Tolar, New Mexico

Last updated

Tolar, New Mexico
Ghost Town
Tolar, New Mexico. Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad train between Clovis and Vaughn, New Mexico stopping for water.jpg
Santa Fe train stopping for water at Tolar, March 1943
Map of New Mexico highlighting Roosevelt County.svg
Location of Roosevelt County, New Mexico
Coordinates: 34°27′03″N103°55′54″W / 34.45083°N 103.93167°W / 34.45083; -103.93167
Country United States
State New Mexico
County Roosevelt
Elevation
1,287 ft (4,222 m)
Population
 • Total0
Time zone UTC-7 (Mountain (MST))
 • Summer (DST) UTC-6 (MDT)
ZIP Code
88134
Area code 575
GNIS feature ID899957

Tolar, New Mexico (pronounced TOL-er) [1] is a ghost town in the panhandle of northern Roosevelt County that existed in the 20th century. The site is at the intersection of New Mexico State Road 86 and U.S. Routes 60 and 84 between Fort Sumner in De Baca County and Melrose in Curry County. Tolar was established as a stop on the Belen Cutoff of the Santa Fe Railway in 1907. A train carrying munitions exploded there in 1944, causing the largest accidental explosion in New Mexico history. [2]

Contents

Origin

The first settler in the vicinity of Tolar was Alvin Ellender Jeter, who applied for a patent on 160 acres of land under the Homestead Act in 1901. [3] Jeter found abundant groundwater there and built a half-dugout house. [4] His daughter Marvie Ellen Jeter, born July 9, 1903, was the first child born at Tolar. [5] The Jeter family moved to Haskell, Texas in 1917. [6]

To bypass the steep grades on its line through the Raton and Glorieta Passes, the Santa Fe Railway in 1903 began work on the Belen Cutoff across East Central New Mexico, building a new line eastward from Belen through the Abo Pass to Texico on the state line with Texas. [7] Much sand and gravel for construction of the railroad came from the vicinity of Tolar. [8] A race riot broke out in 1905 amongst the construction workers and railroad men that led to eight deaths; supposedly, the bodies were buried in fill at Tolar. [9] The cutoff was finished in December 1907. [10]

While still a tent city, the United States Post Office Department opened a post office at Tolar on August 18, 1905. [11] J.W. Coleman, the first postmaster, named the town for Tolar, Texas, where his daughter lived. [12] In 1908, the town was platted. [13] By 1911, 600 people lived there. [14] Tolar had a school until 1926, when it was consolidated with one in Taiban. [15] The railroad station closed in March 1933. [16] The population fell to 350 by 1941 and under 300 in 1944. [17]

1944 explosion

Midday on November 30, 1944, an eighty-one-car west-bound mixed freight train derailed after a hot box on the seventh car of the train led to its axle breaking. [18] The train carried airplane engines, canned corned beef, mattresses, fuel oil, and 165 five-hundred-pound bombs bound for the Pacific Theatre. [19] Thirty-six cars derailed. [20] The oil car caught fire. [21] After burning for twenty to thirty minutes, the munitions exploded. [22] The explosion dug a crater 75 feet wide and 10 feet deep. [23] Most of the buildings in Tolar were destroyed, including the post office, the railroad station, and the grocery. [24] The blast was felt 120 miles away in Hereford, Texas. [25] Thirty miles to the southeast in Elida, dishes fell from their shelves and windows broke in Melrose, twelve miles to the east. [26] One person was killed, Tolar resident Jess Brown, who was struck in the head by a piece of metal and died while being transported to the hospital in Melrose. [27] His widow, Pauline Brown, received a $17,500 settlement from the railroad for his death. [28] Because of the war, the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent Special Agent R.J. Untreiner to investigate. [29] The Bureau found no signs of sabotage and that it was an accident. [30] While The New York Times reported only a single paragraph about the accident, it was front-page news in New Mexico newspapers. [31] Because of that news coverage, officials of the Manhattan Project issued a cover story of an ammunition explosion on the Alamogordo Air Force Base on July 16, 1945, after the test of the first atomic bomb. [32]

Tolar Today

While the town had been declining for years, the explosion hastened its demise. [33] The post office was closed April 5, 1946, mail being redirected to the Taiban post office. [34] Today, there is nothing left of the community as Tolar “is only a wide spot” on the highway. [35]

Two locomotives and five freight cars of a BNSF Railroad freight train derailed at Tolar on September 21, 1997. [36]

On November 21, 2014, ahead of the seventieth anniversary of the explosion, the New Mexico Department of Transportation dedicated a historical marker to commemorate the event. The marker is located near Mile Marker 344 on U.S. Routes 60 and 84, two miles west of the site of Tolar. [37]

The site of Tolar is in the Portales Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the larger Clovis-Portales Combined Statistical Area.


