Report from the New Mexico Governor to the Secretary of the Interior in 1903.
THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA AND SANTA FE RAILWAY.
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway is the pioneer railway system of the Territory, and owns almost one-half of the railway mileage of this Commonwealth. Its main line and branches tap the most fertile and populous districts, and it has done much for the upbuilding of the future Sunshine State. The railway enters the Territory a short distance north of the station Lynn, in Colfax County, at an elevation of 7,557 feet, and passes southward through Colfax, Mora, San Miguel, Santa Fe, and Bernalillo counties, a rich stock, mining, and agricultural country, to Isleta, the junction point with the Santa Fe-Pacific, at an elevation of 4,877 feet. The important towns of Raton, Springer, Wagon Mound, Las Vegas, Cerrillos, and Albuquerque are on this division, besides a number of lesser settlements.
The capital city of Santa Fe is connected with this line by an 18-mile branch line from Lamy. A short branch from Waldo taps the important Madrid coal fields, and a branch 12 miles long from Hebron Station, in Colfax County, taps the Willow Creek coal fields. From Dillon, in Colfax County, a branch 5 miles long enters the Blossburg and Gardner coal fields. From Las Vegas a branch a little over 6 miles long makes connection with Las Vegas Hot Springs and the famous Montezuma Hotel. The line has been leased and is now being operated as an electric railway. At Las Vegas and at Albuquerque the railroad company has built magnificent new depots and is building a new depot at the cost of $30,000 at Raton. At French, near Springer, this division is crossed by the Dawson Railway, and at Kennedy, a few unles south of I?my, by the Santa Fe Central Railway. At Maxwell City the Taos, Cimarron and Taos Valley Railway, for which a companv has been incorporated, and of which a survey has been completed, is to start, following the Cimarron River, thence the Moreno Creek to Elizabethtown, across the Taos divide to Taos and Embudo to a connection with the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. It is not known when this line will be built, although it is to be in the near future.
