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LORDSBURG, THE COUNTY SEAT
Another prominent town, now the county seat, is Lordsburg, which was founded as a railroad town on the Southern Pacific line in 1880. It was named for railroad supervisor Delbert Lord, who decided to locate a town exactly halfway between El Paso, TX and Tucson, AZ. Elizabeth Garrett, blind daughter of Pat Garrett, the famous sheriff who shot Billy the Kid, wrote New Mexico's official state song, "O Fair New Mexico", in Lordsburg in 1917.
Some early Lordsburg pioneers were John Muir, Willard Holt, Joe Leahy, J. P. Ownby, Emma Marble, E. M. Fisher, Sam Gass, and Nat Gammon, among others. Some well-known celebrities to visit Lordsburg in the early days have been silent film star Tom Mix, 1912 presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, and 1948 candidate Harry S Truman. Charles Lindburgh landed at the Lordsburg airport during his cross-country trip in 1927 after his famous New York to Paris flight. Aviator Amelia Earhart visited the Lordsburg airport as well. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor attended some of her school years here. And Lordsburg was the site of a prisoner of war camp, located east of town, where Nazi POWs were confined during World War II.
HIDALGO COUNTY BECOMES OFFICIAL
Hidalgo County was created in 1919 after being annexed from neighboring Grant County. This was done, in part, to shorten the great distances that the people of Lordsburg and towns to the south had to travel in order to reach Silver City, the county seat. Hidalgo County's birthday is Feb. 25th, 1919, when the New Mexico state legislators met in session and passed the act that officially created the new county. New Mexico had just become a state only seven years before, in 1912. On Jan. 1st, 1920, Hidalgo County began the New Year with its property valued by the State Tax Commission at $6,498,358. According to the late Ena Mitchell, long-time Hidalgo County resident and pioneer, one of the names considered for the newly formed county was "Pyramid County", after the Pyramid Mountains prominent to the south of Lordsburg. The name "Hidalgo" was chosen in honor of Miguel Dolores Hidalgo, who led the revolution in Mexico in 1810, which eventually led to its independence from Spain. Hidalgo County's courthouse was dedicated on Sept. 5th, 1927 and cost $40,000. to build. Prior to this, the Muir & Birchfield Building and the original Knights of Pythias building (now demolished) were leased to house the county offices. Hidalgo County shares 86 miles of the Mexican border. It is bordered to the north and east by Grant County, to the west by the state of Arizona, and to the south by the country of Mexico. Because of its shape, this area is known as the "bootheel"
PRESENT DAY
Many changes have occurred in Hidalgo County since the early days, most notable among them the construction in the early 1970s and eventual closure in 1999 of the multi-million dollar Phelps-Dodge copper smelter located in Playas. The town of Playas was purchased in early 2004 by the Department of Homeland Security, to be administered by New Mexico Tech University for anti-terrorist training. Lordsburg today is a modern, progressive town which features a new Department of Public Safety building, medical complex, Special Events center, nursing home, museum, water park and more. Annual events in Lordsburg include the popular Tejano Fiesta and the Cowboy Poetry Festival. Other Hidalgo County towns include Animas, with its well known school system; Rodeo, known for its art galleries; Virden, famous for its farms; and Cotton City, with its chile-packing plant and geothermal-heated rose greenhouses. All Hidalgo County towns boast low crime rates and friendly people. Hidalgo County also features the Mexican border crossing facility at Antelope Wells, gateway the Mexican town of Janos, Lordsburg's sister city. The mild climate of Hidalgo County makes it the perfect place to raise a family or to retire.
The mountains and deserts of Hidalgo County offer sportsmen the opportunity to hunt mule deer, Coues' white-tailed deer, black bear, mountain lion, javelina, quail and other game. The Coronado National Forest provides camping, hiking and rock hounding, as well as offering bird watchers the chance to see rare Mexican bird species. In the late 1970s, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish chose the Peloncillo Mountains as their choice to re-introduce the endangered desert bighorn sheep. For history lovers, guided tours are led into Skeleton Canyon to Geronimo's surrender site, which is located on private property. For information and tour dates, call guide Bill Cavaliere at (505) 436-2371. Tours are also given at the ghost towns of Shakespeare and Steins as well. Furthermore, the remoteness of parts of Hidalgo County, as well as its well-preserved ghost towns, provides Hollywood producers with excellent locations for filming movies. Some of the movies and television shows shot in Hidalgo County have been "Doc Holliday", "The Treasure of Skeleton Canyon", "Time Out", "Chooch", and "Unsolved Mysteries", among others. Among the movie stars to film in Hidalgo County recently have been Tom Reese (The Greatest Story Ever Told, Murderer's Row), Don Stroud (Mike Hammer, License to Kill), Patricia Arquette (True Romance, Holes), Richard Bright (The Godfather, The Getaway) and Geoffrey Lewis (Every Which Way But Loose, Maverick).
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