The 33^rd Annual Conference of the Mining History Association will be held in Socorro, New Mexico, June 8-11, 2023.  Socorro was founded in the 17^th century among the Piro peoples but abandoned after the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, and not resettled by the Spanish until a century later.  A typical mining boom occurred during the last decades of the nineteenth century with smelters, stamp mills, branch railroads and nearby coal, silver, lead, and zinc mines.  Today Socorro is a modern town along I-25 with all the amenities for its 8,639 residents and visitors alike.  It is the seat of Socorro County and home to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NM Tech) with a student population of around 1,700.  Historic adobe structures around the plaza and at the San Miguel Mission church mix with the Victorian architecture of the mining boom period of the 1880s.  A historic walking tour that begins at the gazebo on the plaza provides visitors with a chance to see the town’s multi-cultural heritage.   The town museum, the former Hammel Brewery will also be open for visitors.

The welcoming reception will be held at the mineral museum of the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, on the New Mexico Tech campus. Exhibits highlight the rich diversity of minerals found in the state and region and retell the area’s mining history.

The conference program will be held at the Macey Center, on the New Mexico Tech campus.  The center has a well-equipped auditorium and space in the lobby for vendors.  The Saturday presidential luncheon will be held at the center.

Whether on one of the planned tours and field trips, or just exploring on their own, attendees have plenty to see and do during their spare time at the conference.  Fort Craig Historic Site is nearby, site of the 1862 Civil War battle of Val Verde. Nearby ran the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail (The Royal Road to the Interior, Mexico City to Santa Fe), opened by the Spanish and used until the 1880 arrival of the railroad.  Along the Rio Grande is the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for bird lovers.   The four-hundred-year-old parish of San Miguel Mission church is worth visiting. 

Tours will include nearby ghost towns such as Kelly, and the historic town of Magdalena, once a smelter town, mine supply center at the end of a railroad branch, and cattle trail town. The Very Large Array on the Plain of San Augustin. Operating mines (Dicalite perlite mine Socorro, NM), historic and geologic sites within the Socorro mining district, and more – all dependent on COVID restrictions that may still apply.

There is a lot more mining history worth exploring while traveling to or from Socorro.  Stay tuned as we update this page.

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology campus with “M” mountain in the distance.

Walking Tour of Socorro’s Historic Plaza Area, Thursday, June 8, 2023, 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM.

Tour fee $10 fee per person (Limit 20 participants)

Tour guide Robert L. Spude

From the gazebo on the historic plaza in Socorro’s old town, the walking tour will explore historic sites and structures representative of the rich cultural history of Socorro.

The tour will highlight the impact of the arrival of the railroad and the mining boom of the 1880s on the historic architecture and landscape, along with some legends of vigilante violence and folk tales. We will walk through the San Miguel Historic District stopping at the 1880s adobe Garcia Opera House with its historic theater.  Next, we walk through the Elfego Baca Heritage Park named for the famous lawman and stop at the historic San Miguel Mission Church.  All are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition, an 1840s small smelter site will be pointed out with discussion of archeological evidence of Mexican period mining and smelting.

The tour will return to the plaza via the 1918-1919 Val Verde Hotel, also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the early brick business blocks of Manzaneres Street that once served as gateway for travelers from the railroad depot to the plaza. Our tour will end back at the Gazebo on the plaza. Lunch on your own.

Socorro Town and Mining District Sites Tour, Saturday, June 10, 2023, Half Day, 2 and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

$40 fee per person (Includes bus transportation, Limit 52 participants)

Tour guides Robert L. Spude, Virginia T. McLemore, and Socorro County Historical Society volunteers

The tour starts at the Macey Center, right after the Presidential luncheon (a second bus pick up at 3 p.m. will be arranged for those attending the business meeting). We will take the bus through campus to the historic plaza and surrounding historic district and historic homes past the San Miguel Mission to the Hammel Museum.  The museum is a former brewery built to serve the mining boom of the 1880s, the Gay nineties, and on until prohibition.  Besides brewery remnants, exhibits tell the history of Socorro.

The next stop will be the abandoned railroad grade and ruins of the silver-lead Billing smelter (1882-1893), a major plant during the 1880s mining boom built by Gustav Billing who relocated here from Leadville. A walking tour of the site is optional, depending on the heat of the day.

The last tour stop will be for a peek into the modern open pit Dicalite Perlite Mine on the edge of town. It is the most extensive perlite mining operation in North America. Wondering about perlite? CLICK HERE to find out about its many uses.  You are probably already a perlite user.  Socorro is a major producer of this mineral, all from the same mountain as several of the early silver mines.  The historic mines date from the Spanish era through the Mexican and early American periods to when Coloradans rushed in and operated the 1880s Merritt and Torrance mine and mill sites. The tour ends back at the Macey Center.  Dinner on own.

Note: The Hammel Museum will be open to all conference participants between 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM, not just the tour group. 

See the photos of the Hammel Museum and Billing Smelter at the top of this web page.

San Miguel Mission Church.

Dicalite Perlite Mine.

Magdalena, Kelly, and the Very Large Array Tour, Sunday, June 11, 2013, All-Day, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Tour Fee: $40 per person (including a box lunch)

Tour guides Robert L. Spude, Catherine H. Spude, and Virginia T. McLemore

This carpool tour will use mostly U. S. 60 and other paved roads, reasonably good, but dusty, gravel county roads, and a mile of graded and drained rough road to the parking lot of the church at Kelly ghost town.  Our first stop will be at the historic depot (now library) and the Boxcar Museum in Magdalena, former railroad terminus, cattle trail town, and supply center for the surrounding Magdalena Mining District.

Next, our group will drive three miles from Magdalena to the parking lot at the Kelly church, its last standing structure in the old townsite.  We will make a brief stop at the Graphic Smelter site (later Ozark flotation mill site) on the way to Kelly.  At Kelly we will divide into two groups, the first for those interested in mining camp archeology of Kelly, its cemetery and streetscape, and the second for those interested in the Kelly area geology and minerals, and history of the mine and mill site above the town.

After lunch, we will drive thirty miles west to the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) Visitor Center. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory includes 28 25-meter radio telescopes in a “Y” shaped array.  Scientists use the array to study the cosmos.  The VLA Is funded by the National Science Foundation.  The group will leave the VLA by 4:00 PM for the sixty-mile, hour return drive to Socorro, reaching the Macey Center around 5 PM. If participants wish, they may depart the tour early in your own vehicle at any time, for example, to catch a plane in Albuquerque.

See other photos of the Kelly Mine at the

top of this web page.

Kelly Mine near Magdalena.