Its been said that third time's a charm and yesterday was ours. We finally found the ghost town of Lake Valley open and had time for a nice walking tour.
Lake Valley was a typical silver mining town. Silver was first found there in 1878 but the big boom started in 1882 with the discovery of the Bridal Chamber just 40 ft beneath the surface. A single piece of silver from this mine was displayed at the World Exposition held in Denver in 1882. It was valued at $7000 at a time when silver was selling for abut $1 an ounce. In 1884 the railroad was extended to Lake Valley. At the height of its prosperity, the town boasted 4000 inhabitants, a school, several churches, stores, banks and other businesses, most of which were brothels and saloons. Prosperity took a down turn in 1893 when Pres. Grover Cleveland replaced silver as the monetary standard in favor of gold. Silver prices plunged overnight. In 1895 most of Main Street was burned. A few settlers who had put down roots stayed into the 20th century. In the 20's and again in the 50's the area was mined for manganese ore. The last resident died in 1994. The BLM has since instituted a program to protect the area.
The walking tour begins and ends at the (second) schoolhouse. One end is a restored school and the other a nice museum. A well-informed on site docent welcomed us, gave us a lot of information and showed us around the museum.
As is typical of people leaving an area there was a lot of detritus, including this old washer
a '36 Plymouth (not going anywhere with the engine on the outside) and lots of glass and tin cans.
Originally a home, this c. 1920's building was last used as an Episcopalian chape.
Railroad Ave. was the longest street in town. It was entered by two dead end streets called Main and Keil.
Remains of the (railroad) coal sorter on Railroad St.
Adit and tailings of the manganese mine. Notice the little cabin on the far right. The big silver mine is behing the hill behind the cabin. The big mountains are across the street. No silver was found there.
The manganese mine is on unstable property and so was fenced off. I guess they really mean it!
Old railroad depot
Residence of Mrs. Blanch Nowlin. Her husband was the railroad superintendent for Lake Valley. She became a local dealer for Continental Oil Company (Conoco). She lived in this house until her death in 1982.
In her later years, her only neighbors were Pedro and Savina Martinez. They resided next door in the old Bella Hotel until August of 1994. Mr. Martinez arrived in Lake Valley sometine in 1904, as a child of two. He remained there for some 90 years and provided a wealth of information about the history of the town (to the BLM).
This is a railroad coal storage building. Note the remains of the coal sorter on the left.
Home and office of Dr. W. G. Beals. Later the Martinez family lived here for many years.
Another view of Beals office.
View of Main Street. Most of the businesses here were burned in the fire. The business row was never rebuilt.
To our friend Marsha, they didn't have the blacksmith shop idenified so I couldn't get a picture of it, sorry.
We were thinking of postponing our trip here until next week but decided to go on Friday. Good thing! The weather turned from sunny with a cool breeze to overcast with a cold wind by the time we were done touring. Today is worse! We really enjoyed our tour, though and recommend it to others.
Nuff for now,
Louise and Duane
First stop of the run
Second stop
Half car half bike
Some of the crowd
Bikes arriving
This is a gold plated Yamaha
Bikes leaving the lot
The pile of presents collected
