Glenwood and Graham, New Mexico
Glenwood, Catron County, is the location of the Whitewater Canyon National
Forest Recreation Area, featuring the Catwalk. There is also the Glenwood
Fish Hatchery.
About 1889 rich silver and gold deposits were discovered in the mountains
above Whitewater Canyon. The Confidence, Bluebird, Blackbird, and Redbird
mines, among others, developed. Ore was hauled in wagons to a mill at
a town named Graham (also called Whitewater) located at the mouth of the
Canyon.
John T. Graham built that mill in 1893 to handle 75 tons of ore a day.
Water to operate the electric generators and to meet the needs of Graham
came from a pipeline reaching up into the Canyon. Building water lines
meant drilling brace holes into the rock walls of the Canyon to hold
timbers and iron bars to support the downhill water flow. These lines were
in constant need of maintenance and workmen walking the lines to repair
damage dubbed it the "Catwalk".