HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
One-acre mining-era cemetery in an abandoned Chihuahuan Desert company town, with graves from 1903 onward marking workers lost to mercury poisoning and the 1918–19 influenza epidemic.
315 Ivey Rd, Terlingua, TX 79852
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to visit; no entrance fee.
Access
Limited Access
Unpaved sloped ground with rocky desert surface; not wheelchair accessible
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1903 · Chisos Mining Company established 1903 · Peak U.S. mercury production district in early 20th century · National Register of Historic Places (cemetery) · Company town abandoned 1942–1945 · 1918–19 influenza deaths documented
Mining in the Terlingua district traces to the mid-1880s, when prospectors found cinnabar — the primary ore of mercury — in the desert formation along Terlingua Creek. Jack Dawson reportedly produced the first commercial quicksilver from the area in 1888, but sustained industrial operations did not arrive until the 1890s and early 1900s. Howard E. Perry incorporated the Chisos Mining Company in Austin on May 8, 1903, with a $50,000 loan from Austin National Bank.
At its peak in 1917, the Chisos Mine produced 7,200 flasks of quicksilver and held a dominant position in the U.S. mercury market — the Terlingua district as a whole yielded roughly 40 percent of national production by 1922. Perry employed 125 workers around the clock in conditions that were, by contemporary testimony, dangerous. One geologist who visited the site described the mine as 'extremely hot, horribly hot, and without any provision for ventilation.' Workers smelting ore were exposed to mercury vapor that caused 'salivation' — inhaled fumes stimulated excess saliva production and eventually caused teeth to loosen and fall out. The company town included a commissary, housing, a church, and a school, all owned by Perry and accessible only through company-controlled roads.
The 1918–19 influenza pandemic swept through the isolated community with limited medical resources, adding to a cemetery population already accumulating from mining accidents and chronic occupational illness. Perry's company declared insolvency on October 1, 1942, and was subsequently acquired by Esperado Mining Co., which closed the mine at the end of World War II. The company town was stripped of surface property and abandoned. The cemetery — now on the National Register of Historic Places — remains on a slope overlooking the ruins, its 530-plus graves marked with modest crosses, stonework, and hand-made grottoes, the earliest dating to 1903.
Sources
The ghost lore at Terlingua is inseparable from the conditions that made the place deadly. Workers spent years inhaling mercury vapor in unventilated shafts, and the company town had few ways out — company scrip, company roads, and no nearby alternatives. The combination of occupational death, epidemic mortality, and physical isolation has contributed to a site where, according to longtime residents and shop owners, the sense of unfinished presence is tangible.
The most consistent claim is apparitions of miners walking the streets of town in the direction of the old mine entrance — moving as if heading to a shift, unhurried, without acknowledging observers. These sightings are reported at dusk and at night, when the ruins are partially lit and wind carries dust across the open ground. A handful of visitors have also described shadow figures visible inside the collapsed adobe mine structures, moving through spaces that no longer have floors intact enough to stand on.
Near the cemetery, separate from the miner-apparition reports, visitors describe sudden cold spots — abrupt drops in temperature inconsistent with the desert air that otherwise holds heat well into the night. The cemetery itself sees unusual encounters particularly during the Day of the Dead gatherings each autumn, when local families return to decorate graves and the site fills with candles and flowers. No formal paranormal investigation has been conducted at Terlingua; the accounts are anecdotal, drawn from visitor reports and conversations with local residents and business owners who have operated in the ghost town for decades.
Walk the one-acre cemetery on a slope overlooking the Chisos Mountains. The 530-plus graves include simple filigree crosses and hand-built grottoes. Many are decorated with beer bottles, rosaries, and personal mementos left by visitors and local families. Marked burials begin in 1903 with the onset of commercial mercury mining.
The surrounding Terlingua Ghost Town — ruins of the Chisos Mining Company company town — includes collapsed adobe structures, the former company store, and the old church. The cemetery and ghost town together form the core of the site's public access area. Adjacent businesses and a small community have formed at the old ghost town core.
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