"The months ahead are filled with exciting events in the Silver City area," according to Camille Clark, the new director for the Silver City Grant County Chamber of Commerce. The Silver City calendar is peppered with exciting events that really capture the romance of this southwestern town.

In March, Showcase 2002 will be held Easter Weekend the 29th-31st in the WNMU intramural gymnasium. Come and see all that Silver City and Grant County has to offer! Great food, entertainment and a chance to see the finest businesses, products and services from the area. Booth space is still available for organizations that are interested in participating. Call the Chamber for details (505) 538-3785.

April 28th The Gila Monster Inner Loop Ride kicks off the bike racing season. There will be multiple races of various lengths. But the Monster is a 107 mile race that is fully supported with multiple food and drink stations. The bulk of the 500 to 3000 participants are expected to be amateurs of all ages. This "fun ride" is a fundraiser for future cycling education and safety events, as well as a mentoring program that gives bikes to at-risk kids. For more information contact Jamie Thompson (505)538-6635.

May is definitely the month to be in Silver City for three key events: the Tour of the Gila, the Silver City Blues Festival, and the Wild, Wild West Pro Rodeo.

May 1-5 is New Mexico’s premier road race the Tour of the Gila. As a race placed on the national calendar by USA Cycling, the Tour of the Gila draws professional cyclists from across the globe. The Gila is one of the Nation’s only five (5) day races. Its difficultly and duration make it a challenge for the sport’s top athletes. For more information (as it becomes available) check out: http://www.tourofthegila.com.

Mark your calendars for Silver City Annual Blues Fest May 24-26. Set on the edge of the Gila National Wilderness this event drew thousands to enjoy blues in Southwest New Mexico. So make plans to sit, relax and enjoy the cool sound of blues on a warm spring weekend. Look here for more info: http://www.mrac.cc/bluesfest/home.htm.

The Wild, Wild West Pro Rodeo will be May 29- June 1. A parade, golf tournament, Cowboy Breakfast and other kickoff events set the stage for some of the Nation’s hotest rodeo competitors to enter the arena. Rodeo events will include Bull and Bronco Riding and other Roughstock Tying events and for the ladies, Barrel Racing and Breakaway roping.

June 13-18, Silver City will be kicking off a truly captivating event, the Air Race Classic 2002, Wings Across America. This all women’s air race will cover ten states and 2,166 miles. The 26th annual Air Race Classic will start in Silver City, New Mexico (June 18) and finish in Chesapeake/Portsmouth, Virginia (June 21). It is the the longest all-woman race in the world. Racers run the gamut of age and experience from students to professionals, astronauts to homemakers. To learn more see http://www.ninety-nines.org/arc.html. Contact the Chamber for details about the Kick Off.

Of course in July, Independence Day festivities are the highlight. Silver City recreates the tradition, charm, pride and patriotism of "old-Time" small town July Fourth celebrations, complete with Parade, Ice Cream Social, Bands, and Fireworks, of course.

One final note for Silver City offerings, the Chamber of Commerce is now holding monthly luncheons for members and future members. Special presentations by experts will be the highlight of the events. As always, there will be opportunities to network with other Chamber members. February’s luncheon will be held Noon on the 27th at Red Barn Family Steakhouse. Arnold Cordova, of The Association of Commerce and Industry, will be giving details on the 2002 New Mexico Legislative Session, which will have just ended.

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Today Cathy McCarty, the mother of Billy the Kid, rests in a cemetery off Highway 180 leading into Silver City.

In 1873, Silver City resident Louis Abraham, a boyhood friend of Henry McCarty as he was known then, described her as a "jolly Irish lady, full of fun and mischief." But for being the mother of Billy the Kid, history would probably never know the name of Catherine McCarty. One hundred and twenty-five years later, history still knows precious little about her.

What we know of her today comes mainly from interviews with many of her friends and aquaintances in Silver City, New Mexico, where she lived for two years until her death in 1874. Those who visited her household often speak of the hospitality they received and the good home she made for her family.

