Carlisle, NM: The Short Life of an Early Gold-Mine

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Carlisle claim was located January 1881. The mine and town operated as the Cochise Company until 1883 when it was acquired by N. K. Fairbanks, the lard king of Chicago. Within a year, Fairbanks sold the mine and nascent town to a London consortium operating as the Carlisle Gold Mining and Milling Company, Ltd of London. With a 40-stamp mill, hotel, restaurants, and mercantile stores, all supplied with mule-drawn wagons, it was a booming operation. By 1885, the territorial census shows the mine and associated town having 198 people, exceeded only by Silver City’s estimated population of 975 people. CGMMC continued to operate the mine through much of 1888, finally selling all assets to yet another British company, Gold Leaf, Ltd. late in the year. Despite misplaced optimism, mining at Carlisle had ceased by 1890, although sporadic efforts to resurrect the mine continued through 1942. This paper combines documentary studies, vintage photographs, and archeological research to present a comprehensive overview of the history of Carlisle and its inhabitants as it related to broader patterns of the rise and fall of mine development across the American West.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22787