Morphy Lake State Park is one of the least
accessibleof New Mexico's state parks. The
lake can be reachedby paved road NM-g+,
either south from Mora, or northwest from
Sapelloto the village of Ledoux. From Ledoux, an unimproved road continues west
t
Morphy Loke Store Pork
Geologic setting
Morphy Lake, alsoknown as Murphy Lake,
occupiesa small natural basin on the east
slopeof the Sangrede Cristo Mountains. Altitude of the lake is7,840 ft above sealevel.
To the west the high ridge on the skyline
rises to almost 12,000ft.
beginning of Paleozoictime, about 500 million yrs ago, the now-mountainousareahas
undergonemany changes.For much of the
early part of the Paleozoic,the areawas covered by a large inland sea; limestone, consisting primarily of the debris from the
invertebratesthat inhabitedthat sea,was deposited.During subsequentintervalsof erosion, most of theselavers of limestonewere
stripped from north'ern New Mexico, although they can still be seenin the southern
part of the state. The oldest Paleozoicsedimentspreservedin the Sangrede Cristosare,
i'
t'sl
Mississippian fossiliferous limestones that
accumulatedin a vast marine sea that covered the areaabout 340million yrs ago. These
Uplift of the Sangrede Cristo Mountains rocks are present a short distance west of
beganat about the closeof the MesozoicEra Ledoux, but they are mostly hidden by soils
some70million yrs ago.Erosionhas stripped and vegetation.away much of the younger sediments lhat
The seacontinued to coverthe areaduring
once covered the present site of the moun- the next period of geologic time known as
tains, exposing the old Precambrianrocks the Pennsylvanian.However, during the early
seenbetweenMora and Ledoux and alsoun- to middle part of this period, mountains beder the high ridge west of Morphy Lake. gan to form to the north and west. Debris
Laboratory*datinfof the granite south of Le- that eroded from thesemountains spreadto
doux indicates that the mountains formed the east,building alluvial plains of sandsand
1.4billion yrs ago. The schistsand quartzites clays.Sandstonesthat formed from the sands
exposed near Mora are older than ihe gran- can be seenin the ledgesalong the eastand
ite, but unfortunately their radioactive"clocks" south sides of Morphy Lake. As uplift conwere resetwhen they were intruded and me- tinued, more and more sands and gravels
were dumped into the areauntil as much as
10,000ft of sediment accumulated;during
the sametime the shorelineof the great sea
recededfar to the eastand south. As erosion
continued, the mountains diminished in
height and areaso that by mid-Permian time,
about the end of the PaleozoicEra, the land
began to subside gradually and the sea advanced northward once more to the vicinity
of Mora.
With the beginning of the Mesozoic Era,
about 220 million yrc ago, the sea retreated
from New Metco. For the next 100 million
yrs the land surfacegenerally remained low,
crossedby meandering streamsand dotted
by lakesand sanddunes. Only low hills were
left of the mountain rangesto the north and
west. Finally, during the latter part of Cretaceoustime, about 100 million yrs ago, the
area subsided again and was covered by a
sea that inundated the entire western interior of the United Statesand Canada.In this
great sea,thick layersof sandstoneand shale,
with abundantremainsof life from that time,
were deposited.
The general uplift of the present Sangre
de Cristo Mountains resultedin folding and
faulting of the sediments that once covered
the area. Remnants of Mississippian and
Pennsylvanian rocks are preserved in the
range. The younger rocks that eroded from
the mountains are beneath the plains to the
eastand can be seenbestbetweenLas Vegas
and Mora where they were turned up on end
and now form the hogbacksflanking the east
side of the Rocky Mountains.
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78
November 1984 New Mexico Geology
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CRETACEOUS
Looking west from Morphy Lake, the
highest point is Cebolla Mountain at 11,870
ft. North of this peak several small, bowlshaped or amphitheatrelike reentrants occur in the ridge of Precambrianrocks.These
featureswere formed by small mountain glaciers that developedon the east side of ihe
photocollection
NMBMMR
byRobertW.
Eveleth,
NewMexico
Bureau
ol MinesandMineral
Resources,
Socorro,
NM87801
Ho for the silver camps of the the Black
Range!Suchwas the cry of the 19th century
prospectorand miner in territorial New Mexico. By earlv 1.881the buccaneerof oick and
pan could, if he so desired,purchasea ticket
and enjoy the first classaccommodationsof
San
the Atchison, Topeka and SantaFe Railroad,
Antonio
disembarkat San Marcial or Engle, and procure passageon an adequate (if not luxuriously appointed)coachof the Pioneeror other
History and surrounding area
stage line. "Stages (left) promptly upon the
When Mora was founded in 1835. New arrival of trains" for the Black Range silver
camps including St. Charles, Philipsburg,
Grafton, Robinson,Fairview,Roundy, Chlo- '
ride, and Hermosa(Fig.1) and went "ihrough
by daylight" in 8 to lOiours if we can betie"ve
the advertised schedule (Fig. 2). Oa if the
Iucky traveler was bound for the famed silver
small group of Irish founded the community mines of Lake Valley he could ride the rails
of Cleveland just west of Mora, naming it right into town.
The readerneed not feel dismayedif these
after PresidentCleveland.
