Taking the Train

Cloudcroft's history is closely intertwined with the logging industry and the railroad. In the late 19th, the forests of the Sacramento Mountains were home to towering stands of ponderosa pine

Cloudcroft, New Mexico's history is closely intertwined with the logging industry and the railroad.

In the late 1800s, settlers and entrepreneurs caught sight of the towering ponderosa pines covering the mountain slopes and realized their potential value. The immense trees, often growing over 100 feet tall with trunks multiple feet in diameter, provided perfect timber for railroad ties, mine props, and all manners of construction.

As the demand for lumber boomed across the West in the 1890s, logging operations sprouted up throughout the Sacramento Mountains. Logging camps housed dozens of workers, portable sawmills turned giant pines into boards and beams, and ox teams slowly dragged cut timber to staging areas. But extracting timber from the steep, roadless mountains and transporting it to distant markets still posed an enormous challenge. The terrain was rugged and remote, with few level tracts for building wagon roads. Visionary railroad developers saw a solution: constructing a railroad directly into the timber lands.

The Alamogordo & Sacramento Mountain Railway (A&SM) commenced construction in 1898, forging a pioneering route directly from the railroad hub of Alamogordo into the heart of the Sacramento Mountains. Engineering obstacles abounded, including elevating the line over 4,700 feet in just 32 miles, carving routes along cliffsides, and bridging profound gorges. The railway’s curving switchbacks and steep 2-3% grades allowed meets to climb reasonably. By late 1899, the tracks reached Russia Canyon at the foot of Russia Mesa, the site of the future village of Cloudcroft.

Seeing tourism potential in the cool, lush mountain climate, the A&SM doubled down by establishing a full-service resort – the Lodge and Pavilion – directly adjacent to the Russia Canyon rail stop. Well-to-do families from the scorching Southwest flocked to the scenic mountain escape in the following years. The railway enabled comfortable, reliable transportation to the remote site, carrying passengers in standard coaches or open-air observation cars. Visitors marveled at the panoramic vistas unfolding during the winding two-hour journey from the desert floor. The lodges and tent camps overflowed with health-seekers, outdoors people, and those wanting a reprieve from the regional heat.

The A&SM Railway kept up a booming business transporting freshly cut lumber from the Sacramento Mountains. Gondola cars loaded with ponderosa pine descended the western slopes daily, feeding construction projects and wood product mills across the Southwest. Large-scale logging would have remained economically unfeasible without the railway penetrating directly into the timbered lands.

The demanding mountain railway required the latest steam locomotive technology. The most famous were the line’s 2-8-0 Consolidation-type locomotives, whose strength and stability on steep grades and sharp curves made them well-suited for mountain railroading. They featured large drive wheels for traction, and their distinct “Dirty Annies” shoveled coal voraciously. While they struggled to climb the sustained 3% grades, their power shone while controlling the descent of heavy log trains. The locomotive’s mechanical stokers fed coal steadily without erratic surges of energy.

The railway and resort ushered in Cloudcroft’s permanent settlement, mainly by employees of the railroad and logging operations. Logging soon denuded lands around the village, but a fledgling tourism economy kept the town alive even as loggers pushed deeper into forested slopes. Areas that were clear-cut in the 1920s have since been revived with extensive second-growth ponderosa pine forests. Visitors today can view these even-aged stands bracketed by the remaining old-growth pines, a visible legacy of the early logging era. The railway itself also endures – now the seasonal Cloud Climbing Railway – hauling passengers behind classic steam locomotives to the mountain resort started by the rails over 125 years ago.