Chloride / Pioneer Store & Gallery
Chloride offers a Historic District with the "Hanging Tree" in the center of mainstreet. The Pioneer Store & Gallery is in a restored mercantile that once supplied miners and early residents with goods.
An Englishman named Harry Pye, a mule skinner and prospector, was delivering freight for the U.S. Army from Hillsboro to Camp Ojo Caliente in 1879 when he discovered silver in the canyon where Chloride is now located. After completing his freighting contract, he and two others returned to the area in 1881 and staked a claim. A tent city grew up nearby and then a town, originally called Pyetown, then Bromide.
The name "Chloride" was finally selected, after the high-grade silver ore found there. It became the center for all mining activity in the area, known as the Apache Mining District.
During the 1880s, Chloride had 100 homes, 1,000-2,000 people, eight saloons, three general stores, restaurants, butcher shops, a candy store, a lawyer's office, a doctor, boarding houses, an assay office, a stage line, a Chinese laundry and a hotel. Chloride is home to about two-dozen residents today.
