2.5 million troy ounces before it was worked out in 1883.

The town moved twice before it settled on its present site in 1882. At its height, by the BLM's count, it had about 4,000 people, a smelter, a stamp mill, three churches, a school and two weekly newspapers, and a railroad branch arrived in 1884. Apache raids were a real danger in the early years. In 1881 a posse of Lake Valley miners was ambushed while chasing Apaches who had raided Hillsboro.

The silver crash of 1893 took the money out of the town, and on June 1, 1895, a fire burned much of the business district. It was never rebuilt. An insurance map in 1902 counted 150 people and no business buildings. Manganese mining kept a small community going into the 1950s, and the post office closed in 1955. The last residents, Pedro and Savina Martinez, left in August 1994.

Video

A winter Saturday at the schoolhouse and on the trail

Two visitors drive up from Las Cruces on a winter Saturday. Inside the schoolhouse museum they look over the rows of desks, children's drawings and an old pump organ whose placard says it came from the town chapel. Outside they follow the walking trail past wooden cabins, rusted cars and engines, interpretive signs and buildings screened with wire mesh, looking in through the openings. The video doesn't give a filming date beyond winter. The driving chat calls the state roads "I 26" and "I 27"; they are NM 26 and NM 27.

Play “Lake Valley Historic Townsite, NM” from YouTube
“Lake Valley Historic Townsite, NM”, by High Desert Days on YouTube. The player loads from YouTube when you press play.

Timeline

Silver, fire and manganese

  1. Silver is found near a ranch. Wikipedia says a rancher found it in 1876 and sold his claims about two years later; another account names George Lufkin and dates the find to August 1878.
  2. Promoters George D. Roberts and Whitaker Wright split the property among five companies. Miners from Lake Valley chasing Apaches who had raided Hillsboro ride into an ambush.
  3. Miners break into the Bridal Chamber, a hollow lined with silver. The BLM dates it to 1881; one account dates it to 1882.
  4. The town settles at its present site after two moves. A post office opens. "Longhair" Jim Courtright is hired as the town's lawman: marshal by the BLM's account, sheriff by Wikipedia's.
  5. The Bridal Chamber is worked out, after about 2.5 million troy ounces of silver.
  6. A railroad branch reaches Lake Valley.
  7. About 4,000 people, a smelter, a stamp mill, three churches, a school and two weekly newspapers, by the BLM's count.
  8. The silver price collapses.
  9. Fire destroys much of the business district. It is not rebuilt.
  10. An insurance map records no business buildings and 150 people.
  11. The schoolhouse is built.
  12. Manganese mining, from 1901 by the BLM's account and again during World War II by Wikipedia's, keeps a few people on into the 1950s. Silver output to 1931 totals about 5.8 million ounces.
  13. The post office closes (Wikipedia; another account gives 1954).
  14. The last residents, Pedro and Savina Martinez, leave.
  15. The BLM describes the site as open and free, with on-site hosts, a restored schoolhouse and chapel, and about 10,000 visitors a year.
  16. A visit video shows the schoolhouse museum open and the walking trail in use.

What's left

Walking the townsite

Rows of desks inside the restored schoolhouse, May 2011
Rows of desks inside the restored schoolhouse, May 2011 · Photo: Bureau of Land Management, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
The restored chapel, March 2008
The restored chapel, March 2008 · Photo: Bureau of Land Management, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Most of the townsite stayed federal land because the town was never incorporated, and the BLM took over its care. Part of it is privately owned. The BLM has restored the schoolhouse, built in 1904 and now a small museum, and the Saint Columba Episcopal Chapel, a house built in 1920 and later used as a chapel. Other buildings are stabilized but not restored, among them the Kiel house, the Beals home and office and the former Bella Hotel. Along the trails are water towers, a coal sorter, a 1930s car, mining equipment and scraps of glass, metal and toys.

The BLM's self-guided walking tour takes about 45 minutes, and a 2014 New Mexico Magazine article suggests allowing one to two hours. Collecting artifacts and metal detecting are not allowed, and some buildings are private property. The mines in the low hills north of town, the Bridal Chamber among them, are on private land, by the same 2014 article. The cemetery is on the hill south of town, and the article says former residents still choose to be buried there.

The BLM's February 2025 article describes the site as open and free with on-site hosts. A visit video posted February 1, 2026, the newest dated report we found, shows the schoolhouse museum open on a winter Saturday and visitors on the walking trail. The BLM's visitor page lists a toilet near the schoolhouse and drinking water.

  • Restored schoolhouse (1904), now a museum
  • Restored Saint Columba Episcopal Chapel (built 1920 as a house)
  • Stabilized Kiel house, Beals home and office, and the former Bella Hotel
  • Water towers, a coal sorter and mining equipment
  • Cemetery on the hill south of town
USGS topographic map of the Lake Valley townsite and surrounding hills
USGS The National Map, topo. The townsite and the roads around it, in rolling desert hills.
Aerial view of scattered buildings and dirt tracks in brown desert
Aerial imagery, same area. Scattered buildings, tracks and mine scars in the desert.

The 1962 and 1989 Lake Valley sheets in the historic maps below mark the Bridal Chamber Mine and a cluster of mine shafts just northwest of town, Apache Hill to the north and Town Mountain to the west, Monument Peak to the east, the cemetery to the south, and the old railroad grade running off to the southeast.

