Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of the White Oaks townsite: a few roads and scattered buildings in a valley among brushy hills

Gold mining town

White Oaks

A gold town of a few thousand people that refused the railroad's terms and lost it to Carrizozo. A few residents remain among its brick and stone buildings.

33°44′59″N 105°44′14″W · ≈6,320 ft

Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain). See the photographs in the gallery below.

Living hamlet

A few people still live in White Oaks, and the No Scum Allowed Saloon was still serving when Islands magazine described the town in May 2025. NM 349 runs through town, so you can see the old buildings from the road. Most buildings are private; don't enter them or go past fences.

Overview

The town that turned down the railroad

A two-story stone commercial building with a white wooden front, part of the historic district, 2009
A two-story stone commercial building with a white wooden front, part of the historic district, 2009 · Photo: Plazak, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Prospectors found gold in the Jicarilla Mountains in the late 1870s. Wikipedia credits John J. Baxter, a California forty-niner. Legends of America says a man named John Wilson found it first and left it to Jack Winters and Harry Baxter. Within a year there was a tent camp by a stream lined with white oaks. A post office opened in 1880. Baxter and his partner Winters sold the Homestake and South Homestake claims for $300,000 each, and the Old Abe became the big mine. By 1890 more than 2,000 people lived here, with about 50 businesses, four newspapers, an opera house, a bank and plenty of saloons. Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett both knew the town.

In the late 1890s two railroads planned lines toward White Oaks. The town's businessmen wouldn't give the concessions the railroad wanted, so the tracks went through Carrizozo, 12 miles west. As the mines played out, people followed the railroad. By 1910 about 200 remained.

White Oaks never quite emptied. A few people still live there among the survivors: Brown's Store, the 1893 Hoyle House, the 1895 brick schoolhouse and the No Scum Allowed Saloon.

Timeline

Boom, bypass and a long fade

White Oaks on the 1973 USGS White Oaks South sheet, with NM 349, a mine and the Cedarvale Cemetery
White Oaks on the 1973 USGS White Oaks South sheet, with NM 349, a mine and the Cedarvale Cemetery · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
  1. Prospectors find gold in the Jicarilla Mountains, on what becomes Baxter Mountain. Accounts differ on who found it first. Within a year a tent camp stands by a stream lined with white oaks.
  2. A post office opens. The July census counts about 800 people.
  3. Baxter and a prospector named Winters sell the Homestake and South Homestake claims for $300,000 each. The Old Abe becomes the largest mine.
  4. Starr's Opera House is finished.
  5. The town passes 2,000 people. Accounts put the peak at 2,500 to 4,000.
  6. The Hoyle House is built.
  7. The brick schoolhouse is built.
  8. The Santa Fe and the El Paso and Northeastern both plan lines toward White Oaks. Local businesses won't make the concessions asked, and the railroad builds through Carrizozo, 12 miles west, instead.
  9. About 200 people remain.
  10. Susan McSween Barber, the "Cattle Queen of New Mexico," dies. She had moved to White Oaks and is buried in its old cemetery.
  11. The White Oaks Historic District is listed on the National Register.

Legend and record

Hoyle's Folly

Watt Hoyle, an owner of the Old Abe mine, built a two-story Victorian brick house in 1893. The story told about it is that he built it for a fiancée who refused to come to White Oaks, which is why it was called Hoyle's Folly. Legends of America tells the story; we haven't seen a record of the bride. It adds that Hoyle lived in the house with his older brother and sister-in-law before moving to Denver in the 1890s.

The National Register district covers about 1,822 acres, but only six buildings were sound enough to count as contributing.

What's left

What you'll see

Brown's Store (1893), the Hoyle House and the 1895 brick schoolhouse, which closed in 1947, still stand. Islands magazine (May 2025) lists the White Oaks Schoolhouse Museum and the White Oaks Miner's Home Museum as self-guided stops. The No Scum Allowed Saloon is the one old saloon still serving. Susan McSween Barber and Governor William McDonald are buried in the old cemetery. An unpaved, well-kept forest road leads on northwest to the ghost towns of Jicarilla and Ancho.