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico</span> Census-designated place in New Mexico, United States

Tierra Amarilla is a census-designated place in and the county seat of Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clovis, New Mexico</span> City in the United States

Clovis is a city in and the county seat of Curry County, New Mexico. The city had a population of 37,775 as of the 2010 census, and a 2020 census population of 38,567. Clovis is located in the New Mexico portion of the Llano Estacado, in the eastern part of the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belen, New Mexico</span> City in New Mexico, United States

Belén is the second most populous city in Valencia County, New Mexico, United States, after its county seat, Los Lunas. The population was 7,360 at the 2020 Census.

<i>California Limited</i> Named passenger train of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway

The California Limited was one of the named passenger trains of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It carried train Nos. 3 & 4 and ran between Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California.

<i>San Francisco Chief</i> Former streamlined passenger train

The San Francisco Chief was a streamlined passenger train on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. It ran from 1954 until 1971. The San Francisco Chief was the last new streamliner introduced by the Santa Fe, its first full train between Chicago and the Bay, the only Chicago–Bay Area train running over just one railroad, and at 2,555 miles (4,112 km) the longest run in the country on one railroad. The San Francisco Chief was one of many trains discontinued when Amtrak began operations in 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Mexico Rail Runner Express</span> Commuter rail system in central New Mexico, United States

The New Mexico Rail Runner Express is a commuter rail system serving the metropolitan areas of Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is administered by the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) and the Rio Metro Regional Transit District, a regional transportation agency, while Herzog Transit Services currently holds the contract for the operation and maintenance of the line & equipment. Phase I of the system, operating on an existing right-of-way from Belen to Bernalillo that NMDOT purchased from BNSF Railway, opened in July 2006. Phase II, the extension of the line to Santa Fe, opened in December 2008. Daily ridership, as of February 2019, was 2,200 trips per day. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 439,200, or about 2,500 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Potash Railroad</span>

The United States Potash Railroad was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad built in 1931 to carry potash from the mines to the mill at Loving, New Mexico where the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad had a spur that went out to the refinery to carry out the processed potash. The 16-mile (26 km) railroad was located at Loving, New Mexico, just east of Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA, and Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raton station</span> Train station in Raton, New Mexico, U.S.

Raton is an active railroad station in the city of Raton, Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. Located at 201 South First Street, the station serves Amtrak's Southwest Chief. Connections are also available to Denver, Colorado via Amtrak Thruway bus service. The station is staffed during the summer season when tourism for the Philmont Scout Ranch and the National Rifle Association (NRA) Whittington Center is at its peak. During off-seasons, it is open at all train times, maintained by a caretaker. Passengers with layovers there often visit the non-profit Old Pass Gallery, located on the station grounds in the restored 1910 Railway Express Agency building. The station also includes a former freight depot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tijeras Canyon</span> Mountain pass in New Mexico east of Albuquerque

Tijeras Canyon is a prominent canyon in the central part of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It separates the Sandia Mountains subrange to the north from the Manzano Mountains subrange to the south. These subranges are part of the larger Sandia–Manzano Mountains; Tijeras Canyon forms a pass through this range. Elevations along the bottom of the canyon range from 5,600 feet (1,700 m) to 7,000 feet (2,100 m) above sea level. The canyon drains to the west, into a large dry wash known as Tijeras Arroyo, which runs through Kirtland Air Force Base, passes just south of the Albuquerque International Airport, and then joins the Rio Grande. The arroyo heads at the historically important pass, and this pass and the entire canyon are traversed by Interstate 40, following the path of historic U.S. Route 66.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silver City, Pinos Altos and Mogollon Railroad</span>

Silver City, Pinos Altos and Mogollon Railroad was a 2 ft narrow gauge railway serving copper mines along the Continental Divide in the mountains of southwestern New Mexico. The communities of Silver City and Pinos Altos developed as 19th century miners recovered easily extracted gold and silver from ore deposits of the area. Standard-gauge Santa Fe Railroad reached Silver City in 1886, and SC, PA&M was incorporated 24 August 1889 to build a railway north to Mogollon, New Mexico. Construction was limited to 5 miles (8.0 km) of grading until Wisconsin-based Comanche Mining and Smelting purchased the railroad and the Pinos Altos mining claims of George Hearst in 1903 after horse-drawn ore transport became uneconomical. The Silver City smelter burned shortly after purchase, but was rebuilt with three blast furnaces and a reverberatory furnace to handle 225 tons of ore per day. Two Shay locomotives were moved to Silver City in August 1905 from the Gilpin tramway of Gilpin County, Colorado. The railroad was built through iron and limestone mines on Chloride Flat west of Silver City. The limestone was used as a flux for smelting the copper ore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embudo, New Mexico</span> Unincorporated community in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States

