About Us
The Silver City Waterworks Building, established in 1887, provided the Town's first municipal water supply. Known locally as the “Rock House", the Waterworks Building is the last surviving stone building from its era in Silver City. This unique building is comprised of two parts: a one-story section that originally housed steam-powered pumps and boilers, and a two-story engineer's residence. Water was drawn from a subsurface collection gallery beneath the adjacent Silva Creek arroyo. The gallery drained to a well that was connected to a 30-foot-deep pit beneath the building. Water was pumped from the Waterworks to a reservoir on a nearby hill, and from there it flowed by gravity into town.
The Waterworks Building is listed on both the New Mexico State Historic Register (#913) and the National Register of Historic Places (#84002950).
In 2020, Southwest New Mexico ACT, a Grant County nonprofit, entered into partnership with the Town of Silver City to actively restore the Waterworks Building and the 5-acre grounds adjacent to Silva Creek. The initial vision was to create a waystation for Continental Divide Trail (CDT) thru-hikers to rest for a few days. Campsites, a camping kitchen, composting toilets and solar showers are were completed in 2024, along with an immense effort to restore the barren grounds into a thrive native and edible oasis.
The site has also expanded into an educational campus for local schools/classes to explore the history and culture of our region, and also to participate in community-led sustainability projects. In 2020, an Outdoor Education Pavilion was added to the Waterworks site to offer an additional space for learning, gathering and performances.
The GOALS, VALUES and IDEALS of the Waterworks Restoration Project:
•CONNECTIVITY: CDT to the Waterworks to downtown Silver City to Grant County Five Points Communities
•EDUCATION: Water, land, history, culture
•RESTORATION: Buildings, land, watershed
•SUSTAINABILITY: Solar-power, water harvesting, native planting, composting, natural building
•COLLABORATION: FOR our Community, BY our Community
Restoration/reclamation of the land has become a focal point of the 5-acre Waterworks grounds, which was previously used by the Town of Silver City’s Utilities Department for more than 30 years. The land has been transformed, with huge support from dedicated community members and organizations, and extensive funding support from NM Outdoor Recreation Division's Trails+ and NM Tourism Department's New Mexico Clean & Beautiful grants.
The Silva Creek Nature Trail connects the Waterworks Site to downtown Silver City, across US Highway 180. This phased urban trail is a blueprint model for community collaboration. More than 100 individuals (youth and adults) and a dozen organizations have come together to create a safe and inclusive trail system that fosters time in nature, watershed restoration and conservation efforts.
The entire Waterworks Restoration Project would not have been possible without the immense support of the following:
Aldo Leopold Charter School: Youth Conservation Corps (YCC)
The New Mexico Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) Commission funds projects across the state that hire youth from ages 14 to 25 to implement community and conservation projects, and to be trained in a variety of job, life, career, and conservation skills.
Grant County’s Aldo Leopold Charter School has offered YCC programming for over 15 years, with multiple distinctive options for students to choose from: Trails Crew, Garden Crew, Murals Crew, Water Harvesting Crew and Eco-monitoring Crew.
Since 2020, the Waterworks Site has hosted Aldo YCC interns from Trails, Water Harvesting and Garden crews - both during the school year and also during longer summer YCC programs. Between 2020 and 2025, the Garden and Water Harvesting crews logged over 3000 hours on various land restoration projects at the Waterworks Site, and the Trails Crew has logged almost 2000 intern hours, implementing the impressive Silva Creek Nature Trail.
The YCC Trails Crew, mentored by trail specialist Jon Bjornstadt and stone craftsman Toxtli Sanchez, have completed the first and second phase of the Silva Creek Nature Trail, connecting the Waterworks Site and Silva Creek Botantical Garden to Penny Park via a primitive hiking/cycling trail. The Silva Creek Trailhead was also constructed by hand, including an impressive stone amphitheater, created by dry-stacking various sized boulders and then back-filling with soil. This stone-stacking process was implemented not just to create the stabilizing walls for the trail itself, but also to create switchback terraces and stairs that stabilize the steep banks.
Americorps NCCC
AmeriCorps NCCC services crews have played a vital role in restoring the Waterworks Site. NCCC crew members range in age from 18 to 25 years old. 95% of NCCC crew members had never been to New Mexico before their service round in Grant County. Four volunteer crews contributed over 7000 hours across Grant County between August 2020 and January 2023. Crews were supervised and trained in various skill sets by local leaders and community members, and contributed to the following Waterworks projects:
Site Cleanup, 2020
Wave-wall Construction, 2020
Camping Kitchen Renovation, 2021
Perimeter Fence Installation, 2021
Porch Build, 2021
Upper Campsite construction, 2022
Sponsorship of NCCC crews has been shared between swnmACT and other Five Points communities, including the Village of Santa Clara, the City of Bayard, and the Town of Hurley. NCCC crews have worked on multiple project sites during each service round, and the Village of Santa Clara has generously hosted NCCC crews to stay at the Armory while in Grant County. NCCC crews have also volunteered at The Commons, and on Town of Silver City Trails and Open Space projects on Boston Hill and San Vicente Creek.
In 2024, a NCCC 12-week team completed additional Five Points restoration projects, including exterior restoration of the Bradley Hotel in Santa Clara, and a Water Catchment and Garden project at the Union Hall in Bayard.
To learn more about AmeriCorps involvement in the Waterworks Restoration Project CLICK HERE.
Community Partners/Contributors
Funding Support
Town of Silver City . Freeport McMoRan . American Institute of Architects Sustainable Design Assessment Team . University of New Mexico, VIVA Connects . State of New Mexico, Outdoor Recreation Division, Trails+ (FY20, FY21, FY22, FY25) . State of New Mexico, Tourism Department, NM Clean and Beautiful (FY21, FY24) . Senator Ben Ray Lujan's Office - Federal Earmark Appropriation (FY22)
Boots on the Ground - Dream Team
Without the creativity, hard work, and enduring commitment of these amazing community members, the Waterworks Site would not be the revitalization success story that it is today, with special thanks to:
Eric Brown . Stephanie Celin . Christine Dalmedo . Steve Shatzkin . Jeff LeBlanc . Ronald Hartley . Martha Egnal . Allyson Siwik . Jon “JB” Bjornstadt . Aaron Myers . Andy Barker . Matt Leef . Dickey “Toxtli” Sanchez . Crystal Bloomfield . Jesse Torres . Kristin Lundgren . Michael Olson . Perry Loeffler. and many Aldo Leopold Staff
Fabulous Volunteers
Over a thousand hours of voluntary contributions have been so generously offered towards to the Waterworks Restoration Project by the following steadfast team :
Rich Bigelow . Bob Schiowtz . Mitch Barsh . Steve Collie . Doug Gorthy . Jeff Cramm . Zeb Clark . Joshe Burke . Leroy Apodaca . Fred Fox . Brent Flenniken . Mike Sauber . Kenny Moon . Suzanne Gershenson . Derek Kuester
~With deep appreciation for so much talent, commitment and great times!