D  e  s  e  r  t     E  x  p  o  s  u  r  e    March 2006

America By Rail

In Deming, 125 years ago this month, a silver spike joined together the two halves of the Second Transcontinental Railroad.

By Melody Groves

There's nothing wrong with being second. Especially when it comes to something as important as changing the face of the United States. And that's exactly what happened in Deming, 125 years ago this month. Much as a dozen years earlier, a golden spike had marked the joining of the nation by rail at Promontory Point, Utah, officials pounded home a silver spike at Deming on March 8, 1881. The Second Transcontinental Railroad was born.

Deming's famed Harvey House today.

But it all started much earlier than 1881. In fact, as far back as 1832 the nation had realized the need to somehow tie the two coasts together. Several freight lines and stagecoach companies sprung up. Soon, John Butterfield and his impressive overland freight and coach line ran from Tipton, Mo., to San Francisco in just 25 days. That company lasted from 1858 through 1861. Because Butterfield refused to scout a second, more northern route, the even shorter-lived Pony Express was formed. But the American people wanted more—a bigger, better, faster method to get from point A to point B. In response, in March 1853 Congress approved measures for the war department to survey various possible transcontinental railroad routes. The visionary George Pullman began building sleeping cars in 1858 so that one day, people could sleep in style and comfort as they traveled across the country.

Even back then government took a long time to argue and decide on issues. It wasn't until 1862, after years of hostile debate, that Congress gave its blessing to a route with the passage of the Pacific Railway Act, which authorized the building of a transcontinental railroad. The Union Pacific Railroad would build west from Omaha, Nebr., and the Central Pacific Railroad would build east from Sacramento, Calif.

The Civil War interfered with many people's lives and the railroad was no exception. Between the lack of investors and workers signing up for the war effort, the railroad took a backseat. But after 1865 saw an end to the fighting, the race was on.

Despite granite to tunnel through, severe winters, desert heat, lack of supplies, Indian raids and government officials, the Transcontinental Railroad made great progress. Poor planning on top of unbridled enthusiasm spelled disaster for some crews, however. In Utah, at one point surveying and grading crews overlapped blasting crews. As you might imagine, the results were disastrous.

In 1869, the government sent a commission of civil engineers to decide exactly where the two converging railroads should meet. (You would've thought they would have figured that out before it got started.) Fifty-six miles west of Ogden, Utah Territory, Promontory Point earned the honor of having the golden spike driven into the last tie plat, on May 10, 1869. The nation was now joined with 3,500 miles of rails, stretching from New York to California (with the exception, until 1872, of the Missouri River between Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa, which lacked a railroad bridge, requiring passengers to disembark and cross by boat).

Though grateful for the Transcontinental Railroad's completion, Americans were not satisfied. As the nation grew in the second half of the 19th century, citizens urged Congress to plot another transcontinental railroad—this time closer to home for the thousands of people migrating to the southern part of the country.

The original charter called for the Southern Pacific Railroad to run south from San Francisco through southern California, heading through the Arizona and New Mexico territories, to end at El Paso. In 1868, however, the Central Pacific Railroad "Big Four," who now owned the Southern Pacific, decided it would extend all the way to New Orleans.

The Southern Pacific Railroad followed most of the old route of the Mormon Battalion from southern California to Tucson. In March 1880 the railroad tracks reached Tucson, Arizona Territory, and a three-day celebration with a golden spike was held. Charles Crocker of the Big Four beat it into the ground.

By Oct. 18, 1880, the Southern Pacific reached a point two miles north of Shakespeare, NM, where the new town of Lordsburg soon sprang into existence. Named for the railroad's chief engineer, Delbert Lord, the town rapidly expanded from a tent city into a supply point for the whole transcontinental endeavor. By year's end, the Southern Pacific lines stretched almost to the Floridas Mountains, some 50 miles south of the Grant County seat—the whole corner of the state was still Grant County—of Silver City.

Meanwhile, the tracks of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad were crossing the country westward toward a rendezvous in what would become Deming.

The Deming area had already enjoyed a brief brush with transportation history. The Butterfield Overland Stagecoach line ran north of present-day Deming just before the Civil War, changing mule teams at a waystation near a spring at the foot of Cooke's Peak. To protect travelers from Apaches, the US Army built Fort Cummings near the spring; it served until, after years of struggle, the Apaches wars wound down and the Army abandoned the fort.

