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Sunday, September 19, 1999
Silver City: A Long Vision
Journal Staff Report
A silver strike in 1870 put Silver City on the map. But a silver industry crash in the 1890s forced the community to grow past its roots.
Copper is now the economic mainstay of this southwestern New Mexico town of 12,000. But copper prices this year have plunged to 100-year lows, forcing area mines to lay off workers.
Silver City Museum Director Susan Berry said cosmopolitan-minded planning is what saved the town 100 years ago and will help it survive this latest transition. "The founders of Silver City had an unusually long-term vision that set them apart from other Southwest mining camps. The camps existed for the life of the mines and then they were gone. Silver City was founded to be a permanent town," she said.
The town is one of the oldest communities in New Mexico still operating under a territorial charter, which dates back to 1878.
Silver City became a popular recovery town for people with tuberculosis around the turn of the century. Beginning in 1900, the government and private groups opened sanitariums that helped the local economy grow.
In 1910, mining companies made investments to develop the area's copper deposits. The Chino Copper Co. and Phelps Dodge opened large mining operations. Santa Rita and Tyrone were the major mines opened near Silver City.
2000 
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