rs. It was the Si

lver City Reduction Works, the pride of Silver City and which fro a brief time was a boon to the economy, making mining in the Grant County possible in those early years. Some 60 years later, there is nothing left of the operation. The Silver City Reduction Works went by several names before it was finally scaped. It was originally build by the Hearst family to handle gold and silver ores hauled from their Pinos Altos mines. This were d

• ifficult years for th
• e operation, and a final crunch came in 1902. The plan
• s was handling just about every ore it
• could get
• 4 horizontal and vertical saws (to 32 inches)
• - custom smelting in
• cluded. And t
• hat meant copper was among those ores. Copper, in fact, was such a vital part
• of the smelter's dail
• y operations that
• depressed copper
• market conditions forc
• ed a closure of the smelter. That was in April. On June 30, 30, 1903, the plant caught fire and was leveled. Silver Cit