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Organ — isolated outpost
Last updated on Sunday, December 29, 2002
Organ is fifty-two miles southwest of Alamogordo on US 70/82, another isolated stretch of highway. With a population of about 500, it is also eleven miles northeast of Las Cruces. Listed as “Old and New,” The Place Names of New Mexico by Robert Julan indicates it had a post office from 1881-1895, then again from 1896 to the present. Millions of dollars worth of lead, copper and silver were mined in the camp at the foothills of the Organ Mountains, where as many as 1,800 people lived. The older ranching residents did not take part in the mining operations because they did not have the capital or inclination to mine. Eventually the mines played out, and “old” Organ died. Later “new” Organ was born, and is today a living community. Many of its residents work in Las Cruces or on the White Sands Missile Range. On February 29, 1908, the infamous Pat Garrett was murdered on the road between Organ and Las Cruces. The circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery.
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