Industry
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Kelly prospered in the 1880s after lead and silver discoveries around 1866. But it was the discarded zinc carbonate, vital in paint manufacturing, that made Kelly boom in the early 1900s. Stores, banks, saloons, schools, and churches lined its streets, and the population reached 3,000. When the mines played out in the 1930s, Kelly became a ghost town, and its homes were hauled to Magdalena. A preserved church stands near ruined mine works, and the Kelly Mine headshaft, a 121-foot-high structure built from a design by Alexander G. Eiffel for Carnegie Steel Works, still towers over the site.
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Magdalena, New Mexico · United States
