Silver City may be “off the beaten path,” but it’s on the right track for those seeking a slower lane with a yen for going green.

Not only are a number of local contractors part of the Green Build Initiative, but many have also been part of a movement to “recycle” historic homes and businesses into showcases for green building materials. A stroll through the historic downtown not only offers a window on the past and illustrates some of these efforts, but it offers a sampling of coffee shops, art galleries and local cuisine featuring everything from “stacked enchiladas” to Mediterranean dinners and gourmet pastries. (For more information on where to dine, visit silvercity.org)

Discovery of silver in an area known as La Cienega de San Vicente brought the town to life in 1870. A tent city soon mushroomed for thousands of miners. What kept this mining town alive was the earth nearby -- caressed by the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, it contained brick clay, perfect for building. Within ten months, close to 100 “eastern looking” brick buildings promised a town that was “built to last.”  (There is a book available by just that name at the Silver City Museum.)

By the early 1880’s, the railroad, telephone, electricity and extravagant homes reflected substantial mining fortunes and further insured Silver City’s staying power.

The boom ended in the late 1880’s, but the town lived on. New Mexico Territorial Normal School (now Western New Mexico University) was created in 1893. The dry, clean air and promise of health took over where silver left off. “Health resorts” thrived. Fort Bayard, originally built in the 1860’s for the “Buffalo Soldiers,” an African American regiment, to protect miners from the Indians is one example of “recycling.” Noting the fact that troops there were very healthy, Fort Bayard was converted into a State Hospital for the elderly and handicapped. It still serves that function today, though the historic, Victorian buildings, while preserved for history, have been replaced by a modern facility. Fort Bayard, with its National Cemetery, remains an historic tourist attraction.

Another historic attraction for visitors is Georgetown. All that remains of this once-thriving silver mining community is a cemetery that tells stories of the “1200 hardy folks” who once lived there and a few mine shafts tucked in the hills on Georgetown Road, just east of Silver City. A couple who epitomize the “fast trackers” who were drawn to Silver City’s slower lifestyle, Jon and Susie Eickhoff, sold a computer engineering business and built a prototype getaway community of high-efficiency luxury cabins, each designed and named after a famous resident of Georgetown. The vacation destination cabins are totally off the grid, sharing a solar system capable of 14.4 kilowatts of continuous power. (Visit georgetowncabins.com for more information.)

Other attractions within an easy drive from Silver City include the Catwalk, a breathtaking hike along White Water Canyon near Glenwood, mirroring a slurryline for a past mining endeavor, and the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument north of Silver City, echoing the lives of Native Americans who discovered the magic of this area over 700 years ago.

Closer in, visitors might stroll along Big Ditch Park, where town folks turned adversity into opportunity by creating a unique park following floods which gouged out a huge ditch along Main Street. Also in town is the Silver City Museum, housed in the red brick Victorian home of H.B. Ailman. (One of the Georgetown Cabins is also called the Ailman, after this discoverer of the richest silver-producing mine in the area, the Naiad Queen.) Another museum is located on the WNMU campus, and houses a renowned permanent collection of prehistoric Mimbres pottery.

Whether a visitor is looking for art galleries, or hiking in the 3.3 million-acre Gila National Forest and Wilderness areas, or perhaps looking to build in the green-minded community of Silver City, a visit to this “off the beaten track” area is worth the hour’s drive from the expressway south of town.