THE RAILROAD
April of 1880 was the beginning of the end for Carbonateville. The tracks of the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad (1)
reached the little camp at the
confluence of San Marcos Arroyo and the Rio Galisteo that the railroad called
Cerrillos Station, but was soon to be known simply as Cerrillos.
(2)
Go four miles north of Cerrillos Station into the hills to the bigger town of
Carbonateville. (3) That was where the
action was. Carbonateville was the center for all the digging, the dealing and
the drinking. It was the roaring booming camp, the focus for all of the rough
and tumble miners and their hangers-on. If its one and only water well continued
dry, so what? There was always whisky. And surely, if we just keep a' diggin' at
that durn well...
As it turned out Carbonateville's well never got to water, and not a lot of its
miners hit paydirt either. Cerrillos became the place to be, served by the
railroad, which brought the travelers and the businesses. The public was
provided according to its needs; two great hotels, two churches (Catholic and
Methodist), an opera house, a jail, several "Female Boarding Houses", and nearly
two dozen saloons. It was seriously suggested that the capital of New Mexico
Territory be moved from Santa Fe -- that drab old adobe town eighteen miles
distant from the railroad that bore its name, and uphill from it at that! --
to the brand new thriving mainline town of Cerrillos, the town with a future!
Ay, que bravo! By the late 1880s the mining boom in the Cerrillos Hills was but
a whimper, Carbonateville was just about deserted, most of its miners gone in
search of other elusive bonanzas. Some stayed on in Cerrillos to work for the
railroad or the nearby coal mines, but not enough of them hung on. In 1904, by a
vote of 23 to 8, Cerrillos was disincorporated. For the next half century the
sleepy little village eked an existence out of the rails and coal, until, in the
1950s, the diesels began to replace the steam trains. Then the railroad no
longer needed coal and water; it no longer needed Cerrillos. Dogs got used to
sleeping in the middle of the street.
Unlike Carbonateville, Cerrillos flat out refused to die. Fact is, the last
fifty years have seen some unexpected and lively chapters in the saga that is
Cerrillos Village... but that part is another story.
The trains still come and the trains still go. They just don't stop at Cerrillos
anymore. -WB-
Note 1 Theoretically, the AT&SF terminated at its closest station to Santa Fe,
Galisteo Junction, later named Lamy in honor of the Archbishop. Cerrillos is
twelve miles further west from Lamy. This continuation of the AT&SF railroad
line was properly called the New Mexico & Southern Pacific Rail Road.
Note 2 The 1695-96 mining camp of El Real de los Cerrillos, on Alamo Creek seven
miles due north of the modern Cerrillos village, was the first settlement we
know that carried the name of Cerrillos. Curiously, it was named after not what
we know today as the Cerrillos Hills, which were then called las Sierras de San
Marcos, but after the little hills (los cerrillos) to the north of the Real,
along the north side of Alamo Creek. Two Spanish-era land grants between these
little hills and the traditional village of La Cienega preserve the name los
Cerrillos. It was the railroad that expropriated the name and applied it to the
new water and coal station on the Galisteo River, and it was the importance of
Cerrillos Station (without the "los") that transferred that name in turn to the
Hills. For the village and for the hills common usage today is "Cerrillos",
without the definite article. But it's not unusual to hear "Los Cerrillos"
either, as many know it once was and should be again.
Note 3 Originally established about January 1879 and called Frank Dimick and
Robert Hart's Camp, it soon was given the name of Carbonateville after the
carbonates of silver found in Dimick & Hart's Carbonate Lode claim on the west
side of the camp. The U.S. Post Office used the name Carbonateville until 1880,
when it changed its cancellations to "Turquesa, N.M." But Carbonateville
remained the common name for the town, and is the name by which the ghost town
is known today. In 1889 mail service was transferred to Cerrillos.
This website is maintained by the Cerrillos
Hills Park Coalition
and is dedicated to the creation, enhancement and stewardship
of an historical, recreational, and cultural open space in
the
Cerrillos Hills, Santa Fe County, New Mexico, USA
