Cloudcroft, New Mexico

Steam locomotives no longer echo in the Sacramento Mountains. Since 1947, an overgrown roadbed and a few trestles were the only clues that rugged little trains once pulled loads of logs and of passengers between Alamogordo and Cloudcroft on the Cloud-Climbing Route.

In the late 1800's, railroads provided major transportation links in the west. But railroads need lumber for cross-ties. In 1899, timber in the Sacramento Mountains led the Eddy brothers to build the Alamogordo & Sacramento Mountain Railway terminating at a Lodge in a town they called Cloudcroft. For 26 miles, their railroad climbed nearly 4,000 feet along ridges and ledges and across canyons on wooden trestles. Soon they offered excursion trains to carry passengers to their Lodge at Cloudcroft. In 1947, the line was torn up for scrap. The roadbed lay abandoned another half-century but now (1999) its steep, crooked path may become a lane for hikers, mountain bikers, and cross-country skiers.