Historic maps

Lake Valley on USGS maps, 1955–1989

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Lake Valley, 1955
Las Cruces sheet, 1955, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Hatch is the closest town with services. Both routes go west from Hatch on NM 26 and north on NM 27, part of the Lake Valley Back Country Byway, and end at the townsite on Lake Valley School Road. The BLM also gives a northern approach, west from Caballo Lake on NM 152 and south on NM 27, and says the townsite is about 12 miles north of Nutt on NM 27. The routes were computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us.

USGS topographic map from Hatch west along NM 26 and north on NM 27 to Lake Valley, with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Hatch32.0 miabout 52 min
  1. From downtown Hatch, follow West Hall Street onto NM 26 and continue west on NM 26 to Nutt.18.8 mi
  2. Turn right on NM 27 and go north.12.8 mi
  3. Turn onto Lake Valley School Road to the townsite.0.3 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The road rating is 2WD. A 2016 BLM description of the Lake Valley Back Country Byway calls it a 48-mile drive on paved roads past the townsite.
  • The townsite is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays; the BLM lists 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the other days.
  • Some buildings in Lake Valley are private. Collecting artifacts and metal detecting are not allowed.
  • Hillsboro is about 17 miles north on NM 27.

Photos

Lake Valley in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Lake Valley?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Silver mining

More silver mining ghost towns

The nearest in New Mexico.

The Stratford Hotel at Shakespeare in 2023, a stone and adobe building with a rusting tin roof and a dormer windowGuide

Shakespeare

32.33, -108.74

Hidalgo County, New Mexico

A stage stop that became a silver camp, then a ranch. The Hill family and their relatives have kept its buildings since 1935, and you see them on a…

Guided toursSilver mining
Mogollon's main street in 2008: the stuccoed J.P. Holland General Store at left, a stone building and a museum sign at right, and forested slopes beyondGuide

Mogollon

33.40, -108.79

Catron County, New Mexico

A gold and silver camp of about 2,000 people in 1909, strung along a narrow canyon in the Gila country. A few caretakers live there, and a cafe, a…

A few residentsSilver mining

All 69 silver mining ghost towns →

Nearby

Other sites near Lake Valley

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our New Mexico index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Lake Valley, Sierra County, New Mexico", retrieved October 2026: the 1876 find, the Bridal Chamber's 2.5 million ounces and 1883 exhaustion, Roberts and Wright, the 1881 ambush, the 1884 railroad, 5.8 million ounces to 1931, manganese into the 1950s, the 1882–1955 post office, Courtright as sheriff, private and BLM land, Tuesday and Wednesday closure, 17 miles south of Hillsboro, coordinates.
  2. Wikidata, Lake Valley (Q6478225): the same coordinates, imported from English Wikipedia.
  3. Bureau of Land Management, "Lake Valley Historic Townsite", read October 29, 2026: Thursday to Monday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., no fee, toilet and water, restored schoolhouse and chapel, stabilized buildings, walking tour, both approaches, phone.
  4. Derrick Henry, BLM, "A former boomtown's second life as storyteller in New Mexico", February 6, 2025: the 1881 Bridal Chamber, 4,000 people, the 1884 railroad, the June 1, 1895 fire, Courtright as town marshal in 1882, the 1902 map, manganese from 1901, the Martinezes in August 1994, the chapel and named buildings, the 45-minute tour, no collecting or metal detecting, hosts, 10,000 visitors.
  5. David Pike, "The Ghost Whisperer", New Mexico Magazine, October 17, 2014 (updated October 31, 2017): federal land because the town was never incorporated, the mines north of town on private land, the schoolhouse museum, the cemetery south of town, one to two hours.
  6. ghosttowns.com, "Lake Valley": road, climate, best time, Lufkin and the 1878 find, the 1882 date for the Chamber, the town's two moves, the 1904 schoolhouse, the 1954 post office date.
  7. Photos on Wikimedia Commons: Bureau of Land Management, dated March 21, 2008 and May 31, 2011 by camera metadata; Plazak, June 10, 2010; BLM "mypubliclands" byway photo of July 9, 2016, whose description calls the byway a 48-mile drive on paved roads; a street scene of about 1890 and Henry A. Schmidt's 1890s photos, public domain by age.
  8. High Desert Days, "Lake Valley Historic Townsite, NM", YouTube, posted February 1, 2026: the schoolhouse museum open, the walking trail, cabins and signs (the video on this page).
  9. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

  • A wooden cabin among dry grass and rusted scraps, March 2008: Bureau of Land Management, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • A stone building with a flagpole, March 2008: Bureau of Land Management, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • The restored chapel, March 2008: Bureau of Land Management, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Inside the restored schoolhouse, May 2011: Bureau of Land Management, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Stone walls of a ruined building, March 2008: Bureau of Land Management, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • A white building seen through a window in a stone ruin, March 2008: Bureau of Land Management, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Concrete and stone ruins below the hills, with sheds on the slope behind, May 2011: Bureau of Land Management, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • A rusted 1930s sedan in the brush, March 2008: Bureau of Land Management, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • A leaning wooden shed and old machinery, March 2008: Bureau of Land Management, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Two water tanks on a wooden stand, March 2008: Bureau of Land Management, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • The former Bella Hotel, June 2010: Plazak, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
  • Buildings at sunset on the Lake Valley Back Country Byway, a BLM photo of July 2016: mypubliclands, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Main street with the Pioneer Store, about 1890: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • A Lake Valley mine and the town below it, photographed by Henry A. Schmidt in the 1890s: [Schmidt, Henry A.], Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Headframe and mine buildings at Lake Valley, Henry A. Schmidt, 1890s: [Schmidt, Henry A.], Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  • Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
  • Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Las Cruces 1955, 1:250,000; Lake Valley 1962, 1:62,500; Lake Valley 1989, 1:24,000.