D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
March
2008
Tales of the Rails
Inspired by the recent reopening of the Las Cruces Railroad Museum, we share four true stories from the era when trains were the way to go.
By Jeff Berg
April 26 marks the 157th anniversary of the arrival of the first train in Las Cruces. Although railroad history is somewhat richer and deeper in other parts of the state, the railroad has played an important role in Las Cruces history, and still does, especially in the outbound shipping of agricultural products such as cotton. The recent remodeling of the Las Cruces Railroad Museum, which is housed in the former passenger and freight depot, has brought about a revived interest in history for a number of local residents.
Early Railroad Days
James Gadsden, one of the principal parties in the acquisition of this part of the world from Mexico, did so in part because of his desire to run a transcontinental railroad through the lower Southwest, connecting New Orleans with California.
 |
The Las Cruces Railroad Museum. |
Gadsden, president of several railroads in the southern US, was also instrumental in the early attempts to remove the Seminole Indians from Florida to Oklahoma. His life is checkered with questionable political and financial schemes, but for better or worse, he left his imprint on New Mexico.
He was conveniently made US Minister to Mexico, and — in a deal that is still controversial — procured 45,535 square miles of land from Mexico in 1852 at about 33 cents an acre. Gadsden didn't live to see the railroad come to southern New Mexico, nor was he US Minister much longer, as he was removed for meddling in Mexican politics and died on Christmas Day, 1858.
It took a number of years for things to get rolling again, even though Las Cruces became a county seat in 1852. In 1869, the first transcontinental railroad line was completed in Utah, and rail expansion possibilities seemed limitless. In 1871, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) line was building south, with an eventual goal of hooking up with the delayed Southern Pacific line, which was heading west to California from New Orleans. The ATSF chugged right along, and in 1871, the first train crossed Raton Pass, on the Colorado-New Mexico border, heading for points south.
According to Gordon Owen's excellent book, Las Cruces, Multicultural Crossroads, the competition between railroad companies circa 1880 was so intense that they "appealed to communities for contributions of land for rights of way and depots." Santa Fe Railroad surveyors first pursued a right-of-way through Mesilla, but local landowners "resented their assumption that towns should assist them, and were so slow to respond, that the Santa Fe looked elsewhere."
Four Las Cruces businessmen — William Rynerson, Henry Cuniffe, Simon Newcomb and Jacinto Armijo — quickly jumped on the opportunity and formed the Las Cruces Town Company. They bought land west of Las Cruces and donated or sold (reports vary) land to the grateful Santa Fe Railroad, for right-of-way and a depot. Since the rail line was set to run a short distance west of town, some of the remaining land became Las Cruces' first "suburb," covering a 42-block area between the depot and the then-heart of town. The area became populated mostly by wealthy Anglos, who built a number of interesting homes that were not adobe, but rather in styles such as Victorian and Mediterranean. Nowadays, this area of beautifully maintained homes is in part known as the Alameda Depot Historic District.
When that first Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe train rumbled into Las Cruces on April 26, 1881, it of course created quite a stir. In June the first passenger trained chugged into the city, and a new era began.
Las Cruces Depot
The original 1881 Las Cruces railroad depot was made of wood, measuring 24-by-40 feet plus a 24-by-70 freight addition. It served Las Cruces until 1910, when the old depot was placed on a flatcar and moved to present day Anthony, Texas, then known as La Tuna. The Mission Revival-style depot that replaced it, at 351 N. Mesilla St., now serves as home to the Las Cruces Railroad Museum. The tracks west of the depot continue to be owned and operated by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad.
Another depot was opened in Mesilla Park in 1887. This depot was replaced in 1925 by a new building in the Art Deco style. It closed in 1966 and is still owned and occasionally used by the BNSF.
Between Raton and Mesilla Park, 19 depots of the old Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe line still existed as of 2005. Some are abandoned, several are used for the Amtrak line, another is a VFW headquarters, and others house everything from people (private homes) to the offices of a psychologist.
And of course Las Cruces' depot is now a museum. "The agent who was stationed here at that time lived in the upstairs of the depot," says Rebecca Slaughter, assistant manager of the Railroad Museum. "And the depot was between the two sets of tracks. The new building in 1910 was part of a railroad-wide upgrade. It is the standard style used then, but was made to purposely look more southwestern, by the use of pebbledash stucco on the outside, and a Mission Revival look of woodwork, and with curved windows."
A tour through the museum shows that even with recent museum renovations, it still has that look and still in some ways feels like a railroad depot. Signs on the walls indicate the separate waiting areas for men and women during the old days.
Slaughter smiles when she says, "It was probably so the men could smoke, chew, spit and cuss without offending the ladies, who were often tending to children. But they put the men's restroom on the other ladies' side of the waiting room, so they men still had to pass through that area."
