Add one more rationale to the growing list of reasons to visit Silver City, the sunny, arts-oriented Southwestern New Mexico town perched at 6,000 feet atop the Continental Divide. For those willing to make the gorgeous drive, award-winning restaurants serving innovative, scrumptious meals await. Saveur, Gastronomica, and the New York Times have all sung praises to the creative chefs in this community of about 10,000. “You’re in for something good,” the Times assured, in this low-key town of “big flavors.”
Silver City, a three-hour drive from El Paso, Texas, or Tucson, Arizona, via Interstate 10, or a four-hour trip from Albuquerque, south on I-25, has a lively history. Founded as a rough-and-ready mining camp and still a copper mining town, Silver City retains a Wild West ambiance through the stately 19th-century architecture and cast-iron facades of its pedestrian-friendly downtown. Saloons where Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, and Judge Roy Bean likely drank have been replaced by a potpourri of galleries, antique stores, boutique hotels, retail shops, and coffeehouses.
A temperate mix of four mild seasons makes Silver City a year-round destination. Silver City is the gateway to the 3.3-million acre Gila National Forest and the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. The Apache chief Geronimo was born near the headwaters of the Gila River, a destination for fishing, birding, and outdoor enthusiasts.
In recent years an influx of artists and entrepreneurs has wrought a unique cultural palette reflected in a diverse array of annual events. Chances are something will be going on when you hit town. Festivals frequently occur in this vibrant town that also has a micro-brewery, farmer’s market, tree-shaded stream, over fifty murals, three bicycle shops, and a decorative-tile factory.
This “richly textured living collage,” as one writer describes Silver City, is one of the West’s most enchanting communities.
