Shakespeare, New Mexico

Shakespeare

Southwest region of New MexicoWhen this popular ghost town got its start in the late 1850s, it was only a Butterfield Overland Stage Company station known as Mexican Springs. The location, having long been utilized by Indians and other travelers, due to its small but reliable spring, first served the U.S. Army in about 1856, as a relay station on the their mail line between Fort Thorn on the Rio Grande and Fort Buchanan, south of Tucson. Finding it suitable for a stage stop, Butterfield built a square adobe station, but it wouldn’t be for long. When the Civil War broke out, stagecoach service was Shakespeare, New Mexicodiscontinued and the station was abandoned, though Confederate soldiers used it briefly during the war. In about 1868, the National Mail and Transportation Company began its services and established a mail stop at the old station, renaming it Grant in honor of the popular general.

In 1870, prospectors found samples of very rich silver ore in the area and went searching for financing for the new mines. William Ralston, president of the Bank of California in San Francisco, came in with financing and the town was named in his honor. The financier then posted a general claim to the entire district, formed the New Mexico Mining Company, sold stock, and interested a number of other investors. However, by the time that many of those investors arrived in the camp, they found the best properties had already been claimed by Ralston himself.

In the meantime, the town was booming, as newspapers as far away as San Diego and San Francisco, told the news of the rich silver finds. Independent miners flocked to the town that soon sported some 3,000 people. Allegedly, the New Mexico Mining Company hired a number of gunfighters to keep the independent miners off of their property.

Though the New Mexico Mining Company found a few isolated pockets of silver ore, Ralston's credibility was quickly waning. His stock dropped dramatically and people began to leave the newly formed camp. Quickly, a rumor began that diamonds had been found on Lee’s Peak, near Ralston. Though people were skeptical, they began to invest once again into Ralston’s stocks. Later, it was found to be a hoax. To William Ralston’s credit, he paid back, from his own pocket, all who had invested into the scheme. By 1873, there were only a few people left in the boom town, primarily those that worked at the stage station and a few prospectors. William Ralston, meantime, continued to suffer through several years of hardship until finally, during the depression of 1875, the Bank of California collapsed, leaving him in financial ruin. That same year, on August 27, he reportedly went for a swim in the San Francisco Bay and drowned.

A few years later, though the town of Ralston was virtually non-existent, another investor, Colonel John Boyle of St. Louis, Missouri, staked a number of claims under the name of the Shakespeare Mining Company. In 1879, due to all of the bad press the town had received, the settlement’s name was once again changed—this time to Shakespeare.

Mining was in full force again with the principal mines being Boyle’s Shakespeare Gold and Silver Mining and Milling Company, as well as the Henry Clay, Atwood, Eighty-Five, and Yellow Jacket. Colonel Boyle also bought an adobe building which he turned into the Stratford Hotel. The town began to grow again, this time with adobe buildings and a red-light district on the northwest side called Poverty Flat.

Though the town was typical of the time with rowdy miners and lawlessness, it never gained the reputation of other mining towns of the time, such as Leadville, Colorado, and Deadwood, South Dakota. Men began to bring their families in and settle down; however, the town never settled so much as to ever get a school, a church, or a newspaper. “Law” was generally handled by the citizens of the community, with some of them hanged by the timbers of the Grant House dining room. On one occasion, a well-known outlaw by the name of Sandy King was making his home in Shakespeare and when he got into an argument with a storekeeper and shot off his index finger, he was quickly taken to jail. At about the same time, an area horse thief was tracked down and also held in the pokey. Before the night was over, both outlaws were dragged from the jail to the Grant House, where they were lynched. They were still hanging when the stage stopped the next morning and the passengers disembarked for breakfast.

The biggest threat to Shakespeare was the Apaches, who were doing everything they could to get rid of the white settlers who had encroached upon their land. The Shakespeare Guard was formed in the 1880s to protect the settlement from attacks. However, in 1883, influential residents, Judge and Mrs. McComas, were killed by the Apache and their son, Charlie was kidnapped. Though the Guard offered a reward and attempted to track the Indians down, they were unsuccessful.

In the early 1880s, the railroad pushed through the area, but to Shakespeare’s undoing, it missed the town by three miles, heading through Lordsburg instead. This would spell the end of Shakespeare.

In 1935, the Hill family purchased the town and buildings to utilize as a working ranch. They maintained the buildings and the family continues to preserve one of the most intact ghost towns of the Old West. The entire town was declared a National Historic Site in 1970.

Today, Shakespeare continues to be preserved, despite a devastating fire in 1997. A number of buildings remain including the Grant House, which was once part of the old Butterfield Stage Station; a saloon, the Stratford Hotel, the old mail station, and the assay office. The Shakespeare Cemetery also continues to beckon visitors to visit some of the ghost town's most colorful residents.

The ghost town is privately owned and can only be toured on certain weekend during each month.

Shakespeare is located about three miles south of Lordsburg, New Mexico.

Shakespeare Ghost Town
P.O. Box 253
Lordsburg, New Mexico 88045
Phone: 505-542-9034
www.shakespeareghostown.com/