Her world revolved around her two young sons, Joseph and Henry, and on her deathbed, she confided to Clara Truesdale, who nursed her, that she was worried about leaving them in a "wild country." If Catherine McCarty-Antrim had lived beyond her 45 years, history might have changed that day and the world would never have heard the name of Billy the Kid.

She who gave birth to the Southwest’s most celebrated outlaw was herself born in Ireland around 1829. Her surname, parents and siblings, if any, are a complete mystery and may never be known. During the Irish potato famine of 1845, Catherine emigrated to New York City at the tender age of seventeen. A Catherine McCarty is listed on board the passenger ship Devonshire as it departed Liverpool, arriving on American shores April 10, 1846. After her arrival, Catherine found herself all alone in a city overflowing with other immigrants from all over the world, seeking as she did, a better life for themselves. It must have been a terrifying experience for her as she made her way through the streets and back alleys, constantly aware of the numerous thugs loitering in the shadows.

For the next several years, Catherine’s life and whereabouts are in dispute. We know she gave birth to two sons, Joseph and Henry, AKA Billy the kid, probably in New York. Joseph, the older brother, was born in 1854, and died in Colorado on November 25, 1930, at the age of seventy-six. Young Henry, it is thought, was born in 1859. But other questions arise: Who was their father? Did they have different fathers, and if so, what were their names?

A number of western historians such as the late Philip J. Rasch and others have endevoured to solve these mysteries of the McCarty genealogy but with only limited success. The sheer number of Catherine McCarty’s listed in the federal census for New York in 1850 makes it virtually impossible to distinguish her from the rest. As noted Lincoln County War historian Frederick Nolan has speculated in his Documentary History, Catherine may well have been a "fallen girl," forced to live a life on the streets of New York with two illegitimate children. Sometime after her arrival in New York, Catherine learned she had contracted tuberculosis, or "galloping consumption," as it was called in her day.

On the advise of doctors, she moved her family west, taking up residence in southern Indiana around 1866. It was here she would meet William Henry Harrison Antrim, her future husband. Antrim was a veteran of the Union Army and had served with Company "I" of the 54th Regiment of the Indiana Volunteer Infantry as a private until receiving an honorable discharge from service in September 1863. Three years later in 1869, the McCarty family again pulled up their stakes and with help from Mr. Antrim moved to Wichita, Kansas, where Catherine would open and operate a hand laundry service. Antrim, whose property adjoined the McCarty’s, turned to farming, carpentry, and tending bar part-time in the local saloons.

Once again, Catherine’s health began failing her and friends urged her to seek a more arid, dryer climate. With his fortunes fading in Kansas, Antrim had become afflicted with gold fever and informed neighbor Catherine of his plans to journey west to Denver Colorado, to try his luck at prospecting; she agreed to accompany him. Then, with nothing to show for his efforts in Denver, Antrim brought Catherine and her two sons to Santa Fe in New Mexico Territory, where they stayed with his sister Mary Antrim Hollinger. Up until now, Catherine’s relationship with William Antrim seemed cordial enough to allow her to join him in his travels. They had come to know each other well for the last several years, and on March 1, 1873, they were married at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe. The service was ministered by Rev. David F. McFarland and witnessed by a Mr. Harvey Edmonds, Mrs. A.R. McFarland, her daughter Katie, and by Catherine’s two sons Joseph and Henry.

Almost immediately after their wedding, Antrim’s ears were filled with rumors of rich silver strikes in the small mining town of Silver City in Southwestern New Mexico, and he quickly moved his new family there. In William Antrim’s mind, it was all finally coming together for him. He was now living in a log cabin with a new wife and two new stepsons, surrounded near and far by mines with the potential to make a man rich. Catherine spent much of her time making a home for her sons and cooking pies and other assortments which she sold easily to the local citizenry. Years later, boyhood friends of Henry and Joseph would rave about "what a good cook Mrs. Bill Antrim was." Catherine loved kids, and after school all the neighborhood boys raced for the Antrim cabin where she would greet them with a smile and freshly baked cookies. Although the Antrim household was a happy one, it was far from a prosperous, as husband William was away most of the time in the mines. For badly needed extra money, Catherine took in boarders from time to time. In 1874, Ash Upson, the newspaperman who would later help Pat Garrett write The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, and who later claimed to have written every word, boarded with the Antrim family. Upson wrote of her as, "about medium in height, straight, and graceful in form, with regular features, light blue eyes, and luxuriant golden hair. She was not what the world calls a beauty, but a fine looking woman. A lady by instinct and education."

