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Railroads did indeed change the west and not always for the best.  

But before we get to railroads of the west, I’ve got some business to settle.  I’m running a double MLB trade deadline special.

Make a purchase of my book “The Mesilla” or get a friend to sign up for my newsletter – you know, the one you are reading now – and I’ll send you and them a copy of my novelette “When the Doves Coo.”

Not much time left, so you had better put it in gear. And by the way, I hope your favorite baseball team gets what they want out of the trading frenzy that is predicted.  Just email your order confirmation or give me the name of the person you referred for my newsletter and you’re in! Order my book by clicking on the book cover.

Email me at mary@maryarmstrongauthor.com

The Santa Fe Railroad came to the Mesilla Valley in April of 1881. A huge crowd celebrated the event at the end of Depot Avenue – later renamed Las Cruces Avenue. The celebration was so large and raucous that the arrival had to be delayed because it was necessary to clear the throng from the tracks! After formalities, some of the crowd were given a short ride.
The first passenger train didn’t arrive until June of that year and as described in “The Mesilla – The Two Valleys Saga; Book One” the arrival was delayed by a flood near Rincon. A few years later, and as alluded to in “The Mesilla” a freight train crew had to stop in the same location at a bridge. The crew left the train and walked into Rincon for the night. When they returned – no bridge, no locomotive, and no train! The entire thing had been washed away and nothing remained. Fifty years later a famer’s plow struck what turned out to be the remnants of a box car. The Santa Fe Railroad told the farmer the box car and whatever else he discovered were now his property.

But the arrival of the Santa Fe line in southern New Mexico wasn’t quite as simple as one might think. For years, Mesilla (often referred to then as La Mesilla) was the center of commerce and government in the Mesilla Valley. When the Santa Fe Railroad Company approached La Mesilla, the community leaders were hesitant to make the necessary property available for the right-of-way. Some influential folks had heard some pretty nasty stories about how ‘railroad towns’ became wild, uncivilized burgs filled with opportunists and criminals. Their hesitation proved fatal and the path of history of Dona Ana County permanently veered toward Las Cruces when local business man William Rynerson saw an opening and immediately offered up the needed land. Las Cruces got the route and a few years later, all the county offices were moved to Las Cruces. It was a bit of a sore point between the two communities for some years. Ironically, the same sort of situation had occurred a year before, which Rynerson must have known, when the Santa Fe Railroad Company by-passed their namesake town of Santa Fe in favor of Albuquerque in 1880.
References:
Owen, Gordon, “Las Cruces New Mexico – Multicultural Crossroads, 2005, revised edition
Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad map

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4051p.rr003220/?r=0.391,0.386,0.202,0.116,0
*Don’t forget to get a good deal on my book or get your friends to sign up for my free novelette.

Thanks for joining my newsletter group.  I’ll be filling you in on news about my current book, historic facts related to my writing, hints on the upcoming book in the series and some personal tidbits on my writing and personal lives

I know, I know, you’ve been looking all over for me … no? Well, you’ve been thinking about looking all over for me … maaaybe?

Anyway, you’ve found me and I hope you enjoy your stay. I can’t offer you coffee, tea or tequila, but if you stay tuned, there’ll be some freebies coming your way. There’ll be quizzes on my books, excerpts from books in progress, commentary on my characters, discourse on historic events, what I’m reading, perhaps one of my short stories, and once in awhile an insight into the writing life and the ‘other time life’ of which there isn’t much these days.

“The Mesilla” was the result of ten plus years of reading and research. It started, innocently enough, with me getting acquainted with the history of my new stomping grounds here in the Mesilla Valley. Hubby Skip and I moved here from the Boston area in 2010. I was reading lots of other things, also: Ken Follett, Diana Gabaldon, Michael McGarrity, Sara Donati, Margaret Atwood, Louis L’Amour, Jean M. Auel and others that aren’t so HF (Historical Fiction) related. I expect The Two Valleys Saga to be four books, but hey, you never know. The series spans ten years and the first book only spanned three months! There will be some bigger time jumps to hit historic highlights, but the story will have continuity.

The idea of writing about Colonel Fountain and his family got me started. After writing a column in our local newspaper for a couple of years on another subject, I began thinking about what a project about the Saga of the Fountain family would look like. That led me to writing a one-act play for the Las Cruces Community Theaters One-Act Play Festival. It was one of several selected and performed here at the LCCT in February of 2017. That play historically took place two years after this book series ends. It is set in a Las Cruces general store as the storekeeper and Gabby (no, not the Gabby in “The Mesilla”) where the storekeeper reads the Rio Grande Republican to the illiterate Gabby.

Anybody that knows southern New Mexico knows the Tularosa Valley and Mesilla Valley don’t see eye-to-eye on much. I wanted to understand why and realized that it goes back to the times of Colonel Fountain. I read and read until my eyes were red (btw, I have a vision problem – more on that later), but there really isn’t as much written about some of the primary actors in the Tularosa side and what there is, is often legend or folklore. Still, there was plenty to find that could give me a basis for writing about the place and the people in both valleys. As I became more acquainted, I began to think I understood how we got where we are today. This series is for entertainment, of course, but I also have the hope that people will have a better understanding of how we got where we are today in southern New Mexico.

The Tularosa won’t be the focus in this or the next book, but I hope book three and more will jingle spurs for the Tularosa folks. There are several chapters in this first book and Book Two that are set in the Tularosa to introduce characters and landscapes, and rest assured, they are there for a reason.

Originally, my manuscript was nearly twice as long as “The Mesilla.” I wanted to get it to a point where the next book would be entitled “The Tularosa,” but I got a lot of flack from my writing group Facebookers about the length, so I decided to shrink it and have the remainder for a solid start on Book Two. I don’t have a working title yet, but I hope to have it available for sale for the Christmas season.

So, I think I need to get back to the task at hand – and I hope you’ll tune in now and then for some fun.

Mary