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Mogollon — off the beaten path
Last updated on Saturday, January 11, 2003
Flatlanders need not apply. The road to Mogollon, known as the Bursum Road, climbs 2,080 feet from the San Francisco River Valley to the old ghost town, nestled in the Mogollon Mountains. “That doesn’t sound so bad,” you might say, but the climb is seven miles in length - over 2,000 feet in seven miles, and not one of the switchbacks has guardrails.
Heading north on Hwy. 180 from Silver City, approaching Glenwood. Photo by Carla DeMarco This is New Mexico at its wild and woolly best. The Bursum Road, New Mexico 159, leaves U.S. 180 between Glenwood and Alma, where a rare stretch of the San Francisco River is accessible from its banks. Elsewhere along its course the river is deep in the Gila National Forest and hundreds of feet down between rugged canyon walls. As the Bursum Road climbs the west flank of the Mogollon Mountains, overlooking these canyons, spectacular vistas of western New Mexico and eastern Arizona open up. Flatlanders don’t know what they are missing.
Founded in 1895, Mogollon experienced its mining boom for the next 20 years, when stacks of gold bars came down the mountain to be transported to the Denver mint. In 1915, Mogollon was New Mexico’s leading mining district. Because of the hair-raising road, conditions remained primitive; transportation was largely horse-drawn wagons. When the district’s richest mine, the Little Fannie, installed new oil-burning generators, wagons were specially outfitted to haul in the barrels of fuel oil. This was a step up from denuding the mountains of trees to burn for fuel.
Today, Mogollon exhibits scattered reminders of its past. The mountainsides are scarred by old mining dumps, where the bleached remains of the mining process accumulated in the hot sun. A few stone buildings, from the time when 5,000 people populated the town, line the main street in what was once the business district. Seasonal businesses open and close on the whims of the owners: Go to Mogollon to see what’s currently available. Discovering what’s open is part of the adventure.
Two tiny museums and an antique shop are filled with southwestern artifacts and mining memorabilia. The old theatre is being restored, and a rock shop will open soon. A restaurant generally operates on weekends in summer, and also rents rooms in the old boardinghouse style, now referred to as a B&B.
Trapped between high canyon walls, Silver Creek burbles down the bottom of the gulch. Residents of Mogollon have built small bridges over the creek to provide access to their dwellings and businesses. Next door to the old theatre, the Old Kelly Store is identified by a small sign on the building. Miner’s cabins have been converted to residences, with shady porches, lush flowerbeds, and busy hummingbird feeders.
The temptation to dawdle over the chuckling creek is intoxicating; to snap photos, overwhelming.
The Bursum Road continues through town, winding up the mountain another 2,200 feet to Sandy Point, a jumping off place for pack-trips into the Gila Wilderness. This stretch is eight miles on the map, but surely more than that counting the numerous switchbacks. This is an excellent area for viewing wildlife, such as deer, bear, and elk. A coatimundi, the curious ring-tailed cat of the Southwest, has been spotted in the vicinity. A truly sharp-eyed traveler might notice the wild blackberries growing by the road in late summer.
Mogollon, New Mexico Photo by Carla DeMarco The Bursum Road climbs out of the Chihuahuan Desert life zone, with lizards and cacti, through the mixed pine forest at Mogollon, to the cool conifer-aspen forest at Sandy Point. Check road conditions in nearby Glenwood or Alma before starting up the mountain: wintertime snows render the road to Mogollon temporarily impassible. The U.S. Forest Service generally locks gates below Sandy Point during winter to keep people out while there is snow on the road at the higher elevations.
The variety of scenery; flora and fauna; the history and charm of one of New Mexico’s best ghost towns, possibly its most remote ghost town, make this an outstanding area to visit in Southwest New Mexico.
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