Jemez Mountains Railroads PDF Download

The story of the railroads which penetrated the vast expanse of the rugged Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico is both a history of the land and a saga of men with great ambitions. The land, long inhabited the Jemez Indians, was conquered by Spanish invaders, only to be taken over a few centuries later and exploited again by American businessmen. With them came the railroads that were so necessary to support the industrial practices of the time in lumbering. mining, and general land development. Both of the railroads chronicled in these pages were built during the boom years of the 1920s and, in the flamboyant style of the times, they were expected to prosper beyond any rational bounds. Both lines cost, in fact, far more to build than even their most optimistic traffic projections ever could have justified; and they operated in the shadow of constant financial difficulties.