Embudo is an unincorporated community in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States. It is on New Mexico State Road 68. The Embudo Station is located 2.9 miles (4.7 km) south of the intersection of New Mexico State Road 75, near where the Embudo Creek flows into the Rio Grande.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Transcon</span> Rail corridor owned by BNSF Railway

The Southern Transcon is a main line of BNSF Railway comprising 11 subdivisions between Southern California and Chicago, Illinois. Completed in its current alignment in 1908 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, when it opened the Belen Cutoff in New Mexico and bypassed the steep grades of Raton Pass, it now serves as a mostly double-tracked intermodal corridor.

The El Paso and Northeastern Railway (EP&NE) was a short line railroad that was built around the beginning of the twentieth century to help connect the industrial and commercial center at El Paso, Texas, with physical resources and the United States' national transportation hub in Chicago. Founded by Charles Eddy, the EP&NE was the primary railroad in a system organized under the New Mexico Railway and Coal Company (NMRy&CCo), a holding company which owned several other railroads and also owned mining and industrial properties served by the lines.

Separ is an unincorporated desert hamlet in Grant County in the bootheel of southwestern New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. Although it is called a ghost town by some on the internet, it currently has a small population. Separ lies in the endorheic Guzmán Basin; as a result the continental divide passes both to the west and east of it. Located alongside the tracks of the Union Pacific, it flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century as a watering station and livestock transfer point. Separ is located alongside Interstate 10, about 20 miles southeast of Lordsburg and 48 miles west of Deming. Today it is a "service point for truck and car traffic."

The Southwestern Railroad is a Class III railroad operating since 1990, and until 2017 consisted of two unconnected railroad sections in New Mexico, with no shared functions. These and a third section in the Texas panhandle and Oklahoma, now closed, all operated separately. Since January 2017, only the Whitewater Division is operated by Southwestern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nutt, New Mexico</span> Unincorporated community in New Mexico, United States

Nutt is an unincorporated community in Luna County, southern New Mexico, in the American Southwest. It is located nineteen miles southwest of Hatch on NM 26 at the intersection with NM 27.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abo Canyon</span> Mountain pass in New Mexico, United States

Abo Canyon, also known as Abo Pass, is a mountain pass at the southern end of the Manzano Mountains of central New Mexico in the Southwest United States.

Stein's Pass, is a gap or mountain pass through the Peloncillo Mountains of Hidalgo County, New Mexico. The pass was named after United States Army Major Enoch Steen, who camped nearby in 1856, as he explored the recently acquired Gadsden Purchase. The pass is in the form of a canyon cut through the mountains through which Steins Creek flows to the west just west of the apex of the pass to the canyon mouth at 32°13′19″N109°01′48″W.

References

  1. ↑ Szasz at 216
  2. ↑ Szasz at 219.
  3. ↑ Sloan at 72.
  4. ↑ Sloan at 72.
  5. ↑ Sloan at 72
  6. ↑ Sloan at 73.
  7. ↑ Myrick at 20-21.
  8. ↑ Julyan at 283
  9. ↑ Penner, Kelley & Parker at 48.
  10. ↑ Myrick at 23.
  11. ↑ Payne at 120, Julyan at 356.
  12. ↑ Padon at 166.
  13. ↑ Padon at 166.
  14. ↑ Szasz at 218
  15. ↑ Sloan at 72.
  16. ↑ Boyle
  17. ↑ Szasz at 218
  18. ↑ Sloan at 72, Szasz at 219.
  19. ↑ Szasz at 219
  20. ↑ Szasz at 219
  21. ↑ Szasz at 219
  22. ↑ Sloan at 72.
  23. ↑ Sloan at 72.
  24. ↑ Szasz at 221.
  25. ↑ Sloan at 72.
  26. ↑ Szasz at 220.
  27. ↑ Sloan at 72, Szasz at 221.
  28. ↑ In re Randolph, 347S.W.2d91 , 97(Mo.1961).
  29. ↑ Szasz at 221.
  30. ↑ Szasz at 221.
  31. ↑ United Press at 25, Szasz at 221, Sumner at 1.
  32. ↑ Szasz at 222.
  33. ↑ Szasz at 216.
  34. ↑ Payne at 121, Julyan at 356.
  35. ↑ Szasz at 216.
  36. ↑ "Derailed" at C1.
  37. ↑ New Mexico Department of Transportation, press release, "WWII Munitions Train Explosion Commemorated with Historic Marker" (Nov. 18, 2014) Archived 2015-09-07 at the Wayback Machine

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.