StoneTree Gallery

Some History of Mountainair

Early day Homestead Act of 1889 created an interest for people to come into the central valley of New Mexico. Along with this were plans for building the A.T.&S.F. Railroad Cutoff to Belen through the Abo Pass. Mr. John Corbett, a newspaper man in Winfield, Kansas heard of these plans. He came out in 1901 with his friend Col. E.C. Manning, and they located a townsite beside the proposed railroad route at the summit of Abo Pass.. Noticing the summer breeze from off the mountains nearby, they named the town Mountainair.

Mountainair was incorporated in the summer of 1903. It was the first incorporated town in the area, even before Torrance was a county, and nine years before New Mexico became a state. The incorporators were J.W. Corbett, E.C. Manning, and E.S. Stover, former Governor of Kansas.

Due to financial panic in 1903 in Wall Street, there was a delay in building the Belen Cutoff. Work trains came over the track in 1906 and the first passenger trains in 1907. The depot was built in 1908 by Mr. Fred Hill, architect for the Santa Fe Railway, who had come with his family in 1907. Mr J.J. White, better known a "Bill" White, was the first station agent. His wife was telegraph operator.

A post office was established in Mountainair in 1903 with Mrs G.V. Hanlon as postmistress. Until 1905 the mail was carried from Albuquerque to Eastview by horse back, then from there to Mountainair. After a post office was established in Willard, W.A. Brown carried the mail three times a week to Mountainair until the trains began to run.

Mountainair has never had a plentiful natural water supply. Wells had to be dug deep and some of the first settlers hauled water from Barranca Canyon, eight miles west. The first well dug for the town was 300 feet deep and water stood at 100 feet. South of town the water was alkali. The water in the railroad well was alkaline. It was not long until the steam locomotives gave up on it and began refilling at Willard for the run to Belen.

The main town well was back of Clem (Pop) Shaffer’s blacksmith shop. The townspeople had covered cisterns and filled them with water delivered from this well in a tank. Other wells were drilled. Mr. G.H. Whitehead had a well in his wagon yard near Shaffer’s and he served the townspeople by hauling water in a tank.

Businesses came into being, Churches were established, Schools were built, and Mountainair was growing. Farming was prospering and lots of pinto beans were being raised. Mountainair at one time boasted of being the Pinto Bean Capitol of the World. In World War II, soldiers all over the world saw sacks of beans from Mountainair. This was a prosperous time, but it was not to remain so. Drought drove farmers out of business. Winds turned the fields into barren dust. People had to go elsewhere to make a living. The Pinto Beans quit coming to the elevators and the town became depressed. Then the young people grew up they had to go elsewhere to make a living and a future for themselves.

This present day we see some of these who have been away moving back. They have retired from their jobs and are wanting to come home.

In our travels we have come in contact with people from many states who will say, "I used to live there back when and had to leave there to make a living. I liked it there and wish we could have stayed."

The above text is excerpted from "A History of Mountainair" written by Biddie McMath, resident of Mountainair, 1999, for Adolphine Carole, director and co-ordinator of the "Art Alley Project" and is displayed in the "Art Alley Project" in Mountainair, NM. The "Art Alley Project" is a co-operative effort of 35 local artists to promote art in public places.