For a time, Catherine’s health seemed to be on the mend. With an energy unknown to her for some years, she and son Henry joined in the fun at the town bailes (dances) held every week. Louis Abraham remarked that "Mrs. Antrim could dance the Highland Fling as well as the best of the dancers." But during the spring of that year, Catherine was again feeling weak. After treatments of warm sulphur water baths failed to restore her health, Catherine was confined to her bed for the next four months.

As she lay in bed gasping for breath and coughing up crimson, Catherine realized she was dying. With her husband gone, her only concern was for the well-being of her two boys. As a last request she asked Clara Truesdale, her nurse, to look after them. Shortly afterwards, on September 16, 1874, Catherine McCarty-Antrim closed her eyes for the last time. She was only 45 years old. Three days later her obituary appeared in the town newspaper, The Silver City Mining Life:

"Died in Silver City on Wednesday, the 16th, Catherine, wife of William Antrim, aged 45 years. Mrs. Antrim with her husband and family came to Silver City about one year and a half ago, since which time her health has not been good, having suffered from an affection of the lungs, and for the last four months she has been confined to her bed. The funeral occurred from the family residence on Main Street at 2 o’clock on Thursday."

Today the mother of Billy the Kid rests peacefully in a cemetery off Highway 180 leading into Silver City, New Mexico. Her marker, although misspelled, reads simply:

In Memory of Mrs. Kathrine Antrim

1829-1874

"The Mother of Billy the Kid"

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An area landscape by Benjamin. Photo by Bill Winkley

Visitors to the Silver City area will soon find its art scene is alive and thriving. In this part of New Mexico, many artists have been born, raised and nurtured in their art. Others, who have migrated from other parts of the nation and abroad, have helped bring diversity and enrichment to our local culture.

Art has been central to our desert and mountains since the earliest settlers created and decorated their pots and bowls and told their stories on the walls of caves and cliffs. No one could fully appreciate the richness of our lifestyle without experiencing the vibrancy of our art. For this we owe a debt of gratitude to all these artists, from the earliest Mimbreno to the artist who recently settled here. Our heritage is an artistic heritage.

Harry Benjamin holds a key role in our art heritage, one he shares with very few other artists. His knowledge, experience, commitment and, most importantly, his exquisite work attest to the contribution this man makes to our community and to those who discover our area.

"Few artists have so steeped their lives in their art. Harry paints some ten hours a day! He has taught many of our youth to find and express the artists within themselves. He was a major factor in the establishment of the Silver City Museum, having served as its first curator. He has been a board member since its inception and has served as board president for the past five years. To all of us who practice art, Harry is a role model and an inspiration!" said Jacqueline Shaw, artist and owner of the A.I.R. (Artist-in-Residence) Espresso Bar.

"Harry is probably the best artist in our area," she continued. "Nobody captures the soul of our magnificent outdoors like Harry does in his dramatic, realistic and beautiful landscapes. Many of his pieces hang in local homes, in businesses and in public buildings. Others hang across the nation and abroad. It is impossible to be a part of the art scene here, be it as an artist, a teacher, a collector, or simply an ‘appreciator’, and not be aware of the huge presence of Harry Benjamin and his work!"

Benjamin was born, raised and educated in Grant County. After completing his degree in fine arts at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, he studied at the Art Center School in Los Angeles. He has worked as an artist, teacher, curator and mentor ever since. Harry owns and operates the What’s A Pot Shop, his gallery and studio at 300 N. Arizona. He is open every day except Sunday from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. afternoons. Visitors are welcome to ramble through the fascinating and varied body of work he offers, watch him paint and chat with him about his life and art.

