Mineral de Pozos

Mineral de Pozos lies an easy 45 minute drive from San Miguel. Pozos, as it is called familiarly, is steeped in history but alive with a weathered and haunting beauty, and is a refreshing break for those who like to explore off-the-beaten-path, an inspiration for photographers and a unique adventure for hikers and mountain bikers.

In it’s heyday Pozos boasted over 70,000 inhabitants. But, by the 1950’s Pozos was virtually a ghost town with a population of less than 200. Like the ghost towns of the American west this prosperity, and lack of it, is directly attributable to mining.

The mountains which encircle Pozos, which lies at an altitude of 7,500 feet, are rich in gold and silver and the town’s fortunes have waxed and waned along with the productions of the mines. The first boom occurred shortly after Pozos, then called Palmar de Vega, was established in 1576 as an outpost to prevent the native Chichimeca tribes from attacking the ore caravans making their way from the rich silver mines of Zacatecas to Mexico City.

The evangelizing Jesuits who came with the military, always on the lookout for a profit, found the locals extracting silver from an open vein and began mining the area themselves utilizing ‘advanced’ European technology. Silver flowed from Pozos mines until 1767, when the Spanish king, Charles III, expelled the Jesuits from all of Spain and his colonial ‘dominions’.

The mines languished until 1844, when Mexican miners rediscovered Pozos and new veins of gold and silver in it’s hills. Under the patronage of President Porfirio Diaz, Pozos grew at unprecedented levels. At it’s peak, in the 1890’s it was among the richest and most opulent cities in Mexico with over 300 working mines pouring wealth into the city.

But just 20 years later Pozo’s fortunes took a turn for the worst with the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution. Over the next few years, the town was plagued with disasters: many miners left to join the revolution, working mines were attacked and looted, the global price of silver plummeted and, to cap it, the mines were flooded. The death knell was sounded in 1926 when remaining residents overran a federal garrison during the Cristeros War.

The town lost its charter, the railway ceased to run, the electricity was turned off and the once elegant mansions and churches were soon abandoned. And, it was these ruins, mysterious and photogenic, that first drew adventurous travelers to Mineral de Pozos. A number were charmed enough to stay, restoring the derelict buildings and initiating a renaissance built on the natural beauty and serenity of the town, rather than the mineral wealth which once defined it.

Today, Pozos is slowly undergoing a rebirth and can boast of three boutique hotels, five charming restaurants, ten galleries and a population of almost 3,000. It seems the small towns fortunes are changing for the better once again.