Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1901-08-09
RAILROADS In SOUTH
WESTERN new MEXICO
A Network Of New Railroad Lines is Be-
ing Constructed to Connect With the
Lines Already Built.
The Ell PASO 4 SOUTHWESTERN

A few days ago the Lordsburg &
Hachita Railroad company was organ
lied to build railroad line forty miles
long from Lordsburg to Hachita in
Grant county. This proposed line will
connect the Arizona &, New Mexico
railroad, which recently changed it's
narrow gauge track to standard gauge,
with the Ell Paso & Southwestern or
Bisbee line which is now being con-
structed. The capital for building this
ra IS furnished by the Arizona
Co + Scotland, the COM
pa, great copper mines
at ~. "A road will be
ssar1iiss.,>a-ga4s...y.ss.s&fa:ss ID, already con-
tracted for being rs Founders. The
road will be ballasted with Stag from
the Clifton smelters. 1t is expected
that the trains will be running over
this new line by the first of next July.
This road will give Lordsburg as well
as the Clifton-Morenci district, Ariz,
another direct eastern connection
through the Ell Paso & Southwestern
railroad to El Paso, in addition to the
Southern Pacific line.
MANY MILES OF FEEDERS.
More miles of feeders are building in
southwestern New Mexico than hereto
fore existed. Last year the firm of
Phelps, Dodge & Co., copper merchants
of New York, owners of the Copper
Queen mines at Bisbee, Ariz., the Ma
ri in Mnvino Cn1Ith of Pic
bee, and the Detroit mines at Morenci,
Ariz, commenced railroad building in
that section in earnest. It's first line
was built from Guthrie, in Arizona,
near the New Mexico line, to the camp
at Morenci, Ariz. 1t is only eighteen
miles long and in seven Of these eight
cen miles it climbs more than fifteen
hundred feet. Reverse curves, loops
and bridged canons are. so frequent In
these seven miles that it is called the
corkscrew road. The road Is a success
and saves the company many thousand
dollars annually in transportation
charges. The company's next work
was to build from Bisbee to Douglass
in Arizona the latter a new town on
the International boundary line be-
tween the United States and Mexico,
and named in honor of Professor Doug
lass, the veteran mining engineer and
executive officer of the Phelps-Dodge
company, and from Douglass to Naco-
sari, Mexico, the great copper camp.
To gain eastern connections, the COM
pany is now building from Douglass to
Ell Paso. This line, the El Paso &
Southwestern, will cut New Mexico
from the Arizona line to the Rio
Grande in almost an air line with
branches named to Lordsburg and
to Deming. 1t is built through virgin
country. There is not town on the
line as surveyed except at Columbus,
Immediately south of Demfng.
THE ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO
RAILROAD.
The Arizona 6 New Mexico railroad
which forms part of this proposed net
work of railroads, was built nearly 20
years ago to connect the copper camps
of Clifton and Morenci with the South
ern Pacific railroad. 1t was built and
operated as a narrow gauge road, but
owing to the growth of it's traffic it was
found necessary to make standard
gauge of it. This work was completed
last May.
A DEVELOPER OF MINES.
1t is the railroads that make it possi-
BILE for the mines to be worked and the
cattle to be marketed. The trans
continental roads are sufficient for the
cattlemen. They can drive their herds
for many miles to reach the road and
ship to the markets of the east. With
the miner it is different. Any mine, ex-
cept free milling gold mine, to get
the best returns from the ores must
have a railroad almost to the mouth of
the shaft. In former years the great
railroad corporation paid little atten-
ton to feeding lines. They would permit
such lines to connect with the main line
but the important business of the road
was considered the through traffic
However, railroading is now taking on
different phase that recognizes the
Importance of feeders and to this New
Mexico will owe in the near future un-
paralelled development and growth In
nonu1ation and in wealth.