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.
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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
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[…] have supported farming for thousands of years, and continue to do so today. Additionally, as with many cities in the state, railroads played a pivotal role in Las Cruces’ development. You can learn all about […]