History of the Cerrillos Mining Area

This book presents a detailed account of mining in the Cerrillos Hills, New Mexico which are located about fifteen miles south of Santa Fe. This area contains some of the oldest mining activity in North America. There is evidence Turquoise, which continues to be mined today, being mined as early as 900 A.D. and lead in about 1300 A.D. The Spanish in the sixteenth and seventeenth century mined silver there. The area was most active in the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century with well over 500 claims staked by 1880.This material was originally written for New Mexico Abandoned Mine Land Bureau Reports ion the mid-1990s. The author, Homer E. Milford was the former Environmental Coordinator of the Abandoned Mine Land Bureau, the State of New Mexico Energy Minerals and Natural Resources Department, and was responsible for documenting mine history before a mine was closed for safety reason. He had been active in efforts to preserve the Cerrillos Hills for over thirty years and passed away in April 2019 within hours of working on revisions to this book.