White Oaks, Lincoln Co., NM

White oaks

Lincoln County, NM

THE GOOD FOLKS IN WHITE OAKS, New Mexico are working to keep the ghosts at bay in this is a wonderful old Class D gold mining town. It is located on State Highway (SH) 349, tucked into a valley between the Jicarilla Mountains (north) and Capitan Mountain (south) in the heart of New Mexico, about nine miles northeast of the junction of SH 348/US 54, at a point about 3.3 miles north of Carrizozo. The few folks that still live here are friendly and proud of what remains of this once boisterous mining town.

The original gold discoveries occurred in 1879, and a year later a couple thousand folks lived in a full-on boom town with a long main street lined with businesses housed mainly in tents and wooden shanties. As the gold flowed, and prosperity and promise built, the buildings followed suit, culminating in a line of rock, adobe and brick one and two-story structures lining the main street. Through the 1880s and into the early 1890s White Oaks was the reportedly the “liveliest town in the territory.” Local, Lincoln County outlaw, Billy the Kid, is also said to have visited some of the more nefarious businesses here before he was dispatched into fame by a shot in the dark by Sheriff Pat Garrett up at Fort Sumner in 1881.

The call of gold was strong, and a railroad began to push north to tap the wealth. White Oaks’ landowners saw the train coming and offered to sell the railroad rights-of-way into town across their properties. However, the prices they asked were considerably more than the railroad folks were willing to pay. The landowners didn’t want to lose out on the cash, so they didn’t dicker. The railroad said “No” to their high rates and set up a station a dozen miles south at what became known as Carrizozo.

Unfortunately for White Oaks, it was already on the downslide, and the rebuffing of the railroad hastened its demise. During its 15-20 year run, some $5 million in gold and silver came from the mines at White Oaks. The post office was established in 1880 and hung in there until 1954. The town never completely died, and has a minor resurgeance with a couple artists-in-residence as well as a few other folks living a quiet existence in the back country. Today’s White Oaks is a nice, quiet little town. But, if you are looking for lots of ruins and abandoned buildings lining the main street, you will be disappointed. However, the handful of historic buildings that do remain are well worth the easy drive here from Carrizozo.

There are a half-dozen major identifiable buildings worth looking at. The first sits on the main street and is a two story store building that at the time of my visit on July 4, 2010 was undergoing renovation. In the past, at least dating to the 1980s, most photos of this building show it without its front façade. That has been restored. Despite several ghost town books identifying it as the Hewett Building/Exchange Bank Building, this piece-d’ resistance is NOT that building, but Brown’s Store Building. The Hewett was demolished many years ago. Comparing the Brown Building to period photos of the Hewett makes it easy to see the difference between the two. Not only is its name visible on the upper parapet of the ANGLED corner, when comparing the Hewett to the Brown Building four major differences are seen:

· Parapet design is different in the two.

· There is a lack of windows on the east side (and no evidence of infill) of the Brown Building.

· On the Brown Building there are cut off tails from second floor floor-joists and roof rafters, which indicate a two-story building was once attached on the east side.

· The angled entrance on the Hewett indicates it was located on a corner.

As a result, I depart from some of the New Mexico ghost town experts like the Shermans (page 225 - Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of New Mexico) and Philip Varney (pages 72-73 – New Mexico’s Best Ghost Towns) as they also call the Brown Building the Hewett Building/Exchange Bank in their books.

Walking the streets of the quiet town, it’s easy to hear the footsteps of the past lurking in the shadows, see where industrious hands built lasting monuments to unrequited love and smell the desert perfume where once town smells predominated. Run inquisitive hands along rough bricks, rusted swingset frame and a dusty, rusty, handlebarless tricycle that once were the focus of young children at play. Look through the dusty windows where those same children learned readin’, ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmatic, and where today the White Oaks Historical Association holds meetings in antique wooden chairs lined up along the red and white checkerboard tablecloth-clad tables. Hidden now in the desert greenery are the gold mines that pumped life into the town, and due in large part to the greed and avarice of the land owners, death and decay. In White Oaks, the past is the present.

Across the street are a pair of large homes, one a more recently built log house, the other, the Taylor House, is an ancient adobe, log and wood two story with a rusty metal roof. Taylor was White Oaks’ blacksmith, and his smithy was next door. The log portion of the house is the original part. Both homes are lived in.

Just up the street from the Brown Building - now labeled on the windows in black and gold as The Bowen House - is a squat brick building up front, with its ubiquitous satellite dish on top and a non-matching blond brick addition with fake falsefront and boarded up windows tucked between a tree and a buzzing white ice machine in back. The front of the building is decorated with a pair of hitching posts, a cow skull and deer antlers, as well as a pair of signs – “No Scum Allowed” and “Saloon”. The sign on the door announced it was open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well as all major holidays from “High Noon til ???.” I was there about three hours short of High Noon, so I didn’t get a chance to check out the interior and sample “the coldest beer in town.” On the saloon’s Facebook page there is a note that it was named by American Cowboy Magazine as “One of the best cowboy bars in the West.” According to the owner, it was the only one in New Mexico that was listed. It began life as the Watson-Lund Law Office and later housed the local newspaper.

Uphill to the north, the large cut rock-trimmed brick schoolhouse stands guard over the town, its shiny metal hip roof and bell-laden cupola looking ready to accept a load of kidlets for the next school term. White framed windows shed a flood of sunlight into the interior and the grounds serve as a museum. Unfortunately, due to the timing of my visit, it also was closed. BUT I enjoyed the quiet solitude. Built in 1894 or 1895 for $10,000, the school houses four classrooms - two up and two down. It closed in 1947.

Just up the hill from the school is a large white clapboard mansion known as the Gumm House. By the 1980s it was empty and in poor condition. The current owners have restored it, and at the time of my visit on July 4, 2010, were in process of repainting it.

Across the townsite on the opposite slope is a brick mansion known as Hoyle’s Folly. It was built by Watson Hoyle, part owner of the Old Abe Mine and a single man. He spent as much as $40,000 to build it for his future bride. She never materialized in White Oaks. Both homes are currently lived in.

There is also a small church and a fire station, both of more recent vintage and both still in use. There are also a pair of melted, adobe-walled buildings hidden in the brush near the road, and the Cedarvale Cemetery (which I did NOT visit), giving

All in all, I enjoyed my journey to White Oaks, a town I’ve been wanting to visit for MANY years, and finally getting the opportunity to see in the flesh. As I always enjoy ghost town photography, I was a bit disappointed in the overall lack of ruins and abandoned buildings to shoot, but was impressed by the completely non-commercial, nearly abandoned aura hanging about. While walking the streets with camera in hand, I could feel the locals peering out of their windows at this California-based, camera-totin’ stranger. The one person I did see gave a friendly wave and continued to water his front-yard flowers. I waved back, wished him a good morning and “Happy 4^th” and kept on clickin’.

Hey. What more can you get from a town with its own website and Facebook presence? For a real good description of the town, check out the White Oaks driving tour page online.

As always, when you visit, please respect the rights of the property owners and always abide by the Ghost Towner's Code of Ethics.

Photos to be added soon!

This was our Ghost Town of the Month for May 2011

LOCATION:

Elevation 6329’

S-Ctr Sec 25, N-Ctr Sec 36, T6S, R12E, NM Principal Meridian & Baseline

Latitude: 33.7503516 / 33° 45' 01" N

Longitude: -105.7374850 / 105° 44' 15" W

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