Candelaria and Mettalic City

Mexicans discovered silver ore here in 1864. Nothing happened until 1879 when a mixed group of foreign born prospectors, mostly Germans and Slavonians, moved in and built a boomtown. The big producer was a mine called the Northern Belle that produced $15 million in silver. But there was no water. Water was transported from a spring nine miles away and cost a dollar a gallon. Whiskey was less expensive. Even the stampmill operated without water creating an atmosphere of dust, which settled in the lungs of the miners, causing many to die of "miners consumption."

Mexican prospectors first settled the town in 1864 who named the mine and the town after a Catholic Mass day. Beginning in 1880 the area began to prosper and in 1882 a good water supply and a spur of the Carson & Colorado railroad came to the camp. In its heyday, Candelaria could boast of two hotels, stores, offices for lawyers, three doctors and countless saloons. The financial panic of 1893 caused may mines to close down. Most of the people deserted the town but a few remained. The following seven years proved difficult for the remaining citizens-now a dry, wind swept, desolate place, bitterly cold in winter and unbearably hot and dry in summer. But still some remained hoping beyond hope for a recovery that never came. By World War II it was truly a ghost town.