His commitment to being an artist began as a very young boy. "Since I was seven years of age, I knew I wanted to be an artist. At that age I would paint with my aunt, my inspiration and first instructor. I sold my first piece, a pot, at 19 years of age," he said. "I love my profession and actually get attached to my works, usually feeling lonesome for a while when someone buys a piece. Maybe that’s why I often take months to complete a painting; I hate to give them up. Mine is a labor of love. Although I will take commissions, I refuse to accept any payment until the piece is finished. I don’t want to rush and I cannot abide a client pushing me to complete a piece. Art cannot be forced. Rather it is found and allowed to express itself."

It is this profound conviction that leads him to his belief that all of us are artists. "When a person looks at my work and says, ‘I wish I could do that,’ I quite honestly tell them they can. Second graders are the best artists there are because they don’t know they are not supposed to be artists, that only a cherished few have been so ordained! Their minds are beautifully open to the mystery of art, and they produce some of the best art I have seen. The big secret is that we all still have that capacity. We simply have shut down to the opportunity and are afraid to try to rediscover it."

Benjamin especially enjoys teaching workshops for kids. "Being outside the classroom atmosphere gives kids even more freedom. When they come to these sessions they come solely to paint. Do they ever produce some fine work!"

He brings optimism, confidence and hope to those who have long wanted to "take the plunge" and find their creativity. "I’ve loved teaching classes to elderly folks. People at that time in their lives tend to become more like children in dropping their inhibitions and defenses and finding that childlike openness and spontaneity. I often see exciting work among this crowd as well," he said.

When asked what one gift he would give our community, Benjamin stated without hesitation, "An art museum! I wish our city government were in a position to support such a facility; how I would love to support such an effort – support it but not lead it," he smiled, obviously remembering the work it took to get the Silver City Museum up and running.

If we had an artist laureate, and maybe we should, few people in the community would question the wisdom and aptness in Harry Benjamin’s designation. Among the many art treasures our area can boast, he is certainly one of the finest.

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Silver City, New Mexico. Photo by Carla DeMarco

Tucked against rolling mountain foothills at 5,920 feet, Silver City’s mild climate, Victorian charm, friendly people and proximity to the Gila Wilderness have for decades attracted adventurers and people seeking a healthy, low-key lifestyle. Longtime mining and ranching influences commingle with such growing segments as retirees, entrepreneurs, artists and naturalists.

The Mimbres and Gila river valleys near Silver City once nourished the prehistoric Mogollon and Mimbres Indian cultures who farmed the rich soil and produced their famed pottery. Later, the nomadic Apaches succumbed to the Spanish, Mexican and American settlers.

Silver City sprang to life in the summer of 1870 as a tent city shortly after John Bullard opened a silver mine. As optimism grew, townspeople began to build houses based on permanence using bricks made from local clay. The fruits of this labor are still standing in Silver City’s five historic districts. Once the silver was depleted, copper took its place as a major area industry. In recent years, tourism has also become an important economic contributor. Silver City’s population is currently 12,500 while Grant County has swollen to 28,740.

As the county seat, Silver City is the educational and cultural center for Grant, Luna and Hidalgo counties. Western New Mexico University has served as a hub of higher learning since 1893. The Mimbres Region Arts Council provides ongoing performances, exhibits and arts education in the schools. Annual jazz and blues Festivals draw crowds from around the region. The San Vicente Artists sponsor an arts festival in the Big Ditch annually, and the new annual Renaissance Fair is growing in popularity. Rodeos, a Bird and Nature Fest, and Cowboy Poetry festivals also enhance the cultural atmosphere of this small yet thriving town.

Downtown, Main Street Project has helped transform Bullard and Broadway streets by assisting businesses with restoration projects. Sidewalks were recently replaced, and trees were planted throughout. A project is underway to acquire historic replicas of pedestrian streetlamps.

Ten parks, two swimming pools, two museums, Billy the Kid sites, an 18 hole golf course, a bowling center, fine arts auditorium and two movie theaters offer plenty of recreational outlets.

Area attractions include Bear Canyon Lake, Lake Roberts, Faywood Hot Springs, Gila Hot Springs, Gila National Forest, Gila Cliff Dwellings, City of Rocks, Bill Evans Lake, Santa Rita Open Pit Copper Mine, Pinos Altos (historic town), the Catwalk, Mogollon Ghost Town and the Trail of the Mountain Spirits.

