The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad steamed through Raton pass in 1879 ushering in a fabulous period of progress and growth that reached every corner of the vast state. Explore these incredible roundhouses and depots, railroad districts and mercantile houses, locomotive and cabooses, hotels and freight offices that helped tame the southwestern frontier.
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Deming Railroad Depot
Southwest Region: Deming
Constructed 2004. The Deming Railroad Depot survives, having been moved from its original location to a new site in 2004 across from Deming’s Pit Park. The wooden structure is a rare survivor of the earliest railroad era in New Mexico, before railroad companies built more substantial brick and stucco buildings. Read more…
Gallup Cultural Center
Northwest Region: Gallup
Constructed 1918. The Amtrak stop in Gallup is a two-story stucco station built in 1918 in the Mission Revival architectural style. It was originally constructed to serve as an area headquarters for the Santa Fe Railway, the successor to the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. A Harvey House hotel and restaurant, Read more…
Las Cruces Railroad Museum
South Region: Las Cruces
Constructed 1910. The first Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe (AT&SF) train arrived in Las Cruces on April 26, 1881. The first depot was a wood frame building that was later moved on flatcars down the line to Al Tuna (present day Anthony, TX). The wood frame building provided passenger and Read more…
Las Vegas Railroad Depot
North Region: Las Vegas
The Las Vegas Railroad Depot replaced an earlier wooden depot constructed after the Santa Fe RR arrived in July, 1879, making Las Vegas the first railhead in the NM Territory. The existing depot is one of the earliest buildings built in the trademark California Mission Revival style in NM. The Read more…
Old Pass Gallery/Wells Fargo Freight Office
Northeast Region: Raton
Constructed 1910. The former Well Fargo Express Freight Office at the Raton Rail yard is now the home of the Raton Arts and Humanities Council and the Old Pass art gallery. The building has been handsomely rehabilitated and offers high quality art shows regularly throughout the year. 145 So. First Read more…
Palace Hotel
Northeast Region: Raton
The Palace Hotel was built across First Street from the Raton Railroad Depot in 1896 in the Romanesque Revival style. The elegant brownstone hotel was the most luxurious hotel in Raton until WWII when the popularity of La Mesa horse racing track eclipsed its location and popularity. The Hotel has Read more…
Portales Railroad Depot
East Region: Portales
Constructed 1913. By 1898, the railroad line between Roswell and Amarillo was completed, and a tent city trade center sprang up along the tracks at the present site of Portales. After the Belen cut-off line through Clovis became the popular east-west route through New Mexico, the Santa Fe railroad built Read more…
Railroad Avenue Historic District
North Region: Las Vegas
Constructed 1890 On July 4, 1879 a rowdy crowd greeted the first Iron Horse locomotive in the New Mexico Territory at the Las Vegas railyard. Within days and weeks, a ramshackle collection of tents and wooden makeshift businesses appeared, attracting fortune seekers from hundreds of miles away. Great mercantile companies Read more…
Raton Railroad Depot
Northeast Region: Raton
Constructed 1904 Raton’s distinctive Mission Revival style railroad depot is an interesting variation of the California Mission Style, which was adopted by the Santa Fe Railroad as its trademark architectural style in the 1890s. The Raton depot originally featured an octagonal waiting room with a tower roof which matched a Read more…
Tucumcari Railroad Depot
East Region: Tucumcari
Constructed 1906. The Tucumcari Railroad Depot was built by the Union Pacific line as more railroad lines penetrated into the NM Territory. The Tucumcari depot is among the most impressive surviving depot buildings in the state, lovingly restored by the community with the assistance of state and federal grants in Read more…