Located near the rouged Jicarilla Mountains Lincoln County, New Mexico is a little known ghost town named Ancho, Spanish word for “wide.  Ancho was first settled at the turn of the twentieth century when families began to settle the fertile valley.  The valley soon included a number of homesteaders who became the areas’ first sheep and cattle ranchers.  Miners also roamed the area for gypsum hills in search of precious metals. 
The industrial age for the Ancho Valley began around 1902, when a gypsum deposit was discovered which lead to the manufacturing of building blocks by the “Gypsum Product Company”, the town grew around this industry.  By 1905 Ancho opened the first post office in the valley, with Frank J. Bush as the first postmaster.  The same year the railroad pushed through Ancho and the community flourished.
Industry continued to grow when a settler by the name of Bosque came to the area from Iowa, and realized an opportunity in the “fire clay” in the region and established the “Ancho Brick Plant”. The Ancho Industries were instrumental in the rebuilding of San Francisco after the 1906 devastating earthquake and fire.  Ancho was busy shipping plaster and brick to the ravaged city.
In 1917, the brick plant was sold to the Arizona based Phelps Dodge Corporation who built a new sixteen-kiln plant at a cost of $150,000.00.  The Arizona corporation over built and by 1921 the plant went bankrupt.  This being a devastating blow to the small community, many people began to move out, but the town survived, supported by the railroad and ranching industries.
Ancho experienced another population increase during the depression years.  Many families moved to Ancho trying to make a living mining gold in the nearby Jicarilla Mountains.  Ancho’s abandoned kilns supplied roofs for homeless families the outcasts of the strangled industrial centers.  Families moved into the kilns they plugged the ventilation holes, made furniture of crates and what scraps of lumber were around.  Ancho bricks which are now valuable collector’s items were made into legs and stands or beds.   However, once the economy improved, people moved out of Ancho again.
The little town that could began its downhill trend in 1937, the brick plant had long been closed, and the property was sold to Abilene Salvage Company, who dismantled it. Then came the new U.S. Highway 54 paved in 1954 between Carrizozo and Corona, New Mexico it spelled a death knell for Ancho, as the small community was bypassed by two and half miles.  The following year the school was closed.  The final blow for Ancho was when the railroad discontinued the depot in 1959.  The building was sold and in 1963 became a museum called “My House of Old Things.”  The same year the town’s combination store and gas station closed.  Five years later, the post office also closed and the town was left with only a few people.  Today, the depot sits abandoned and silent.
In today’s time, the town is abandoned entirely.  There are a number of abandoned buildings that continue to stand in various stages of disrepair, including the depot and several homes.  The local cemetery is located about a half mile northeast of town.
Ancho is located 21 miles north of Carrizozo on US 54, the east on NM 482, 2 ½ miles.  A forest road runs loops southeast of Ancho that continues to the ghost towns of Jicarilla and White Oaks, before rejoining US 54.

By Angel Mayes
References:
Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of New Mexico
Authors:  James E and Barbara H. Sherman
University of Oklahoma 1975
Special thanks to the Historical Society for Southeast New Mexico
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