Brice - New Mexico Ghost Town

BRICE

NAME: Brice
COUNTY: Otero
ROADS: 4WD
GRID #(see map): 8
CLIMATE: Mild winter, Hot summer
BEST TIME TO VISIT:Spring, winter, fall

COMMENTS: 1/4 mile north of Oro Grande, NM on US 54, turn left go 3miles, following old railroad bed. No residents. Several buildings. Many mines. Old graveyard. Continue on railbed to the end there is another town by the name of Zora. No buildings. Many mines. Half way to Zora there is a deep cut, about 1900 there was a town at that location I believe the name was Alvin or Alma. No buildings.

Directions in "New Mexico's Best Ghost Towns" say turn onto the road to the Otero Co. Landfill....don't do that. The landfill road (may be a new one since the book was published) ends in the landfill and is well north of the real road to Brice. The road to Brice is the first left after the Orogrande limit sign heading north out of Orogrande. There are no marked graves in the cemetery. There is an old wooden cross, one upright unmarked stone and a grave marked with two rows of parallel stones. As you approach the cemetery, all you can see is the cross. It is thoroughly overgrown otherwise. --Harold Frodge
REMAINS: Few

Mining activity here goes back several hundred years when Indians would mine turquoise. About 1898 a 6 oz. gold nugget was found near what became the Nannie Baird Mine. About 1899 a railroad spur was run to the town of Alvin. A smelter was built at the town of Oro Grande, it ran off and on due to lack of ore. Pricipal ore's, gold copper, iron and a good deal of Turquoise. There was a post office at Brice, closed in 1905. Buildings left- school house basement, office at the Nannie Baird, powder magazine, several cisterns, old loading ramps for the railroad. Submitted by: Geoff Wordsworth The mining camp of Jarilla, named after the Jarilla Mountains, became known as Brice In 1904 after the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad ran a spur line from Jarilla Junction up the canyon to the camp. A year later, the town reported a population of 150, a saloon, hotel, general store, and four mining companies. It also had the first schoolhouse in the area. In 1919, the town had a population of about three hundred. A year later, it became almost a ghost town. Today, the road up the canyon is the old railroad grade, now stripped of its tracks. A brick powder house is the only building left at Brice. Courtesy Henry Chenoweth.

Mining activity here goes back several hundred years when Indians would mine turquoise. About 1898 a 6 oz. gold nugget was found near what became the Nannie Baird Mine. About 1899 a railroad spur was run to the town of Alvin. A smelter was built at the town of Oro Grande, it ran off and on due to lack of ore. Pricipal ore's, gold copper, iron and a good deal of Turquoise. There was a post office at Brice, closed in 1905. Buildings left- school house basement, office at the Nannie Baird, powder magazine, several cisterns, old loading ramps for the railroad.

Submitted by: Geoff Wordsworth

The mining camp of Jarilla, named after the Jarilla Mountains, became known as Brice
In 1904 after the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad ran a spur line from Jarilla Junction up the canyon to the camp. A year later, the town reported a population of 150, a saloon, hotel, general store, and four mining companies. It also had the first schoolhouse in the area. In 1919, the town had a population of about three hundred. A year later, it became almost a ghost town. Today, the road up the canyon is the old railroad grade, now stripped of its tracks. A brick powder house is the only building left at Brice. Courtesy Henry Chenoweth.

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