Slaughter, who is somewhat of a train buff and has ridden on trains in five countries, adds that the original 1881 depot, or at least part of it, is still somewhere in Anthony. "The last known sighting of it was in the 1980s."
Passenger service to Las Cruces pretty much ended in 1968, although Slaughter notes that occasionally the BNSF will make accommodations for bigwigs — Governor Bill Richardson, for example — to come to Las Cruces on a train.
"When the passenger service began to decline, there was an additional freight addition added to the building," Slaughter says.
But even the freight business stopped in 1988, and the city purchased the depot in 1992, opening the museum in 2001. After being shut for nine months for remodeling and reorganizing, the growing museum opened again in December 2007.
"We were pleasantly surprised by the turnout for our holiday open house. We had about 700 people attend it," Slaughter says.
Besides opening the museum for longer hours, Slaughter and Joanne Beer, the museum's curator of education, have started doing community outreach programs and hosting historical talks at the museum. School groups will also be getting to hear about the good old days of the railroad in Las Cruces.
Slaughter hopes the museum's exhibits will continue to grow through donations of railroad items from local residents.
One corner of the museum is devoted to the "Harvey Newsstand" (as in the old movie The Harvey Girls) and notes a bit of interesting history: "The Harvey system had hotels, lunch counters and newsstands. Rincon had a lunch counter, and Albuquerque had a hotel." The newsstand sold tobacco products, small sundries, candy and Fred Harvey postcards.
"Our research shows that in 1910, Apolonia Archibald was the newsstand clerk here in1910," says Slaughter. "We are still hoping to find out who else worked here."
A Train Trip Through Time
Cameron Saffell, the curator of history for the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, has recently been studying up on the early history of New Mexico railroads. For example, ever wonder why many of the major towns in New Mexico are often about 60 miles apart? Saffell knows: "That's as far as the engines could go without having to stop for water."
Were there water "wars" because of this? "Yes, there were. The railroad would buy up land only for the water rights, and it caused some trouble because the railroad wasn't using the land for farming or grazing."
What was more important, passengers or freight? "Passengers were not prime considerations, and the freight traffic became more and more important," Saffell says. "The agricultural industry in New Mexico provided lots of business to the railroad. Not many people think of fruit when they think of New Mexico, but one of the lines that went from Farmington to Colorado was called the Red Apple Line. A lot of peaches were shipped out of the Mesilla Valley, too."
Did the railroads sell some of their land to citizens? "The railroads used various inducements to get people to buy land they (the railroad) didn't need. They had very organized programs to sell land to immigrants — offering free excursions, paying for fares for those who were looking — and they would even rent you a box car to move your belongings."
How about livestock and cattle drives? Saffell really lights up at this question. He produces a brochure called "The Magdalena Trail — A Livestock Driveway." The ATSF completed a branch line from Socorro to Magdalena in 1885, the start of a livestock trail connecting ranchers in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico to the Magdalena railhead, a distance of about 120 miles for some. In its peak year, 1919, 150,000 sheep and 21,677 cattle were pushed down the trail.
In 1916, the Enlarged Stock Grazing Homestead Act was passed, allowing for larger claims by homesteaders. Stockmen felt that future claims might interfere with the trail, and petitioned for "formal withdrawal of lands for moving livestock to the railroad in Magdalena." Upon approval, the Magdalena Trail became the Magdalena Stock Driveway.
But the route didn't have much in the way of forage, and the stock would often arrive a lot more fit and trim than when they left the ranches, resulting in a drop of price. During the 1930s and 1940s, various grazing acts were put into effect, regulating grazing via permits. It was also about this time that the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was put to use installing wells every 10 miles along the Magdalena trail. Ten miles was considered a good day's hike for a cow, and a two-day trip for the slower sheep. With the addition of fencing and the wells, livestock would arrive in Magdalena healthy and sometimes heavier, much to the delight of the stockmen.
So, Cameron, when was the last cattle drive on the trail? "1972, and the Magdalena Stockyards still stand."
The Not-so-Great Train Robbery
Crime doesn't pay. Henry Lorentz and Harry Dwyer proved that. Long after the very first train robbery in the US took place in North Bend, Ohio, in 1865 but not too terribly long after the renowned bandit Black Jack Ketchum was hanged in Clayton, NM, in 1901 for train robbery, Dwyer and Lorentz attempted to rob the passengers of a westbound train out of El Paso in 1938.
Lorentz had migrated to the US from Germany with his parents. Apparently a victim of his own overactive imagination and fictional accounts of the Wild West, he ran away from home. This, apparently, was after his Papa refused to buy him the trappings of a drugstore cowboy — boots and hat — and, even worse, confiscated his western pulp magazines. Finding a job in a store, the rough-and-tough shoe salesman met his future partner in crime, Harry Dwyer, an immigrant from France.
