IRON RAILS ON THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL

During the Spanish control of Mexico, trade with the United States was effectively discouraged by the simple means of jailing the traders and confiscating their wares. But in 1821, soon after Mexican autonomy, a Captain Charles Becknell organized a small but successful trade expedition to Santa Fe, originating in Missouri. This success spurred a second larger expedition the next year that explored and mapped a new and shorter route that opened the floodgates of commerce known as the Santa Fe Trail.

“Both routes departed southwesterly from Council Grove, KS, and intersected the Arkansas River near Great Bend, following the river to a point just east of Dodge City. Here the trails diverged, one branch heading generally south and west across the plains to Las Vegas, and the other, more generally used, followed the Arkansas River to La Junta and turned south over the Raton Pass to Las Vegas. Both of these routes are roughly the same as those followed by the Santa Fe Railroad of today,” writes Pamela Berkman in her History of the AT&SF. Mule trains were followed by wagon trains carrying commodities from the more developed North for avid Mexican consumption and returned with furs and precious metals much prized by Eastern entrepreneurs. This booming trade bonanza of the Southwest was ripe for development.

Cyrus Holliday was a mover and shaker who appeared on the Kansas stage in 1854, filled with vision and ambition. After founding Topeka, KS, and incidentally helping to get it named state capital, he became a member of the Territorial Legislature. In 1859 he and friend Luther C. Challis of Atchison, KS, chartered the Atchison and Topeka Railroad, the foundation of the present system, and wet-nursed the bill through the Legislature. The new company was organized in 1860 but raising capital was most difficult due to the disruption of the Civil War. In 1868, 11401 acres from another railroad were legally authorized for purchase at $1 an acre to be used for loan collateral and resale as investment capital. Finally in 1883 a territorial law granted 2,931,247 acres to the company with the mandate that the rails reach the Colorado border within 10 years in order to take title to the land. Groundbreaking occurred in Topeka on October 30, 1868, and much mirth and derogatory epitaphs met Holliday’s prediction that the railroad would reach the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico. Finally in 1883 a territorial law granted 2,931,247 acres to the company with the mandate that the rails reach the Colorado border within 10 years in order to take title to the land.

The completion in 1868 of the first few miles of track of the new railroad was celebrated with an excursion train picnic. Continued progress was the result of constant and rigorous fundraising, and hard, backbreaking work in a hostile environment. “The Santa Fe had to overcome not only the same difficulties of uncharted territory, violent weather, and frontier lawlessness as the great trail before it; it also had to contend with rivalries and power struggles with other western railroads, both legal and otherwise. The Santa Fe was not an innocent bystander in these railroad wars; it was often the aggressor and almost always the winner”, writes Lesley Poling-Kempes in The Harvey Girls.

Connecting to the Texas cattle market gave the railroad a much-needed boost but the 10-year 1873 deadline was fast approaching. December 1872 found the track crews, after Herculean effort, only fourteen miles from the Colorado border. Sorely belabored by ice and fierce snowstorms they finally reached the border on the 22^nd. Just as the celebration was getting under way, federal surveyors advised the crews that they were 4 miles short of their goal! The few men left who were not totally inebriated were pressed into service and actually finished the remaining miles shortly before the offending deadline.

Pushing on into Colorado, the Santa Fe came into direct conflict with the other railroads also looking for trade link-ups. Palmer of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, and the Nickerson brothers, Boston financiers who had wrested control of the AT&SF from Holliday, recognized the importance of controlling two critical mountain passes, the 8000-foot high Raton Pass with unclear legitimate rights, and the Royal Gorge. Nickerson pushed forward and leased the rights to build a new line. In the meantime, the crafty Huntington of the Southern Pacific thought he had New Mexico sewed up by introducing state legislation that effectively gave the SP a monopoly in that state. Strong, General Manager of the ATSF, poked around until he discovered a loophole in the legislation, finding that the previous law had not been repealed and therefore providing access for new rail lines.              

“The stage was set for a construction battle with the D&RG for the Raton Pass. Strong returned to Kansas and instructed his crews to prepare to build a line across the Raton Pass—using force if necessary. He took a train to Trinidad where he recruited a small army of men and armed them with rifles and shovels. Palmer, on his side, had already recruited armed men to fight for control of the pass. The opposing forces arrived at the mouth of Raton Pass on the same day in 1873. Men from the two railroads growled at each other, but the expected fight did not erupt. The Santa Fe, having arrived just minutes ahead of the D&RG, took control of Raton Pass, and its track crews went to work the next day”, continues Pamela Berkman.

“The contest for Raton Pass was not the last time he two railroads would battle over Colorado real estate. Later, the ATSF and the D&RG fought for control of the Royal Gorge, a narrow rift 3000 feet deep through granite Rockies west of Pueblo, leading to lucrative coal fields. Once again, Strong ordered armed men into action and sent them to the Royal Gorge to prevent D&RG crews from advancing. He also ordered one of his engineers, William R. Morley, to round up reinforcements from Canyon City. Morley, however, could not travel on D&RG trains, so he had to ride 63 miles on horseback to get help. Meanwhile, Palmer and 200 armed men boarded a train and traveled to the mouth of the gorge, prepared to do battle. Morley led his own armed group back to the mouth of the canyon to confront Palmer and told the band of men recruited by the D&RG that he would use all necessary force to stop them. ‘We got here first, and we’re building the Canyon City & San Juan Railroad through to the Arkansas’ he shouted. ‘Anyone interfering with this work is liable to stop a bullet between the eyes’. They decided not to fight, allowing the Santa Fe to take control of the pass,” according to Berkman.

Still the wars continued with legendary Bat Masterson briefly getting into the fracas. Shots were fired and people were beaten up and some killed as each line tried to outmaneuver the other. In July of 1879 the SF rails reached Las Vegas, NM, but alas, the main line could not be feasibly pushed through to the long hoped-for town of Santa Fe. The citizens of Santa Fe floated a bond issue to build a branch line to their city and the first train arrived February 16, 1880, cementing the realization of Holliday’s dream. The same year the two sides finally brokered an agreement allowing the ATSF to continue its course toward the Pacific, and limited the D&RG to exploit Colorado. A final connection at Deming with another railroad heading east, completed the nation’s 2^nd  Transcontinental Railroad on March 8, 1881.