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Historic Home in Silver City, New Mexico

What do a real estate agent, nurse, graphic designer, importer, building designer, retired flight attendant, and two artists have in common? They all say they found joy in renovating historic buildings in Silver City, New Mexico for commercial and residential uses.

"I think there’s a stronger than ever appreciation for Silver City’s original buildings now," says Smith Real Estate broker, Becky Smith, who lists the town’s "last two-story brick Victorian fixer-upper" and recently restored and moved her company into a 5,000 square-foot Victorian with mission-style updates located in the downtown historic district.

Silver City’s much-touted uniqueness must in large part be credited to its abundant collection of historic structures dating from 1870. The town boasts five historic districts, four of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, comprised primarily of brick victorians, territorial adobes and bungalows. "Silver started out as a town built from brick and adobe rather than sticks, like other towns," Smith explains. "It was settled by people from the East, and they brought with them the architecture they knew – brick Victorian." Such earth-based building materials served another purpose: Many western towns using wood construction around the turn of the century met with fiery demise. Silver was built to last.

Over the years, Silver City’s economy and, consequently, its housing market, has vacillated in step with local mining companies’ ups and downs. In recent years a growth surge, spurred by diversification of base industries, copper’s standing in the global marketplace, and aggressive outreach efforts by the Chamber of Commerce and economic development organizations, had been driving prices up at a rate that worried many townspeople. But that incline seems to be leveling. "The market for existing homes has been really healthy over the last ten years," Smith said. "It only began to plateau this year as new home construction increased supply slightly ahead of demand."

Silver attracts three kinds of buyers, Smith explains: Those who want new homes, those who want existing homes that don’t need much work, and those who want to revitalize old homes. With a half-dozen new subdivisions spanning all price ranges in progress, the town now offers something for everyone, she said

Among Silver’s historic home buyers, the majority stay and put down roots rather than buy, sell, and split, said city planning director, Jenny Brekhus. That’s because a certain kind of person is attracted to Silver City’s small, old neighborhoods, and that person enters into a labor of love with her project.

"It is so astonishingly singular here," said Ky Taylor, a Tucson resident and retired Pan American Airlines flight attendant who purchased three hundred-year-old shacks on Pinos Altos Rd, in the Chihuahua Hill district and is painstakingly restoring them into short term rentals. She knew for years she would one day undertake such a project, and after scouring the world, she decided Silver City was the place to do it.

"Silver City is a tapestry for the eyes," she said, warning the town "needs to guard itself ‘tooth and nail,’ because all of Santa Fe looked like this in the late 40’s and early 50’s."

"You’d have to be dead in the water not to catch the flavor of this town," she continued. "You have old, muddy trucks piled with hay driven by cowboys with big, black handlebar moustaches; you see kids rising early and staying up late because they’re having so much fun; you see laundry flapping on clotheslines and neighbors sitting on front porches, hollering back and forth. This is the real thing, not something ’staged’ like in northern New Mexico. The "world’s greatest adventure – the American West – is still functioning here."

Silver City, New Mexico

Taylor thinks Silver’s down home appeal will endure as long as solid industries like mining and "honest-to-God agriculture" remain a way of life. "These fabulous, big working mines producing an international commodity bring highly skilled, substantial people here from around the world. We have a fascinating, varied cultural mix. As long as there are people here who need to work and are able to find decent work, I don’t think Silver will go the way of Santa Fe and become a rich kids’ playground. Santa Fe had no industries."

Historic home buyers like Taylor know what they want: quality of life, Silver’s biggest marketing magnet. And it’s true. Silver’s proximity to forests, lakes, desert and mountains, its robust downtown, architectural variety, friendly people, incredible climate, university, strong arts community, good roads to nearby cities, and unhurried small town atmosphere are big draws. "How can you beat such a place?" Taylor asks. Yet, she also points out, not everyone appreciates this semi-hip, semi-cow town. "But that’s fine," she said. "Those unadventurous people get sifted out to places like Las Vegas by Route 66 and I-10."

