Socorro

By Baldwin G. Burr

The town of Socorro got its name from the “succor” travelers found at the northern end of a 90-mile-long desert trail known as the Jornada del Muerto, the “Journey of the Dead Man,” in central New Mexico. The village of Socorro, located at the site of the ancient 1600s Piro Pueblo, was first settled sometime around 1816 as an agricultural community. The discovery of silver at Socorro Peak and the Magdalena Mountains and the arrival of the railroad in 1880 brought boom times to the town. The demonetization of silver in 1893 was the end of Socorro’s boom, and the community gradually reverted to its agricultural heritage. Reminders of days gone by can still be seen in Socorro. The Garcia Opera House, the Crown Mill, the Illinois Brewery, and several historic houses have been successfully preserved.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Nov 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781439648223

Baldwin G. Burr

Baldwin G. Burr is president of the Valencia County Historical Society and is secretary of the Historical Society of New Mexico. Burr has compiled more than 180 photographs from the Old Mill Museum in Cimarron, the Herzstein Memorial Museum in Clayton, the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, and the Rio Grande Historical Collection at New Mexico State University to tell the story of the historic ranches of Northeastern New Mexico.

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INTRODUCTION

The name Socorro was given to the place that would become Socorro, New Mexico, by Don Juan de Onate, because he and his fellow Spanish explorers found succor there. Socorro was an oasis at the end of a 90-mile stretch of El Camino Real, the ancient road between Chihuahua, Mexico, and Santa Fe. This route, through inhospitable desert, was called La Jornada del Muerto, the journey of the dead man.

The original inhabitants of Socorro were Piro Pueblo people, numbering between 5,000 and 8,000 when the Spaniards arrived in New Mexico. They had a highly developed society and worked and lived in relative peace with the Spaniards. They intermarried with the Spaniards and helped them build the churches at Socorro, Senecu, and Sevilleta. When the Northern Pueblos revolted against their Spanish rulers in 1680, the Piro fled south on the Jornada to El Paso, Texas, along with the Spanish inhabitants of Socorro. They did this rather than join in the revolt. Over 800 Piros perished on the trip, a result of their decision to remain loyal. This was reason enough for this section of El Camino Real to be called La Jornada del Muerto.

Although New Mexico was reconquered by Diego de Vargas in 1692, Socorro was not resettled by the Spanish until 1816. A small community grew up around the San Miguel Catholic Church, and the Spanish settlers engaged in subsistence agriculture, raising just enough crops and livestock to maintain their own families. Spanish rule in Socorro ended in 1821. The Spanish government in Mexico City had forbidden trade with the United States, but after the revolution of 1821, El Camino Real was joined with the Santa Fe Trail, and trade flourished.

Estanislao Montoya engaged in the first known mining activity in the Socorro area, in 1840, on a property that would become known as the Merritt Mine. But he was forced to abandon his efforts due to Indian raids. The US government established several forts in an effort to control the Indians. One of those was Fort Craig, located about 30 miles south of Socorro. In addition to increasing the security of settlers in the area, Fort Craig also represented a significant market for goods and services from Socorro.

In 1866, Col. John S. Old Hutch Hutchason and Pete Kinsinger discovered rich silver deposits in the Magdalena Mountains west of Socorro. These two men were soon joined by others as they gradually developed the mineral wealth of the area. When the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad arrived in Socorro in 1880, all the elements were in place for a major economic boom.

New communities developed around mining activity in Socorro County. Magdalena and Kelly, located 26 miles west of Socorro, grew rapidly in the 1880s. Both towns soon had thriving mercantile businesses, hotels and boardinghouses, churches, and schools. Coal deposits were found south of Socorro, at Carthage, also an important mining community. A railroad spur line between Carthage and San Antonio was built to ship coal and coke to smelters in Socorro. Coal was also shipped to San Marcial, a few miles south of San Antonio, where it was used to fuel railroad locomotives.

Gustav Albert Billing came to Socorro in 1882 after building successful smelting operations in Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as Leadville, Colorado. He purchased the Kelly Mine and built a smelter a few miles southwest of the Socorro Plaza. The smelter, fueled by coal from the Carthage coal mine, processed the raw ore from the mines at Kelly into more compact, financially efficient bars. Billing’s smelter could process one ton of silver ore into seven bars, or pigs, of bullion. The bullion was then shipped to St. Louis for further refining. Most of the bullion processed by Billing’s smelter was silver and lead. One million ounces of silver and almost 5,000 tons of lead were processed between 1885 and 1889. Through the efforts of Gustav Billing, Socorro became the smelting capital of a geographic area that included New Mexico, eastern Arizona, western Texas, southern Utah, and even northern Mexico.

The railroad expanded the market for cattle, sheep, and other agricultural products, and Socorro was the shipping point for those products. Farming and ranching activity increased to fill the new demand for agricultural products. Alfalfa, oats, rye, barley, cabbages, beets, potatoes, onions, and chilies were all raised, but wheat and corn were the main field crops. There were orchards of apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots, and quinces. There were also many vineyards and wineries. Flour mills were built in Socorro to process the wheat grown by area farmers. Flour processed in Socorro went to military forts in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona, and was shipped by the railroad to more distant markets throughout the West. Socorro County contained nearly four million acres of grazing land, and many ranches drove their cattle to the stock pens at Magdalena for shipment to distant markets. The Magdalena Stock Driveway, which extended from eastern Arizona to Magdalena, was active for nearly 100 years, from 1885 until 1970.

The prosperity of the boom era in Socorro can still be seen in several architecturally striking houses that have survived. The Juan Nepomuceno Garcia house, the Juan Jose Baca house, the Garcia Opera House, the Anastacio Sedillo house, and the Jacabo Sedillo house are just some of the structures still standing. Other historic Socorro houses are those that belonged to Ethan W. Eaton and Holm O. Bursum.

Reviews for Socorro

[bragan_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A collection of old photographs of the small New Mexico town where I live, and its surrounding areas, some dating back as far as the 1880s. The accompanying text is nothing particularly special, and I think I was hoping for a higher number of photos of the town proper, but it was still an interesting little volume to look through. I was surprised by how many of the locations in the pictures were still instantly recognizable. Also, I now know which street they used to hang people on, which is kind of creepy.Apparently the publisher has thousands of books in this series, featuring places all over America, so if you're in the US and this sort of thing sounds interesting to you, you can google "Images of America" and see if they have one for your home town.