Join Mary Kay Shannon for a two-hour tour of the Slumbering Mountain Cemetery in Organ, NM. Learn about the mining history of the area and visit the Organ “Jail”. “Meet” Jefferson Ake who served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Later he also served in the Mexican Army as Profirio Diaz’s bodyguard; and get acquainted with Louis Bentley, owner of noted Bently Store.
“The initial mining camp of Organ was officially established as a community back in 1883, though there had been mining activity since the late 1840s. The town’s greatest population was around eighteen hundred at the turn of the century. At that time, Organ had seven saloons, a Catholic church, a two-teacher schoolhouse, two smelters, two general stores and a tunnel jail that was originally a powder magazine. In the 1930s the mines in the area became inundated with water and were no longer feasible for use and with the onset of the Great Depression, mining operations ceased. However, with the opening of White Sands Missile Range and the testing of the Nuclear Bomb in 1945, Organ began to thrive again as a community providing homes and leisure services to military personnel and government contractors.” – New Mexico True
Meet at 10 a.m. at the cemetery. To get there from Hwy 70 turn north on First Street, right on Furnace, left on Heavenly Lane (a dirt road) to the cemetery Coordinates: 32.42827, -106.59799
Organizer
