Bayard began as Hall’s Station, a depot on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe that served a tuberculosis sanatorium at nearby Fort Bayard, which was named after Brigadier General George Dashiell Bayard. A settlement grew around the depot and became Bayard when a post office opened in 1902. Long before that, the area was home to the Mogollon and Mimbres people. Warm Springs Apaches introduced Spaniards to the area’s abundant copper deposits by 1801, and in 1910 open-pit mining began at nearby Santa Rita, eventually consuming that town. Many of Santa Rita’s residents, along with their homes, moved to Bayard.