Blossburg-New Mexico Ghost Town

BLOSSBURG

NAME: Blossburg
COUNTY: Colfax
ROADS: 2WD
GRID #(see map): 3
CLIMATE: Mild winter, warm summer
BEST TIME TO VISIT:Spring, winter, fall

COMMENTS: Not much Remains
REMAINS: Stone wals, deserted two-story building.

The following towns: Gardnier, Swastika, Brilliant, and Blossburg are now part of Vermejo Park Ranch owned by Ted Turner and are now private gated property. You can no longer visit them unless you have premission and you probably won't as it is a hunting reserve with no less than a $450 per night stay. Ted Turner believes in reclaimation work and has taken it upon himself to bulldoze many of the exsisting structures of some of the towns and you will be luckily to find even stones of said previous structures. I believe some of the old coke ovens for Gardnier may be viewed from the Raton golf course, but that's as close as you will probably get. In addition, Turner is not a preditor hunter and the bear and coyote population have skyrocketed.
It's not uncommon to find grizzly or black bears at these locations. If you can get in a 4 wheel drive is good, but the road is in fairly good condition and is regrated often by another property owner who lives at the top of the canyon. You will have to make it through severial posted and locked gates however. You need to up date these towns so folks will not be dissapointed when they arrive to find them locked.

Blossburg was a coal mining town founded in 1881. The town was a self-contained community except for a resident doctor. There were churches, a school, a newspaper and the usual compliment of stores and saloons. The population grew to a thousand people during its thirteen-year history. In 1894, a strike closed the Blossburg mine for a short time. The mine reopened but the damage had been done. Operations began to flounder and the mine closed permanently shortly thereafter. The town gradually became depopulated and by 1903 only a hundred people remained. No one lives in Blossburg today. A few stone and mortar walls are still visible along with a deserted two-story building that once was a store and a home.Courtesy Henry Chenoweth.

Blossburg was a coal mining town founded in 1881. The town was a self-contained community except for a resident doctor. There were churches, a school, a newspaper and the usual compliment of stores and saloons. The population grew to a thousand people during its thirteen-year history. In 1894, a strike closed the Blossburg mine for a short time. The mine reopened but the damage had been done. Operations began to flounder and the mine closed permanently shortly thereafter. The town gradually became depopulated and by 1903 only a hundred people remained. No one lives in Blossburg today. A few stone and mortar walls are still visible along with a deserted two-story building that once was a store and a home.Courtesy Henry Chenoweth.

BACK