Historical Marker

Bayard

Bayard Station was first called Hall’s Station, a depot on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe, serving a tuberculosis sanatorium at nearby Fort Bayard, which was named after Brigadier General George Dashiell Bayard. A settlement grew around the depot and became Bayard when a post office opened in 1902. But people lived here long before, including the Mogollon and Mimbres people. Warm Springs Apaches introduced Spaniards to the area’s abundant copper deposits by 1801, and in 1910 open-pit mining began at nearby Santa Rita, eventually consuming that town. Many of its residents—and their Santa Rita homes—moved to Bayard.