Playas, New Mexico

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Playas is a census-designated place (CDP) in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 74.<ref name="Census 2010">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

History

File:Pave Hawk helicopter landing, Playas Training and Research Center, 20100421.jpg

A training exercise at the Playas Training and Research Center in April 2010

It is a former company town, named after a nearby former settlement along the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was developed by the Phelps Dodge Corporation in the 1970s for employees of its then-new Hidalgo Copper Smelter, located Template:Convert south of the development. Over 270 rental homes, six apartment buildings, a post office, grocery/dry goods store (Phelps Dodge Mercantile), medical clinic with heliport, a bowling alley ("Copper Pins"), grill, a rodeo arena, horse stables, a fitness center, a shooting range, an airstrip and a swimming pool were built for the community, which even has its own ZIP Code (88009). At its peak, the town had about 1,100 residents and included two churches built on land leased from the mining company.

The smelter, which included state of the art environmental controls, a power plant and sulfuric acid plants, was closed by the company as part of a move towards new processing technologies for processing copper concentrates. Declining copper prices accelerated the closure in 1999; all of its residents were required to leave within a year,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> though a skeleton crew of about a dozen employees remained in the area. Before completion of razing the plant and reclamation of the site, the smelter, about Template:Convert north of the border with Mexico, was nicknamed La Estrella del Norte by illegal migrants using its lights as a beacon for crossing into the country.Template:Citation needed

Four years later, New Mexico Tech agreed to purchase the town and the surrounding Template:Convert for $5 million, using Department of Homeland Security funds secured by Senator Pete Domenici. The town is now a training and research facility (the Playas Training and Research Center, operated by New Mexico Tech's EMRTC) for the university's first responders, counter-terrorism,<ref>Jennifer Mason (August 28, 2013) A Community Commoditized: Playas, New Mexico Pt. 2</ref> and Air Force<ref>Mark Pomerleau (19 May 2021) Air Force held first information warfare test exercises</ref> programs, supported by tens of millions of dollars in federal funds.

Geography

Playas is located in eastern Hidalgo County and is bordered to the east by Grant County. It is at the south terminus of New Mexico State Road 113 Template:Convert south of New Mexico State Road 9, Template:Convert east-southeast of Animas, Template:Convert west of Hachita and Template:Convert south of Lordsburg, the Hidalgo County seat. It sits at the northwestern base of the Little Hatchet Mountains, on the east side of the Playas Valley.<ref>Playas Lake North, NM, 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1982</ref><ref>New Mexico Atlas & Gazetteer, DeLorme, 5th ed., 2009, p.53 Template:Isbn</ref>

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Playas CDP has an area of Template:Convert, all land.<ref name="Census 2010"/>

See also

• List of census-designated places in New Mexico

External links

• Playas Training and Research Center
• Animas, Cotton City, and Playas
• Isolated desert town is ready to become a target from the International Herald Tribune
• Playas Purchase Boosts Homeland Security
• New Mexico Tech Board of Regents Approves Purchase of Playas
• Photographic and site description at CLUI
• Playas contextualized in "Cities Under Siege" by Stephen Graham

Pete Domenici press releases

• N.M. Tech Focus on Security Research Creates Educational, Economic Opportunities
• Domenici secures $80 million in additional funds to support national security work carried out in New Mexico