Mowry City is aghost town first inDoña Ana County, thenGrant County and finally inLuna County,New Mexico, United States, approximately 25 miles (40 km) north ofDeming. Originally it was the crossing point ofCooke's Wagon Road on theMimbres River. Mowry City was formerly the location ofRio Mimbres, a stop on theSan Antonio-San Diego Mail Line, andMiembre's River Station, a stagecoach stop on theButterfield Overland Mail and laterstagecoach routes. The town lasted from 1859 until the arrival of the railroad in southern New Mexico in 1881.
Mimbres River Station, a Butterfield Overland Mail relay station, was located 16 miles northeast ofOjo de Vaca Station and 18 miles west ofCooke's Spring Station. Later Mowry City grew up around it.
Mowry City was the result of one of the earliest land scams in theAmerican Southwest. In the late 1850s, three promoters,Samuel J. Jones (a native ofVirginia and former sheriff ofDouglas County, Kansas), Lewis S. Owings andRobert P. Kelley, resided in the town ofMesilla on theRio Grande nearLas Cruces, New Mexico. They owned a number of businesses in the town and also had interests in mining properties. They realized that the existing population base was too small for them to attain the prosperity they desired, so they concocted a scheme to establish a town site and promote it, to draw settlers into the area.
Kelley had metSylvester Mowry in 1858, on a stage ride fromArizona toMissouri, from which he learned of Mowry's fame and name recognition among eastern investors. Realizing the recognition value of the Mowry name, these promoters chose Mowry City as the name for their new town.
In 1859, Kelley and his partners published a pamphlet, "Report of the Mowry City Association, Territory of Arizona, for 1859". This painted a picture of Mowry City as the future site of the territorial capital of Arizona (at that time, the name Arizona was applied to the southern half ofNew Mexico Territory, from theStaked Plains ofTexas to theColorado River border ofCalifornia), and greatly misrepresented the area's resources and prospects. The report was published inPalmyra, Missouri, where Kelley and his brother-in-law, D. W. Hughes, opened an agency for theMowry City Association and published a newspaper, theMesilla Miner. This paper contained fraudulent articles portraying Mowry City and theMesilla Valley as a thriving, peaceful region. In fact, the area was plagued by hostileApaches.[1] Years later, a settler who knew Kelley and his partners in the late 1850s reminisced that they printed their newspaper and prospectus in Missouri because those publications were "not intended for the public eye so near home," and that the entire promotion was a "swindle."[2]
In the Spring of 1860,gold was discovered atPinos Altos, about 40 miles northwest of the new town site, and Mowry City began to establish a population, includingSherod Hunter. However, as a result of theBascom Affair at the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War, the Apaches began their campaign of attacks on all white settlers, miners, and travelers throughout the region, and this ended the promotion of Mowry City.[1]
The settlement lasted after the Civil War at least into the time of the arrival of therailroad in 1881. Mowry City in 1871 is described by S. M. Ashenfelter in one of his reminiscences contributed to theSilver City Independent:
At Mowry City, on the Mimbres (now Whitehill's ranch), there was a considerable population. R. V. Newsham and M. St. John had large stocks of general merchandise. A. Voorhces ran a hotel, which afterwards came into the hands of "Old Man" Porter, father of Frank and Harry Porter, well known in later years. Kimberlan & Company had a flouring mill, and Dick Mawson and "Hairtrigger John" Gibson did the blacksmithing for the countryside. The main mail line west from Mesilla to Tucson passed through Mowry City. It was run by J. F. Bennett & Co., the company being Henry Lesinsky and Con Cosgrove. It was the old Southern Overland route, coming up by the way of Rough and Ready, Slocum's ranch,Fort Cummins andCook's Canyon; and it crossed the Mimbres at Mowry City. In the spring of 1871 the branch line to Fort Bayard, Silver City and Pinos Altos was run by W. H. Wiley & Company. Slocum's was as famous in its day as Fort Cummins, and John D. Slocum was a man of recognized eminence on this frontier.[3]
Another, less complimentary, description of Mowry City from about the same time was given byLoreta Janeta Velazquez:
Striking south-westward fromFort McRae, we came to Rio de los Mimbres, near the head of which is Mowry City, founded by Lieutenant Mowry, who could not have had any very clear ideas as to what he was about when he attempted to make a settlement in such a place. Mowry City has a hotel, one or two stores, and more drinking-saloons than do it any good. That it will ever be much of a place I do not believe. There is not water enough in the river the greater part of the time to float two logs together, and in very dry weather one can step across it without wetting the feet. A sudden shower will, however, convert this puny creek in a short time into a raging river, which carries everything before it, and then it will subside as suddenly as it arose.[4]
Municipalities and communities ofLuna County, New Mexico,United States | ||
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32°30′51″N107°54′52″W / 32.51417°N 107.91444°W /32.51417; -107.91444