Local city information for Silver City, NM

Silver City is a town in Grant County, New Mexico, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 10,545. It is the county seat of Grant County. The city is the home of Western New Mexico University.

The site of Silver City was originally known as San Vicente de la Ciénega (St. Vincent of the Marsh), and prior to Anglo settlement, the valley served as an Apache campsite. With the arrival of a wave of American prospectors in the 1860s, however, the face of the valley soon changed.

Silver City was founded in the summer of 1870, shortly after the discovery of silver ore deposits by Captain John M. Bullard at Chloride Flats, located on the hill just west of the farm of Captain Bullard and his brother James. Following the silver strike, Captain Bullard laid out the streets of the new Silver City on the former farm, and a bustling tent city quickly sprang to life. Although the trajectory of Silver City's development was to be different from the hundreds of other mining boom towns established during the same period, Captain Bullard himself never lived to see even the beginnings of permanence, as he was killed in a confrontation with Apache raiders less than a year later, on February 23, 1871.

The town's violent crime rate was substantial during the 1870s, Grant County Sheriff Harvey Whitehill was elected in 1874, and gained a sizable reputation for his abilities at controlling trouble. In 1875, Whitehill became the first lawman to arrest Billy the Kid, known at the time as William Bonney. Whitehill arrested him twice, both times for theft in Silver City, and would later claim that Bonney was a likeable kid, whose stealing was a result more of necessity than criminality. In 1878 the town hired its first town marshal, "Dangerous Dan" Tucker, who had been working as a deputy for Whitehill since 1875. Tucker killed several men during his rein as marshal, and is one of twelve gunmen included in the book "Deadly Dozen" by author Robert K. DeArment, who proclaims Tucker as one of the most underrated gunmen of the Old West. He was also the subject of the biography ''"Dangerous Dan" Tucker, New Mexoco's Deadly Lawman", by author Bob Alexander.

Mrs. Lettie B. Morrill, in a talk given to the Daughters of the American Revolution chapter in Silver City on September 19, 1908, stated, "John Bullard was placed in the first grave dug in Silver City, having been killed while punishing the Indians for an attack upon the new town; the brothers were Prospectors about the country for many years. The last one left for the old home about 1885, saying, ‘It is only a matter of time until the Indians get me if I stay here.’" It was also known as the starting point for many expeditions hunting treasures such as the Lost Adams Diggings. Old mines, camps, and shacks dot the hills, and it is rich in Old West History .

In 1893 the Normal School was established. It later was renamed to Western New Mexico University in 1963. Today, WNMU offers 8 graduate degrees, 41 baccalaureate degrees, and 18 associate degree and certificate programs. The WNMU athletic team is referred to as the Mustangs. Recognition for the university includes the 2003 Zia Award, the 2005 Best Practice Award (for the School of Education), the 2006 Chamber of Commerce Large Business of the Year Award, the 2008 Pinon Award, and the 2008 Companero Award.

The town had originally been designed with the streets running north to south. The town was also built in the path of normal water runoff. Businesses sprang up and people learned to deal with the inconveniences of the summer rain. Silver City was built with high sidewalks in the downtown area to accommodate high flood waters. Meanwhile, uncontrolled grazing thinned down plant life on hills surrounding the town. During the night of July 21, 1895, a heavy wall of water rushed through the downtown business district leaving a trail of destruction. A ditch, 55-feet lower than the original street level, was created by what was once known as Main Street. Businesses on Main Street began using their back doors on Bullard Street as main entrances and eventually, were permanently used as the new front entrances. To this day, the incorrect odd/even addressing conventions on the east side of Bullard Street are a reminder that the buildings were addressed on Main Street originally, not Bullard Street. Main Street now ends near the back of the Silver City Police Station, where the Big Ditch Park begins.

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