The historic maps below show the mines around the town. The 1955 sheet marks abandoned workings on Baxter Mountain and in White Oaks Canyon, the 1973 sheet a mine beside NM 349 and the Cedarvale Cemetery, and the 1981 sheet mines on Baxter Mountain.

  • Brown's Store
  • Hoyle House (1893)
  • Brick schoolhouse (1895)
  • No Scum Allowed Saloon
  • Cemetery
USGS topographic map of White Oaks with White Oaks Road and Jicarilla Road
USGS The National Map, topo. White Oaks Road runs through town. Jicarilla Road leaves to the north, and White Oaks Draw lies to the west.
Aerial view of White Oaks: scattered buildings along a road through scrub-dotted hills
Aerial imagery, same area. The scattered buildings of the townsite.

Historic maps

White Oaks on USGS maps, 1934–1981

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 White Oaks, 1934
Capitan sheet, 1934, 1:48,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Day trip

Plan a day trip to White Oaks from Carrizozo

Take it with you

Day trip itinerary

The essentials, the sample day with boxes to tick, what to photograph and the coordinates, on two printable pages. Handy where there's no signal.

Download the PDF (445 KB)

White Oaks is under half an hour from Carrizozo, and a weekend afternoon covers it: a slow look at the old brick buildings from NM 349, then lunch at the No Scum Allowed Saloon. People live here and most buildings are private, so the town is seen from the road. Come Saturday or Sunday, when the saloon serves food.

A sample day

  1. Leave Carrizozo north on US 54, then turn right on County Road A044, which becomes NM 349, about 25 minutes.
  2. Drive slowly through town. Look for Brown's Store, the 1893 Hoyle House and the 1895 brick schoolhouse from the road.
  3. Lunch at the No Scum Allowed Saloon, in a building of 1884.
  4. Head back down NM 349 to Carrizozo.

Coming from Albuquerque? It's about 3 hours 15 minutes by I-25 and US 380, so leave by 8:45 a.m. for a noon arrival.

What to photograph and film

  • The Hoyle House. The two-story Victorian brick house of 1893, by legend built for a bride who never came. Use a long lens from the road.
  • The schoolhouse. Brick, built in 1895 and closed in 1947. Shoot it from the road.
  • The saloon. Shoot the front from the road, and ask before photographing people inside.
  • Drones. No source addresses them. People live here, so don't fly over homes.

Map & directions

Getting there

Carrizozo is the closest town, 12 miles away. Head north out of town on US 54 and turn right onto NM 349, which runs into White Oaks. An undated listing rates the road 2WD.

USGS topographic map between Carrizozo and White Oaks 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 central Carrizozo12.0 miabout 26 min
  1. From central Carrizozo, take Central Avenue (US 54) north.3.7 mi
  2. Turn right on County Road A044, which becomes NM 349, into White Oaks.8.2 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • People still live in White Oaks. Treat the buildings as private and stay on the road unless a business is open.
  • The forest road northwest to Jicarilla and Ancho is unpaved.

Photos

White Oaks in photos

Visitor reports

Been to White Oaks?

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.

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Nearby

Other sites near White Oaks

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "White Oaks": fact sheet fields (road, climate, best time, remains).
  2. Wikipedia, "White Oaks, New Mexico", retrieved October 2026: Baxter, claims, 1880 census, post office, opera house, businesses and newspapers, peak of 4,000, the two railroads, National Register date, acreage and contributing buildings, saloon, burials, NM 349.
  3. Legends of America, "White Oaks: The Liveliest Town in the Territory," updated November 2025, with notes from a 2008 visit: 1890 and peak population, production, Old Abe, 1910 population, Brown's Store, schoolhouse, Hoyle House story, remaining residents, road to Jicarilla and Ancho.
  4. Emily Frantz, "A Mostly Abandoned Gold Rush Town In New Mexico Is Home To One Of America's Top Ten Cowboy Bars," Islands, May 28, 2025: a few residents, the saloon operating, the schoolhouse and miner's home museums.
  5. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.
  6. No Scum Allowed Saloon, official site, read October 21, 2026: hours, food hours, full bar, special-request openings, address and phone, the 1884 building. It shows no date.

Photo and map credits