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mvbr2004-029
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| Kelley Mine |
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Colonel J. S. "Old Hutch" Hutchason is considered the founder of the Magdalena mining district. His discoveries in the area started the mining camp of Kelly.
Old Hutch was prospecting the Magdalena Mountains in the spring of 1866 when he found rich lead outcroppings. He staked out the Juanita Mine and, three weeks later, the Graphic Mine.
At this time, the ore was smelted locally in adobe furnaces called "vassos," and then an oxen took the metal to Kansas City. Probing farther around the hills, Old Hutch found another promising prospect, which he turned over to a friend, Andy Kelly, who operated a local sawmill. Kelly gave his name to the mine and worked it for a time, but when he failed to do the required assessment work, Old Hutch jumped the claim.
Other prospectors were attracted to the area and around 1879 laid out a town on the west slope of the Magdalena Mountains and named it for Andy Kelly. In the late 1870's Old Hutch sold his Graphic Mine for thirty thousand dollars. He also sold the Kelly Mine (also called the Tri-Bullion Mine on some maps), which in turn was resold to Gustav Billing for forty five thousand dollars.
In 1881 Billing erected a smelting plant near Socorro which treated ore from the Kelly and other mines until 1893. In 1896, with the construction of the Graphic Smelter, Magdalena became the smelting town for Kelly. It treated the ore until 1902. Through the 1880's, the small camp of Kelly began to experiencing substantial growth and activity. In 1885, a railroad spur of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe reached Magdalena, four miles from Kelly. The stages ran to Magdalena on a daily basis and a school, two hotels, a resident doctor, stores and saloons served Kelly. The camp had a good water system with pipes bringing mountain spring water throughout the town.
With the number of miners, sleeping accommodations in and around Kelly were scarce. The two hotels were rumored to rent beds in eight-hour shifts. Around the turn of the century, as lead and silver were being mined, a discarded greenish rock was being tossed into the tailing piles. Cory T. Brown of Socorro shipped away some of the rock to have it tested. It turned out to be a valuable zinc carbonate called Smithsonite. Brown, in partnership with J. B. Fitch, immediately leased the Graphic property and began stripping the Smithsonite from the tailing piles.
Kelly's second wind of prosperity started as others leased properties and began mining the Smithsonite. In 1904 Brown and Fitch sold the Graphic Mine for a substantial sum to the Sherwin Williams Paint Company. Billing sold the Kelly Mine to Tri-Bullion, who built a smelter at Kelly. Kelly began to boom with prosperity once again as it reaped the rewards of mining Smithsonite. This mining camp became New Mexico's leading producer of Zinc. Kelly expanded to include two schools; three churches, a Catholic, Methodist/Episcopal, and a Presbyterian; and a moving picture parlor. The mines of the Kelly area were known for world-class Smithsonite samples removed from the area. By 1931 the Smithsonite deposits were exhausted and mining throughout the district began to decrease, allowing Kelly to eventually die.
Today some small mining is still being done near Kelly, but the prosperous camp that once had a population of three thousand no longer claims any residents. The only intact building is the white-stucco-Catholic Church, where mass is still offered once a year. Adobe and rock ruins dot both sides of the dirt road beyond the church. Extensive mine workings, tailing dumps, mine buildings, and head frames stand rusted and neglected farther up Kelly Canyon. Facing the church on the hillside is Kelly's cemetery. (Hits: 1152)
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