History of Silver Creek Inn

The Silver Creek Inn is a rare two-story adobe structure built by Frank Lauderbaugh (photo) circa 1885. The 5,000 square foot building was first known as the Mogollon House (photo). Henry Johnson, the proprietor, rented upstairs rooms and sold food and merchandise on the Main Street floor.

The building changed hands in 1914 when James (J.P.) Holland, a barber from Philadelphia, bought into the booming mining town (photo). J.P. opened his barbershop and the downstairs floor as a general store while renting rooms on the second floor (photo). He spent a lifetime in Mogollon cutting hair and selling everything from lamp carbon to lingerie.

World War II�s steel and manpower shortage was the beginning of the end for Mogollon as a thriving mining town. The old man stayed through the war and watched the town�s inhabitants evaporate (photo). In 1948 he left the old store to the ghosts and spent his remaining years in California.

The old building, with its leaking roof and archaic mud walls melting into Silver Creek, somehow survived until 1980 when Stan King arrived to renovate and restore the old adobe to its present condition.

View of what is now the Silver Creek Inn (first building on the left side of the street)
and part of Main Street, Mogollon, New Mexico.

MOTHER NATURE ACTS     View a Slide Show

Silver Creek left its banks the night of September 14, 2013 and caused historical changes to the town site of Mogollon. Silver Creek Inn survived the raging waters, however State Highway 159 leading to the town site was washed out. The NM State Highway Dept. completed reconstruction in 2017.