COLFAX COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) – The first incorporated town in New Mexico was formed in 1866 in a portion of Colfax County. But now, 159 years later, all that is left of the northern New Mexico town is the stories, photographs, and a few stone walls of the old Mutz Hotel.
So, how did Elizabethtown, located off the now New Mexico State Road 38 between Eagle Nest and Red River, come to be and end up a ghost town? The story starts with the discovery of gold on Baldy Mountain.
Commander of Fort Union, Captain William H. Moore, and his partner, William Kroenig, opened the Mystic Copper Mine, and by the following year the gold rush brought new residents to the area hoping to strike it rich after the additional discovery of gold flakes in the nearby Willow Creek, according to the book “Roadside New Mexico: A Guide to Historic Markers,” written by David Pike and published by University of New Mexico Press.
With the influx of new residents, Moore and Kroenig opened a store and sawmill. The town then took on the name Elizabethtown, named after Moore’s 4-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Catherine.
Two years later, the town, known as E-Town for short, grew with more stores, hotels, and a school. The town was then faced with several challenges before it eventually became a ghost town by 1910, Pike wrote.
The cost to transport ores was difficult, water sources were few, and miners did not have a way to separate gold from gravel. In 1872, there were only about 100 residents left as the mines dwindled, and the county seat was moved to Cimarron, according to the New Mexico True website.
The town was semi-revived when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad passed nearby in the early 1890s, making mining feasible once again.
Then, in 1901, another miner came into town with hopes of discovering more gold, according to Pike. While she was successful for some time, a fire in town in 1903 forced her lake near the Moreno River to be drained, shutting down the gold-producing Ferris wheel.
After that, the town mostly died out with the decline in the mines.
Photos of Elizabethtown from the Library of Congress collection:
Elizabethtown, New Mexico. A hotel built by George Mutz’s father in the gold rush days. Photo by Collier, John, Jr., 1913-1992. (Credit: Library of Congress) 
Elizabethtown, Colfax County, New Mexico. Photo by Collier, John, Jr., 1913-1992. (Credit: Library of Congress) 
Elizabethtown, New Mexico. The grade school in a deserted gold camp town which dated back to the 1870s. Photo by Collier, John, Jr., 1913-1992. (Credit: Library of Congress) 
Elizabethtown, New Mexico. A deserted mining center which dates back to the 1870s. Photo by Collier, John, Jr., 1913-1992. (Credit: Library of Congress) 
Elizabethtown, Colfax County, New Mexico. Photo by Collier, John, Jr., 1913-1992. (Credit: Library of Congress) 
Moreno Valley, Colfax County, New Mexico. A ghost town. Photo by Collier, John, Jr., 1913-1992. (Credit: Library of Congress)
