This Spooky Small Town In New Mexico Could Be Right Out Of A Horror Movie
New Mexico has hundreds of ghost towns! Some are empty patches of land where towns once stood; in others, mining equipment is all that remains to tell the town’s history. However, a few of New Mexico’s ghost towns are in better condition and exploring them can be an unsettling experience. Houses along with pieces of furniture remain, decaying before your eyes, but there isn’t a soul in sight. Lake Valley is one such place.
Even the trees on the approach to this town are dead.
It feels like entering a movie midway through, after the zombies - or whatever other horror your imagination supplies – have attacked. This wasteland is all that’s left.
Shells of buildings still stand, windows long gone. An armchair molders on a front porch.
A whopping 2.5 million ounces of silver ore were extracted from the Bridal Chamber Mine. The silver was located only 40 feet under the earth.
The ore was so pure that it was sent straight to the U.S. Mint without any additional processing. One piece of silver from the Bridal Chamber Mine was featured at the 1882 World Exhibition in Denver.
At its peak, Lake Valley boasted 4000 residents. The town’s amenities included a railhead, saloons, hotels… All the usual businesses you’d expect to see. It was by no means a metropolis though, so residents sometimes held several different roles. Case in point, the woman who operated the nearby brothel in Kingston, also ran the town’s stagecoach line!
In 1994, the final residents vacated, turning Lake Valley into the ghost town you see today: 297 abandoned mines surround crumbling structures that are only home to rattlesnakes.
The buildings include a chapel, schoolhouse, some homes, and a cemetery.
New Mexico staff writer for Only In Your State and freelance writer. A committed travel junkie, Juliet has lived on two continents, but believes that the sunsets in New Mexico are the best. She can be reached on Twitter @JulietWrites.