For Taylor, the search was methodical. Connie Long, a nurse and student working on her masters degree, was swayed by chance and practicality. On a relocation scouting trip through New Mexico from Arizona, she considered, then discounted, Santa Fe, thinking, "I’ll never be able to own anything here." Then, happening upon Silver City, she realized, "This is where I can get out of the fast lane." She found a 1886 Victorian farmhouse style fixer-upper, enrolled in Western New Mexico University, and busied herself with school and renovations for three years. Now, with a move to Colorado planned her home is listed for $139,900, and although she assumes she’ll do well in the sale, she says she didn’t take on the project as an investment. "I just loved the house and wanted to give it some T.L.C. And I needed a place to live. You can’t measure everything in dollars and cents. There’s value in having said you’ve done it."

Graphics designer Laura Howell and her husband, Anthony, who sells his paintings and drawings domestically and abroad, wanted to live and work in a downtown commercial building in a small town. In 1992, the two purchased their dream house, a 1936 Spanish Revival storefront on Market Street and have since been transforming it into a reception office, studios, upstairs apartment, and lovely courtyard with fountain. "People told us we were crazy to raise a family downtown," said Laura. "But having lived in New York, we knew it was not a big deal; we weren’t scared. The space fit our needs. Remodeling has been expensive but worth it. It’s sort of like recycling."

Another artist/professor, Zoe Wolfe, and her husband, Steve Shelendich, a custom home designer, were looking for "a place they could afford in a growing community where they could use their skills and make a difference." In 1994, they pictured the potential in a 1941 Pueblo Deco "dump" on Cooper, once a meat locker and freezer plant, that had been on the market five years. They renovated the complex into two office spaces, an artist studio and gallery with center courtyard and curved surrounding wall. Shelendich’s Silver Design Service occupies one of the offices. The couple lived in the complex until last year when they completed construction on a new home north of town. "With sweat equity, we’ve tripled or quadrupled the value of our property," said Wolfe, "and we’ve created a working space and income."

Pinon Plaza in Silver City, New Mexico

One of Silver City’s pivotal renovations took place from 1990-1992 when the shoddy-yet-sturdy, adobe-construction Clark Motel on Hwy. 180 was transformed into the now-picturesque, 13-unit Pueblo style Piñon Plaza.

"I thought a cute southwestern style shopping center would be real eye-catching for tourists," said Sandra Massengill, a former El Paso importer who developed the property with her mother, Betty Cecil , three years before the town’s renovation trend had fully mushroomed.

"Like a domino effect, other eyesores around us started getting facelifts almost immediately," she said, adding, "It’s been a wonderful experience. We’ve had 100% occupancy since we opened."

Another prominent project Massengill undertook with her husband, Jim, the College Street Plaza, won the Main Street Building of the Year Award for 1996. The Mediterranean/Mexican style, 18-unit office/store front complex with courtyard and parking lot rose from a 1950’s office building and a 1930’s apartment house covering one square block. As with Piñon Plaza, Massengill’s payoff has been 100% occupancy.

Although fresh facades are popping up nearly everywhere in Silver City, not all of its sleeping beauties have been reawakened. "I think my mission of wiping out every ugly building in Silver City would be close to complete if someone would take on the old hospital," Massengill said.

"There are still projects to be had," said broker Becky Smith. "I think the old buildings are a good investment because there is a limited supply product with a consistent demand. But there are no more bargain basement prices. The Victorian house in crummy condition you could get for $20,000 15 years ago is now $75,000-$100,000. And there is a need for historic preservation zoning to ensure we don’t lose these lovely old homes

Updated ordinances and zoning, a steady supply of good-paying jobs, infrastructure support – these things will help Silver city grow and develop properly, say people who have invested time, money and love in its historic buildings.

As city planners and economic developers tackle those challenges, Silver’s historic renovations continue to improve the town’s aesthetics, pleasing both owners and citizens. "If you believe that art and architecture can influence people’s lives, and that part of what attracts people to a place is the way it looks and feels, you’d agree that virtually everybody who lives here has some appreciation for Silver City’s architectural uniqueness, whether conscious or unconscious," said Smith.!

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