Hurley, NM

In 2020, Hurley had 1,256 residents, set along U.S. 180 a few miles north of Bayard and within the old copper belt east of Silver City. Long before the modern town, Spanish miners heard about copper near the rock formation now called the Kneeling Nun. Santa Rita del Cobre was established as a fort for miners brought from Mexico, and ore traveled south by mule train. The big industrial turn came in 1910, when John Murchison Sully introduced open-pit mining to the Chino–Kennecott operation.

Hurley itself was built as a company town. The wooden company store on Cortez Avenue dates to 1910, and the brick payroll and mercantile building next door followed in 1912. A smelter and its tall stacks later dominated the district before the smelter closed and the stacks came down in 2007. Copper production at Chino continues through electrowinning, so the mining story still shapes the local economy and the views around town. Hurley is a good starting point for the Silver City area, with the Geronimo Trail, mining roads, and the Kneeling Nun tying the town to the larger southwest New Mexico landscape.