Dolores - New Mexico Ghost Town

DOLORES

NAME: Dolores
COUNTY: Santa Fe
ROADS:4WD
GRID #(see map): 2
CLIMATE: Mild winter, warm summer
BEST TIME TO VISIT:Spring, winter, fall

COMMENTS: Now A Private Ranch
REMAINS: Now A Private Ranch

Twenty years before the California gold rush in 1849, New Mexico was experiencing its own gold rush that produced the town of Real de Dolores, now called Dolores. The exact population of Dolores is not known but is said to have been between two and four thousand people at the height of its activity. It was, at first, a placer mining town. The discovery of quartz veins in 1833 produced a great influx of miners, some as far away as Missouri. In 1840, rumors of richer fields shifted the scene of activity away from Dolores in the Ortiz Mountains to the New Placers in the San Pedro Mountains. From then on the activity in Dolores began to decline until only one hundred and fifty people remained in 1870. Thomas A. Edison erected a large plant at Dolores in 1900 in hopes of extracting gold with static electricity. The operation closed down after a few unsuccessful experimental attempts. An old general store and saloon now serves as a private ranch headquarters. Courtesy Henry Chenoweth.

Twenty years before the California gold rush in 1849, New Mexico was experiencing its own gold rush that produced the town of Real de Dolores, now called Dolores. The exact population of Dolores is not known but is said to have been between two and four thousand people at the height of its activity. It was, at first, a placer mining town. The discovery of quartz veins in 1833 produced a great influx of miners, some as far away as Missouri. In 1840, rumors of richer fields shifted the scene of activity away from Dolores in the Ortiz Mountains to the New Placers in the San Pedro Mountains. From then on the activity in Dolores began to decline until only one hundred and fifty people remained in 1870. Thomas A. Edison erected a large plant at Dolores in 1900 in hopes of extracting gold with static electricity. The operation closed down after a few unsuccessful experimental attempts. An old general store and saloon now serves as a private ranch headquarters. Courtesy Henry Chenoweth.

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