La Belle - New Mexico Ghost Town

LA BELLE

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

COMMENTS: The 16 year town
REMAINS: Not much

Born in August of 1894, she died in 1910 at the tender age of sixteen. But what a great sixteen years it was. Named for a Mrs. Belle Dixon, wife of one of the founders of the gold mining camp, the town grew to eighty buildings by December of 1894 and had a population of six hundred by March of 1895. La Belle now featured five general stores, a newspaper, four livery barns, six saloons, two barbershops, two laundries, a new jail, which was reported never to have accommodated anyone, and three hotels. The notorious outlaw and train robber Black Jack Tom Ketchum was an occasional visitor to La Belle when dances were held at one of the hotels. The high hopes that had appeared so promising for the town proved to be unfounded. The ore proved to be low-grade and by 1910 only ten miners inhabited the town. Then there were none.Courtesy Henry Chenoweth.

Born in August of 1894, she died in 1910 at the tender age of sixteen. But what a great sixteen years it was. Named for a Mrs. Belle Dixon, wife of one of the founders of the gold mining camp, the town grew to eighty buildings by December of 1894 and had a population of six hundred by March of 1895. La Belle now featured five general stores, a newspaper, four livery barns, six saloons, two barbershops, two laundries, a new jail, which was reported never to have accommodated anyone, and three hotels. The notorious outlaw and train robber Black Jack Tom Ketchum was an occasional visitor to La Belle when dances were held at one of the hotels. The high hopes that had appeared so promising for the town proved to be unfounded. The ore proved to be low-grade and by 1910 only ten miners inhabited the town. Then there were none.Courtesy Henry Chenoweth.

BACK