New Mexico History

Did you know that one of Red River's most unassuming little houses once served as the town's contagious ward? At the northwest corner of Jayhawk Trail and High Street stands a one-story, square building with a gabled roof and a small porch, known today as the Red River Miner's Hospital, or the Westoby House. It was not built where it stands.

Read more about The Miner's Hospital That Became a Home: The Westoby House of Red River

Black-and-white photograph, circa 1980, of the Little Red School House in Red River, New Mexico, a one-room pressed-metal schoolhouse with a cupola below forested slopes.

Sunday, October 18, 2026

Read more about A Slow Sunday in Red River: The Little Red Schoolhouse and a Town That Kept Its Past

Judy Miller skiing at Powder Puff Mountain in Red River in the 1970s, in a red ski suit with a rope tow behind her.

Did you know Red River once had two ski areas? Just west of town, a small beginner hill called Powder Puff Mountain taught generations of first-timers to turn, stop, and fall in love with winter in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It was never the biggest mountain in New Mexico, and that was exactly the point. Powder Puff was friendly, close, and built for learning.

Read more about Powder Puff Mountain: Red River's Little Beginner Hill That Taught a Town to Ski

Recent photograph of the Big Five (Oro Fino) gold mine site on Bitter Creek above Red River, New Mexico: rusted remains of the 1921 waterwheel power plant in the foreground, a pond, and the mine cabin standing on the hillside

A visitor's 1970 jeep tour sparked a fresh look at the Big Five gold mine above 10,000 feet on Bitter Creek, where the cabin, pond, and rusted 1921 waterwheel plant still stand.

Read more about The Big Five: Bitter Creek's Stubborn Gold Mine

The wooden flume that carried Red River water toward the Elizabethtown gold workings, photographed in the 1910s or 1920s.

Henri Lambert cooked for President Lincoln and General Grant before heading west to Elizabethtown, where he fed miners instead of prospecting and built the St. James Hotel.

Read more about From Lincoln's Kitchen to Elizabethtown: Henri Lambert and the Legend of the St. James

The Pierce-Fuller House in Red River, photographed in 2012.

At Silver Bell and High Street, the Pierce-Fuller House survives from Red River's homesteader days, a sign the mining camp had become a hometown where families put down roots.

Read more about The Pierce-Fuller House: A Two-Story Cabin From Red River's Homesteader Days

The underside of a wooden mining flume in the mountains near Red River in the 1910s.

Eight miles northeast of Red River, the gold camp of La Belle rose in four months in 1894 to some 80 buildings and 700 people, then vanished within six years of its founding.

Read more about La Belle: The Gold Camp That Rose in Four Months and Vanished in Six Years

Snow-covered slopes and a lift station at Taos Ski Valley in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

In 1955, ski pioneer Ernie Blake spotted a perfect mountain from his Cessna over the old copper camp of Twining, moved his family into a camper, and built Taos Ski Valley.

Read more about From Copper Camp to Ski Legend: Ernie Blake's Bold Vision That Became Taos Ski Valley

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