Deming, Luna County, New Mexico

Deming, county seat of Luna County, dates from 1881 when the AT&SF and South Pacific railroads met near here giving New Mexico its first rail access to both coasts. A silver spike was placed commemorating the second transcontinental railroad. Today (1998), Amtrak's Sunset Limited travels through Deming en route from Florida to California.

What we now know as Deming was first called New Chicago and was located 10 miles east of the present site, but the town was moved to have better access to water.

Charles Crocker, a Southern Pacific railroad official, named the new settlement using his wife's family name--she was Mrs. Mary Ann Deming Crocker.