Anticipating this second shot at glory—and the profits that would go with it—settlers erected a tent city several miles east of today's Deming, grandly christening the fledgling town New Chicago. But their hopes were dashed when the Southern Pacific chose a site for its depot slightly to the west, where Deming would soon be born.

Named after Mary Deming Crocker, wife of the railroad tycoon, Deming was founded officially in November 1881. The Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a roundhouse and repair shops for their iron horses. With that came a city of tents and shanties and with that, all the trappings of a town. With the junction of the railroads, Deming took its place in history.

Not just the town should take its place in history; the woman herself deserves mention. Mary Ann Deming Crocker, born in Indiana in 1827, married Charles Crocker, and in 1852 the couple moved to Sacramento, where they opened a general store. Devoted to charity work in the US and in Europe, Mary Deming taught her four children well. After her death in 1889, they set up a trust in her memory.

After the railroad chugged into town, settlers flocked in and with them, substantial buildings. E. Germain and Company opened the first store, using old boxcars for storerooms. The business district of present-day Deming is located on what was the Wayndotte Script Location. As a result of treaties with the Wayndotte Indians on March 17, 1842, and January 1855, the US Government issued land warrents, later termed "Wayndotte Script," which were good for land in the public domain.

A Harvey House was built in 1881 to serve train passengers and it grew into the social center for Deming. Also designed as a dormitory for the Harvey Girls (later made famous by a movie musical of that name starring Judy Garland), part of the original building still stands next to the Amtrak train depot. The depot is one of only a small handful of "Union Stations" in New Mexico having served both Southern Pacific's Sunset Route and the Santa Fe's branch down from Rincon. In fact, the depot is famous for visits from Presidents Truman, Roosevelt, McKinley, Harrison and Hayes. Even Pancho Villa ate breakfast there in August 1914. The Harvey House and Depot were remodeled in 1930 and moved to Pit Park in 2004.

Meanwhile, after meeting up with the Santa Fe line at Deming, the Southern Pacific Railroad continued to head east. It took over the old Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio railway and by December 1881, the Southern Pacific joined up with the Texas and Pacific near Sierra Blanca, Texas. But it wasn't until February 1883 that the Southern Pacific Railroad Sunset Route finally reached New Orleans.

By the time all the shouting was over, negotiations finalized, and money exchanged, five transcontinental railroads in all linked the United States. After the second transcontinental railroad was finished, the third, the Northern Pacific, stretched from Lake Superior to Portland, Ore. In September 1883, the traditional golden spike was pounded in at Indepedence Creek, approximately 60 miles west of Helena, Mont. The fourth railway, the Santa Fe, extended from Atchison, Kan., to Los Angeles. Last but not least, the Great Northern Railway laid its final track on Jan. 6, 1893. All of the lines followed the original surveys commissioned in 1853 by the government.

These transcontinental railroads aided and hastened the settling of the West. The frontier was no longer a strange, scary place. Rapid economic growth in the shape of mining, farming, ranching and business developed directly along the main lines of the railroad.

Certainly the railroad meant a lot to fledgling Deming. By 1887, Deming, population 1,600, already sported two schools, two churches and four hotels. By 1891, two newspapers, the Headlight (which is still up and running) and the Advance, were keeping track of the citizens' "doings." Also a "City Club" was organized, composed of Deming citizens with the objective of establishing a library and promoting social, commercial and scientific development for the community.

Today, Deming is a thriving farming, ranching and retirement community with more than 14,000 people calling it "home."

There is some debate as to whether the original silver spike rests in the Deming-Luna Mimbres Museum or in Santa Fe. But according to Angie Watts, assistant administrator of the museum, a permanent exhibit is on display at the museum, on the corner of Silver and Hemlock, which gives the entire history of the monumental undertaking. The museum gift shop does not, however, offer silver spike key chains, although perhaps the 125th anniversary will give them the idea.

Melody Groves grew up in Las Cruces and now lives in Albuquerque. Her book Range, Ropes, Reins and Rawhide: All About Rodeo will be published in June by the University of New Mexico Press, and her third Western novel, Arizona War, will be out in April.

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