Acme and Frazier, New Mexico, some history
What were once the communities of Acme and Frazieris
now split by US Highway 70. Both were about 17 miles northeast of
Roswell, in Chaves County, southwest United States. Acme was named for
the Acme Gypsum Cement Company. This Company built a mill in 1906 to
produce gypsum, plaster and cement. There once were company houses for
families of the 30 men employed. A narrow-guage railroad with dirt cars
pulled by horses carried gypsum to the mill, where workers earned 40 cents
an hour mixing gypsum, dirt and horsehair.
By 1923, Acme's population had grown to 100, but then, in the
1930's, the mill closed and Acme's population moved away. The mill and
what was once Acme have vanished, except for the cemetery.
Of Frazier, all that remains are the stone shell ruins of the former
Frazier Elementary School. Both Acme and Frazier and now (2003) ghost
towns.