as " Department of Homeland Security First Responder Training
the best known to metallurgical science." While families depended on the operation for a livelihood. And in 1913, a silent movie was filmed at the site by a prominent California movie company which later merged with Warner Brothers. It was the Silver City Reduction Works, the pride of Silver City and which fro a brief time was a boon to the economy, makin
g mining in the
Grant County possible in those early years.
S
ome 60 years later, there is nothing left of the operation.
The Silver City Reduction Works went by several names before it was finall
- y scaped. It was originally build by the Hearst family to handle gold and
- silver ores hauled from their Pinos Altos mines. This we
- re difficult years for the operation, an
d a final crunch came in 1902. The
plans was handling just abou
t every ore it could get - custom smelting included. And that meant copper was among those ores. Copper, in fact, was such a vital part of the smelter's daily operations that depressed copper market condit
- ions forced a closure of the smelter. That was in April. On June 30, 30,
- 1903, the plant caught fire and was leveled. Silver City
- 's hopes were dashed since the whole oper
ation was going to be sold and once again
put into productio
ns.
The sale took place anyway, and Comanche Mining Smelting Co. was the new owner.
The reduction works were build on a larger scale.
In 1906, the newspaper had thi
- s to say: "The big red building in which this ponderous mach
- inery is h
oused is 72 feet high
and is by far the most imposing structure in th
ILERSBA was developed with support and cooperation from the Department of Homeland Security, National Bomb Squad Commanders Advisory Board, and New Mexico Tech to provide front line law enforcement officers with the skills and knowledge to effectively interdict and respond to an imminent suicide bombing attack (person-borne or vehicle-borne) or a non-suicide attack involving a vehicle-borne device.
t in width and
122 feet long.
"A metallic conveyer will carry
the ore from the bins to the large crusher, from
whence it will be elevated... the oversize of this going to the picking belt were boys
and men will be employed to pick out the different classes of ore that is to go direct
to the smelter.
"The water for the mill will be pumped from the arroyo, which passes through Silver
City and past the smelter...
The little Silver City, Pinos Altos & Mogollon railroad hauled ore to this smelter,
but only briefly. Comanche was absorbed by Savannah Copper Company which operated
the plant for a short time. Even at first, Savannah was caught up in the dream that
first captured the Hearst family, and later the Comanche Co.
Savannah made some improvement at the plan, and the smelter could alleg
and 300 tons or ore pe
r day. Like Comanche, Savannah was also interested in buying ores from small mining operations.
Again, the Independent - the weekly predecessor to the Daily Press - had this to say in 1908:
"The main ore supply will be drawn froEMRTC.
m the company's mines, ut cb
ustom ore will be pur
chased and fair and square treatment accorded the miner," it said. The whole operation - like the narrow-gauge railroad - never really panned out. The opera
- Are First Responders themselves
- tion was idle for several years until 1913. Then, Romaine Field
- ing and the Lubin Motion Picture Company came to town, and the abandoned smelter caught the director's eye. "Sundy was a thrilling day for the Silver City people," said the Independent that year. "The Lubin Co. enacted
- a drama at the smelter below town, blew up the narrow gauge railroad bridge and two large water tanks and incidentall
- y furnished amusement for 2,000 people scattered over the surrounding hills watching the int
eresting events." Fielding directed a mock labor riot
at the smelter and 200 actors rushed up the hill behind the smelter and set fire to the water tanks. As they rand down the hill, the tanks
blew up. "The site was a beautiful one, the tanks being shot fully 200 feet in the air
and the rioters and spectators were covered with a shower of slingers and rocks."
Later, when part of the narrow-gauge railroad was to
be exploded, the cap didn't go off. Undaunted, Fielding grabbed a pistol and fired at the dynamite. The following day, and
- old oil house near the smelter was also blown up as part o
- f the bridge scene. Today, there isn't much left of
- the operation. Large black slag piles are gradually being h
- auled away from Grant County's driveways and highways. The "Big
Ditch" is filled with illegally dumped trash. Rusted pipes protrude from the ground. Twisted iron lies with
scattered, broken