Numerous scenicareas are near Morphy place names sound unfamiliar; Iike stars in
LakeStatePark.Westof Mora, NM-3 croises the heavens,these camps blazed for a time
the Sangrede Cristo Mountains to Taos.Much and then quickly faded with the silver crash
of the route follows the Rio Pueblo. a beau- of 1893,never to shineagain.Sadly,they and
tiful mountain stream with excellent trout the wav of life brieflv described above have
fishing. The high ridge west of Morphy Lake vanishedin the misti of time, although Fairis within the PecosWildernessin which nu- view (now Winston), Chloride, and Lake
merous trails lead past spectacularmountain Valley partially survive today. But memories
vistas and alpine lakes and meadows. San- live on in imagessuch as the ones shown on FIGURE1-Location map of the Black Range,
tiago, Pacheco,and EncantadoLakesoccupy the following page (Figs. 3-5), a small sam- southwestNew Mexico,and silvermining camps
cirques.Difficult to reach, they offer excellent pling of the more than 1,000 views in the in that areabeforethe silvercrashof 1893.
fishing plus the exhilaration of the alpine New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral
country above timberline. North of Mori via Resources'photo collection.
The core of the collectionconsistsof pho- therefore, their use may be restricted. The
tos made by various Bureau engineersand large majority, however, can be used freely
geologistsfrom the 1940'sto the present,but if source credits and acknowledgmentsare
more than a century of mining and industrial 8rven.
activity is represented.Some of the images
The collectionwas recentlyenhancedwith
have been purchased from other collections, the acquisitionof a large group of U.S. Geosuchas the Rio GrandeHistoricalCollection/ logical Survey photos and, most -p=
Facilities
NMSU
and the Silver City Museum, and,
Morphy Lake has been enlarged by conskuction of a small dam. Water comes into
the lake via an intake canal near the north
side of the dam. The natural drainage area
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is quite small, and the lake basin has a max-.._lVfA.l+
imum storagecapacityof a little more than
400acreft (about 130million gal) and covers
an area of about 25 acres.The State Game
and Fish Department stocks the lake with
rainbow trout. Tables, fireplaces, and toilet
facilities are provided in the park, but drinking water is not available.
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THROUGHIIY DAYLIGHT: TTMD.8 TO 10 HOURS.
i<ARNS & MoCONKEY, Prop's.
FIGURE 2-Advertisement for Karns & McConkey's Pioneer Stageline from San Marcial to the Black
Range.-Taken trom Beckwith'sguide to the great mining and stock-lrowingdistrictof central New Mexico:
Times Printingllorse, Leavenworth, Kansas, ca. 1881. Original is courtesy of Huntington Library,
rare book no. 3M952, p. 77.
New Mexico Geology November 1984
tantly, a superb collectiondonated by Frances
Iahns in memory of Dr. Richard (Dick) H.
iahns who passedaway in December1983.
Dick is remembered fondly by those of us
who are fortunate enough to have known
him, but few people know that this gentleman, in addition to his more obvious scientific talents, was an accomplished
photographeras well. Included in the Jahns
ionation-are nearly 200 views of Ojo Caliente, Harding mine area, Hermosa, Iron
Mountain, and Taylor Creek. Dick also was
interested in historic Photos, and he collected about four dozen late 19th century
views of Winston, Chloride, LakeValley,and
Hermosa, which he custom printed himself.
Most, if not all of these,appearto have been
acquired from the Schmidt collection.
In addition to the prints, the Bureau collection containsmore than 1.,000slidesin four
major classifications: L) G series-general
Buieau slides of mines, mills, geologic features, scenicviews, and miscellaneousevents;
2) H series-slide copies of historic photographs;3) M series-slides of unusualor muieuh-quality New Mexico mineral speciesin
the Buieau museum, other national and internationalmuseum collections,and private
collections;and 4) A series-slide copies of
various rare maPs, documents, engraved
FIGURE 3-Hermosa, New Mexico, probably before 1893 Few mining camps had a lovelier location; scenes(woodcuts), and artifacts associated
Hermosa,which meansbeautiful in Spanish,is named appropriately.Hermosaproduced about $1,500,000 with New Mexico's geology, mineral techworth of silver and the town was sald to have "a population of 230 souls" in 7892,but they and all of
nology, or mining historY.
the structures shown in this photograph have vanished. Today this spot is an open, grassy meadow.
The Bureauphoto collection has been used
NMBMMR photo collection, no. 263, photographer unknown; donated by FrancesJahns in memory
for educational displays at the State Fair,
of Dr. RichardH. jahns.
various scientific conventions, and semipermanent displays in the Bureau mineral
museum and other display areas.All pho-
Eveleth, Mining Engineer, NMBMMR, room
8126, Socorro, NM 87801, phone: 505/8355325.
FIGURE 4-Lake Valley mining camp about 1890.This is one of New Mexico's more famous mining
camps primarily becauie of the stupendous chlorargyrite (silver chloride) ores found in the legendary
"Briilal-Chamber." It, and other bonanza orebodies, yielded more than five million ounces of silver by
1893. In this photograph Santa Fe locomotive No. 47 (American Type or 4-4-0) has been turned in
preparation to pick up diminutive coach No. 505 for the southbound run to Nutt where it connected
with the daily Silver City-Rincon hain. NMBMMR photo collection, no. 287; photographer probably
Henry Schmidt; donated by FrancesJahns in memory of Dr. Richard H. Jahns.
November 1,984 New Mexico Geology
FIGURE S-Hoistman at the underground hoist
station in the Fanney mine, Mogollon, New Mexico, about 1941.NMBMMR photo collection, no.
201;photographer unknown.