The color of New Mexico’s Silver City
New Mexico’s Silver City provides bright murals and plenty of nature
We’ve always been a little unconventional. So when my husband, Michael, and I wanted to mark our 25th anniversary, rather than buying a silver platter, we looked for a place with “silver” in its name.
Silver Spring was too close to home. Silver City, Utah? A ghost town. Then we discovered artsy, close-to-nature Silver City, N.M. Bingo.
Silver created this town of 10,000, its mines yielding 125 tons before closing early in the last century. We were enticed by the town’s history, its art scene, nearby cave dwellings, outdoor adventures, stargazing and 339 bird species in the national forest. Plus, chile-infused vodka.
We flew to Tucson and rented a car for the three-hour drive into southwest New Mexico. As we left the city behind, the landscape grew less cluttered — just the full-on open blue sky and ribbons of road beckoning to distant mountains. Our minds, too, began to untangle, and our spirits expanded.
In Silver City, at 6,000 feet above sea level, we found a town that loves its history as much as it loves color and art, and combines all three in vivid murals. More than 20 galleries line the streets, and graceful hollyhocks
brighten corner gardens. Outdoor art installations seem more common than traffic lights.
The historical district, which includes eight blocks along Bullard Street, calls for a slow walk. At one corner, mosaic murals cover the windows of the old Masonic Temple, telling local stories about the Apache leader Geronimo; Billy the Kid, who grew up here; the Mimbres people, who left behind their distinctive pottery; and the Chinese who made a home here as miners and later as shop owners. These, and about 70 others in town, are the work of the Mimbres Region Arts Council Youth Mural Program.
Originally a program that paired at-risk kids with artists, the mural project also helped connect those kids to their community, said Diana Ingalls Leyba, a local artist and gallery owner who helped start the program in 2003. Now, students and adults throughout the city participate. Syzygy Tile, a local company, provides a couple tons of clay and the glazes. The result is a city bursting with vibrant color and living history.
Along with the public art, Silver City is full of galleries, including Wild West Weaving, focusing on textiles; Leyba & Ingalls Arts, representing more than a dozen artists; and the Blue Dome Gallery, featuring pottery, folk art and paintings. Those galleries and almost two dozen more are spotlighted during Red Dot Weekend at the Galleries every October.
In 2012, drawn partly by that active art scene, Washington, D.C., native Kyle Durrie moved her letterpress company to Silver City. “I kind of broke up with fine art 10 years ago,” said Durrie, 38, who runs Power & Light Press, which uses vintage presses. Her company went viral in early 2017 with a simple canvas tote bag in support of Planned Parenthood. Sales exploded, and proceeds in excess of $90,000 have gone to the organization, she said.
For our anniversary getaway, we booked a room at Bear Mountain Lodge, a 1928 Pueblo-style guesthouse at the edge of the Gila National Forest that was built as a school for delinquents and is now owned by a group of artists.
A quick drive from downtown — nestled in high desert dotted with pinyon, juniper and sage — the lodge offers 11 rooms and breakfast. During our four-day stay, we fed carrots to the resident horses, tracked the moon above our balcony and woke to the yipping of coyotes.
On our first morning, up before dawn, we hiked for 2 miles on Sunrise Ridge, one of three trails on the lodge property.
Linda Brewer and her partner, John Rohovec, are Bear Mountain’s majority owners. A potter who also owns a gallery in town, Brewer has filled the lodge with art: in the rooms and lobby, on the porticos and throughout the grounds — even the trails.
On our second day, we drove 45 miles north on a winding state highway, part of the 93-mile Trail of the Mountain Spirits. The trail hits 10 sites, including a Geronimo memorial — the legendary leader was born nearby — an open pit mine and the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument.
We climbed a switchback trail to the caves, where, in the 13th century, the Mogollon people turned them into rooms, using rock, mortar and wood. They stayed for only about 25 years — as long as our marriage has lasted, just a blink in historical time.