Leon McDuff

Tererro Leon McDuff

In the Sangre de Cristo mountains of New Mexico, at an elevation of almost 9000 feet, at the juncture of the Pecos River and Willow Creek, there is a place called Willow Creek Campground. Nearby and just to the southeast is a huge pile of a mine waste rock, or gangue, that has been covered with two feet of topsoil and planted with native vegetation. This was once the site of an extensive mining operation between 1925 and 1939. It was once called Tererro, a town of almost 3000. Most folks who visit the campground have little inkling that the town ever existed, for there is nothing remaining of the town or the mine except a small concrete structure that was once the mining company's vault..



Two miles to the south is another place now called Tererro consisting of a couple of dwellings, a general store, a riding stable, and a post office. Huey and Sherry Ley own the general store and the stable and Sherry is the postmistress. They can relate some of the history of the mine they have gleaned over the years, but they know only a trace of the mine and the town's existence. This book chronicles the history of both the mine and the town that has never before been put to paper in any but a very minimum of detail, and even then, often times, inaccurately. This book fills that void in extremely accurate detail.