California Avenue is located in the western part of Silver City.  The roadway was named after the State of California. Portions of California Avenue are shown to the left in the map above; the map is courtesy of the United States Geological Survey.

Much of the land that is now included in California and New Mexico – including a large portion of what is now Grant County – became part of the United States of America at the same time in 1848.  The rest of area now included in Grant County was added to the United States through the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico in 1853. One of the key reasons for the Gadsden Purchase was to allow for the construction of a railroad from America’s southern states through New Mexico to the Pacific Ocean and California.

Silver City was incorporated as a town in 1878.

Some of the events that also took place in 1878:

On June 8, 1878, The New Mexican, a newspaper hailing from Santa Fe, reported that a Senate committee recommended that unresolved Mexican land grants in New Mexico and three other states were to be referred to “United States District Courts, with the right of appeal to the Supreme Court.”  This news article noted that this was a similar approach taken with Mexican land grants in California.

Some residents of California – in the form of “fine Merino sheep” – moved into New Mexico in this same year, according to a news article dated July 13, 1878, in the Las Vegas Gazette.  

The same newspaper reported on May 11, 1878, that “The mouth of the Sacramento River, California, is filling up with sand.”

California is known for many things, including the majesty of Yosemite National Park.  According to the National Park Service, this national park was initially protected in 1864.

“The expansive park’s…1,169 square miles, nearly 95 percent of which are designated Wilderness, are home to hundreds of wildlife species, and [more than] a thousand plant species,” according the National Park Service.  “Yosemite supports more than 400 species of vertebrates, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.”

The photo, provided courtesy of the National Park Service, shows the “Yosemite Falls and Merced River Cook's Meadow in early May.”  You can view a live webcam of Yosemite Falls by clicking here.

Within a few hours of the natural beauty of Yosemite is an urban metropolis built in California by man – the City of San Francisco.  A panorama view of the city in 2018 is seen in the photo above, provided courtesy of Mitul Shah from Burst.

Silver City and San Francisco share a heritage of growth through mining.

While Grant County is substantially larger in size than San Francisco – Grant County is 80 times the size of the City of San Francisco – Grant County has a much smaller population than this California city.  The United States Census Bureau estimated that 833,305 people lived within the City of San Francisco on July 1, 2018. The population of Grant County? According to the Census Bureau, an estimated 27,346 people lived in Grant County as of the same date.

Do you have questions about communities in Grant County?

A street name?  A building?

Your questions may be used in a future news column.

Contact Richard McDonough at chroniclesofgrantcounty@gmail.com.