From turquoise to bat guano, New Mexicans have been mining this land for hundreds of years! These rare images show the daily realities of life for gold miners. They also depict potash, coal, and copper mines. See this aspect of New Mexico’s history for yourself:

1. This is what the American Coal Company plant in Gallup looked like in 1920.
Wikimedia Commons/Unk
2. A gold prospector at work in Pinos Altos, in 1940.
Photogrammar/Russell Lee
3. These are the tailings left behind when a copper mine was abandoned in Leopold.
Photogrammar/Russell Lee
4. At one time, the Santa Rita Mine was the largest open pit copper mine on the planet.
Photogrammar/Russell Lee
This is what it looked like in 1940. The mine actually swallowed an entire town. For more info.
5. The headframe still stands at a disused gold mine in Pinos Altos.
Photogrammar/Russell Lee
6. Eugene Davis worked as a gold prospector in 1940. This image shows him emerging from his home at the site of his mining camp.
Photogrammar/Russell Lee

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7. Here Mr. Davis makes himself some coffee at his mining camp. The life of a prospector was challenging and unglamorous.
Photogrammar/Russell Lee
8. Workers leaving a gold mine in Mogollon after a long shift.
Photogrammar/Russell Lee
9. Old school telephones like these made communication between different sections of a mine possible.
Photogrammar/Russell Lee
10. Workers in a New Mexico gold mine move an ore car along a narrow gauge railroad track.
Photogrammar/Russell Lee
11. Tanks at a Mogollon mine containing a solution that makes it possible to extract silver and gold.
Photogrammar/Russell Lee
12. This potash mine, photographed in 1940, was in Eddy County.
Photogrammar/Russell Lee

Many of New Mexico’s mining towns turned into ghost towns once the ore was played out. You can still visit these abandoned places today. Here are some of New Mexico’s best-preserved ghost towns.

If these historic photos interest you, check out these pictures that were taken in the Land of Enchantment during the Great Depression.

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