Captain William Moore found gold in the streams draining the Cimarron Range in the summer of 1867. The discovery drew prospectors from Colorado, Texas, and beyond — people who had heard about the great strikes up north and were looking for the next one. E-Town grew with remarkable speed in the high Sangre de Cristo foothills, reaching peak population within two years of its founding.
New Mexico's gold came from a geological setting similar to Colorado's: the southern Rocky Mountain mineral belt, where Precambrian basement rocks and younger volcanic intrusions hosted hydrothermal gold-silver deposits. The Elizabethtown district sat on the eastern flank of a volcanic caldera, similar in some ways to the Cripple Creek district 150 miles to the north.
When surface placers began running thin, miners turned to hydraulic operations requiring more water. A company formed in 1868 to build the Aztec Ditch — a 41-mile aqueduct to bring water from the Cimarron River. The project was one of the most ambitious hydraulic engineering attempts in the Southwest. After years of construction and enormous expense, the ditch delivered water — briefly. Engineering problems and financial mismanagement bankrupted the company before it could sustain operations. The district never recovered its peak production.
Colfax County's deposits were just the beginning of New Mexico's gold story. The state hosts significant epithermal gold systems in the Black Range (Kingston, Hillsboro), the Mogollon district (Socorro County), and the Organ Mountains (Doña Ana County). Modern geophysical techniques continue to identify new targets in under-explored areas.
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