Like many a lad, Lorentz wanted to move out West and live the life he'd read about before his vater took away his pulp magazines. He was able to sock away $500 and also able to convince Dwyer that the life of a cowboy was better than clerking in a store. There might have even been some talk of reviving the outlaw or gunfighter forms of employment. Who knows?
So Lorentz and Dwyer took the train from New York City and ended up in El Paso. Here, they bought the costume — boots and hats — and also two used pistols, two used horses and two used saddles.
From El Paso, they made several trips to Deming. On one of these trips, they returned to El Paso with two young, slightly shady, ladies. (Ladies of Deming — if you were one of these ladies, shady or not, boy, would I like to interview you!)
Ladies cost money, and soon Lorentz and Dwyer found themselves nearly broke, after frittering away much of their remaining dinero on the womenfolk. As cowboys, real or not, are wont to do when broke, they sold their horses and saddles with a plan to move on to Californi-ay, or perhaps Arizona.
Being as light of brain cells as they were of money, however, they soon found that the sale of their faithful steeds only bought them tickets to Las Cruces, where no fame or fortune awaited.
And this is when they decided to rob a train.
They purchased two day coach-tickets to Las Cruces on the Southern Pacific. Just over the New Mexico state line, they "pulled iron" and proclaimed to their fellow passengers that they were robbing the train. Dwyer and Lorentz started gathering money and other valuables from either side of the aisle, with Lorentz perhaps briefly holding a conductor as hostage.
When they were done gathering the loot, Lorentz ordered the conductor to stop the train — just as a passenger stuck a foot in the aisle and tripped Dwyer. Mayhem ensued, with the angry passengers piling on Dwyer and disarming him. Lorentz panicked and opened fire, killing a railroad employee, W.L. Smith, and wounding a second man slightly when the bullet was deflected by a metal cigarette case in the man's pocket. (If you have to smoke. . . .)
Lorentz, apparently shocked by his own actions, froze, thus offering the passengers a very good opportunity to beat him as senseless as they had Dwyer.
When the train reached Las Cruces, this not-too-wild bunch did indeed find new opportunity — in court. With the late Mr. Smith leaving behind a widow and a daughter afflicted with tuberculosis, it was curtains for the two young train robbers. Lorentz and Dwyer were tried and convicted of second-degree murder in February 1938. They were sentenced to 50 to 75 years in the New Mexico State Penitentiary. (If they survived to serve their full sentences, theoretically, the desperadoes could still be state "residents," but alas, a quick search of the state offenders Web site revealed no trace.)
In Marc Simmons' book, When Six-Guns Ruled, he says that a spectator to Lorentz and Dwyer's trial remarked, "Imagine those scoundrels thinking they could come here and pull that 'Wild West' stuff on us."
Indeed.
The Las Cruces Railroad Museum is located at 351 N. Mesilla St. at the west end of Las Cruces Avenue. Admission is free. Hours are Thursday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. For more information about the museum's celebration of the first train arriving in Las Cruces, which will take place the weekend of April 26, contact the museum at 647-4480.
Another upcoming event is "Safety First!: Signs, Bikes and Trains," a spring break camp for eight to 10 year olds. Over a two-day period students will participate in a Bike Rodeo, learning the rules of the road (all equipment is provided), and in Operation Lifesaver, learning the rules of train safety. Students will also learn to communicate as train engineers do with whistles, flags, and lights. Other games and activities included. Snacks provided. There will be two sessions, March 24-25 and March 27-28, both 9 a.m.-12 noon. The cost per student is $15.
Space is limited; reserve by calling 647-4480 or emailing jobeer@las-cruces.org
New Mexico Railroad Trivia New Mexico is the former host of seven major, now-defunct railroads, including such key lines as the Southern Pacific, Denver and Rio Grande Western, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. All told, the state had about 160 rail lines, mostly spur lines. In the mid 1880s, floodwaters halted a train near Rincon, north of Las Cruces. The crew walked to Rincon to wait for the waters to recede, but when they returned, a bridge over the Rio Grande was gone, as was the train! The waters had washed both away. But, some 50 years later, a farmer's plow struck the edge of a boxcar that was buried on his acreage. The railroad, when contacted, said it was now the farmer's property. (from Las Cruces Multicultural Crossroads) Harvey Girls were paid a salary of $17.50 per month plus room and board and gratuities. They lived in dormitories that were always near their work and were chaperoned by a matron who enforced their 10:00 curfew. While the girls had to promise not to marry for a year (or until their contract expired), not many of them were able to resist the proposals of virile western bachelors for more than a few months. (from Meals by Fred Harvey by James Henderson) One of the first tractors used in the Mesilla Valley, called a "steam plow" by the buyer, was shipped on a flatcar to Las Cruces. It was purchased and used by the members of Shalam Colony, an early experiment in communal living, just north of the city. In 1892, Black Jack Ketchum and his gang robbed a train near Nutt, south and east of Silver City. They made off with $20,000 that was never recovered. |