It was called San Vicente. Well, that’s what the locals called it at the time. Its full name was La Ciénega de San Vicente. Which meant the Marsh of St. Vincent. Its history could be traced back to the arrival of the Spaniards.
In later years, after silver was discovered, the name would change to Silver City. As with many boomtowns, violence soon followed and brought death with it.
It would become familiar with the names Harvey Whitehill, William Bonney, and ‘Dangerous’ Dan Tucker. It would see Indian attacks and come to know the legend of the Lost Adams Diggings.
In 1871, it became the county seat for Grant County and in 1881, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad had its terminus there.
But this is not a story about La Ciénega de San Vicente or Silver City.
Nor is it the story of Pinos Altos, a gold town built on Chiricahua land, originally known as Birchville, created as a supply town for miners or a place to get a woman’s companionship.
A town that also played host to a man who operated a mercantile before heading to West Texas. His name, Roy Bean.
The Apaches, led by Mangas Coloradas, who along with the great chief, Cochise, banded together and swore to drive the hated white-eyes from the lands that weren’t theirs. They only succeeded in making them more determined to stay.
No, this story isn’t about any of them. This story is about a town quite similar to those mentioned, further north by ten miles. Founded on the back of a gold strike, it was violent and rugged. Formed by tents and timber structures along a muddy main street.
Surrounded by Apache lands, the miners not only fought each other, but the Chiricahua too. Raids on the town had killed miners, storekeepers, men and women. They came with the dawn and were gone before the mist had lifted, leaving behind death and destruction. After every episode, the whites would rebuild.
Eventually, the Apaches were moved on and the mines ran their course until the ground had nothing more to offer. And so, as mining towns do, this one died, leaving nothing but memories.
Memories of violence, death, and a man called Drifter.
The town was called, Dead Man’s Gulch.