{"nrhp_refnum":"76002058","name":"Shafter Historic Mining District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"20 mi. N of Presidio on U.S. 67","address_restricted":false,"city":"Shafter","county":"Presidio County","state":"TX","lat":29.814194919000045,"lon":-104.30711036103722,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-05-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic silver mining community and smelter site along Cibolo Creek on U.S. 67, about 20 miles north of Presidio, Presidio County, Texas, covering roughly 300 acres. It has about 45 numbered stone and adobe structures plus extensive ruins.","why_significant":"Shafter was the first major mining town in west Texas and its only successful silver mining area. Its mines produced about $20,000,000 in silver and large amounts of lead. The site is still partly occupied, so the ruins are largely undisturbed and hold archeological data on the period of main occupation. It is also the only one of the region's early mining towns where people still live in the original buildings.","narrative":"Shafter is a former silver mining town and smelter site on Cibolo Creek beside U.S. 67, about 20 miles north of Presidio in Presidio County, Texas. Silver was identified in the Chinati Mountains in the early 1880s, and Major William B. Shafter helped form the Presidio Mining Company. Over the decades the mines produced about $20,000,000 in silver and large quantities of lead, with about 300 employees at a time. The company provided a club house, hospital, boarding house and miners' housing. Residents built the surviving stone and adobe structures from native materials and salvaged mine timber. A National Guard and later Army camp operated here from 1916 to 1920 to guard against border raids. Mining ended in 1942. The district includes an adobe church, residences, ruins and smelter remains. It is considered the first major mining town in west Texas, and its partly occupied, undisturbed ruins hold archeological potential that has not yet been studied.","period_of_significance":"1886-1920","architect_builder":"Built by the miners using native adobe and stone and timbers salvaged from the mines","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Partly occupied; 45 numbered structures are in excellent condition, and many ruins of stone and adobe buildings, including the smelter, survive. The mines themselves are outside the district.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.535363-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/24/9732/40973224/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/76002058.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76002058/93ee17c042-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76002058/93ee17c042-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Jim Evans","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ruins_of_Shafter_Texas_Ghost_Town_Silver_Mining.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jim Evans</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ruins_of_Shafter_Texas_Ghost_Town_Silver_Mining.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40973224","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q109999608"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/presidio-county/shafter-historic-mining-district-76002058/"}