Las Cruces was founded in 1849 in the Mesilla Valley of New Mexico. The area had long been occupied by Native American groups, Spanish explorers, and Mexican colonists. Over the years, wars and international treaties have changed control of the area several times, to Spain, Mexico, the United States, and the Confederacy.
Explore the history on these pages to meet the farmers, ranchers, soldiers, miners, traders, students, and conquistadors who shaped life along the Rio Grande in Las Cruces.
Along the Camino Real: Pre-history to 1820
Early Inhabitants
The first people in the Mesilla Valley arrived ten thousand years ago, setting up temporary camps along the Rio Grande. They hunted buffalo, antelope, and deer along the marshes bordering the river and the surrounding grasslands. When the river marshes dried up and the game disappeared, they settled as farmers. They built pit-house villages and ditches to carry water to their fields. Still, it was a harsh existence, and a thousand years ago, these early inhabitants disappeared.
Manso Indians
The first Spanish colonists passed near Paso del Norte, present day Juárez. Indians greeted them with the cry manxos y amigos, declaring themselves a “gentle and friendly” people. The Manso, as the Spaniards called them, shared food and supplies with the succession of passing explorers, priests, and colonists. The Manso ranged from Paso del Norte to Hatch. By the late 1700s, intermarriage with other tribes living near the Guadalupe Mission in Juárez had cost the Manso their tribal identity. The merged tribes became known as the Pueblo Indians of Guadalupe Mission.
Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
- Description: The mission Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Juarez.
- Date: 1889
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Guadalupe Mission
Camino Real
In 1598, Spanish Conquistador Juan de Oñate and his followers founded the first European settlements along the upper Rio Grande. The new road from Mexico City to Santa Fe became the Camino Real. This Royal Road covered 1,500 miles and linked the New Mexico provinces to the religion, language, and architecture of the colonial capital. North of Las Cruces, the marshy riverbanks became impassable for caravans on the Camino Real. Travelers chose the Jornada del Muerto, or Journey of the Dead Man. This part of the trail veered away from the river valley in a ninety mile, waterless stretch.
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
- Description: Map showing the route of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.
The Camino Real
Pueblo Revolt
One hundred years of colonial rule left the Pueblo people near starvation and banned from practicing their religion. Popé, a San Juan Pueblo religious leader, unified the Pueblos against the Spanish. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 left one-third of New Mexico’s Spanish population dead. The rest fled to the El Paso del Norte Missions. Spain reclaimed New Mexico in 1692, but the Pueblo Revolt delayed European settlement in the region for more than a century.
Guadalupe Indians
The Guadalupe Mission Indians’ descendants helped settle the Mesilla Valley in the mid-1800s. By the turn of the century, tribal government had moved from Paso del Norte to Las Cruces. It became associated with Saint Genevieve’s Catholic Church. In 1910, the annual Guadalupe Day Fiesta moved to the nearby village of Tortugas and the new Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Today, the Piro-Manso-Tiwa still celebrate their heritage with feast days and an annual pilgrimage to nearby Tortugas Mountain.
Feast Day in Tortugas
- Description: Ceremony at Our Lady of Guadalupe during a feast day.
- Date: c. 1912
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Tortugas Feast Day
Mescalero Apaches
The Apache migrated here in the early 1500s. They claimed southern New Mexico as their winter hunting grounds. They raided Spanish caravans and stole horses, which kept the Spanish from settling the Mesilla Valley until the 1830s. Eventually, the U.S. Army starved the Mescalero into submission. On May 27, 1873, President Ulysses S. Grant established the Mescalero Reservation in the White and Sacramento Mountains. The reservation is home to more than 3,000 Apaches, comprised of Mescalero, Chiricahua, and Lipan Apache tribes.
Mescalero Apache Portrait
- Description: Formal portrait of the son of Chief San Juan
- Date: 1892
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Mescalero Portrait
Settling the Mesilla Valley: 1821 to 1848
Mexican Rule
By the early 1800s, Spain’s control of the Americas weakened. Mexico revolted. In 1821, Mexico won independence and control over New Mexico. Unlike the Spanish, the new government allowed outside trade and opened the Camino Real to foreign merchants. William Becknell opened the Santa Fe Trail from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe. In Santa Fe, it connected to the northern part of the old Camino Real, which became known as the Chihuahuan Trail. This Santa Fe trade created a vast new market for American goods and expanded American influence.
United States & Mexico, 1839
Description: Map of the United States with parts of the adjacent countries.
- Date: 1839
- When Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, it gained control of a large portion of North America. Mexico owned the land that eventually became the states of Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, along with parts of Colorado and Wyoming.
- Source: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. [Call number: G3700 1839 .B81 RR 6]
US & Mexico
Mexican Settlement: Doña Ana
By 1839, the communities at Paso del Norte, Juárez and El Paso, had a combined population of 4,000. Mexico issued new land grants to spur settlement upriver from El Paso. In 1843, thirty-three settlers founded the Doña Ana Bend Colony. This new village was the first Mexican settlement in the Mesilla Valley. The colonists completed the acequia madre, or “mother” irrigation ditch, in time for spring planting.
Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria
Description: Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria church, built c. 1850, in the village of Dona Ana.
- Date: 1956
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Doña Ana
War with Mexico
Under the idea of Manifest Destiny, Americans viewed westward expansion to the Pacific as a right and a necessity. U.S. attempts to buy western lands from Mexico failed. The U.S. set into motion events that lead to a declaration of war on May 13, 1846. By December, U.S. Army Colonel Alexander Doniphan had moved his troops to Doña Ana. Outnumbered, he marched to meet the Mexican Army in the Battle of Brazito. Despite the odds, the U.S. won the battle in less than an hour.
Col. Alexander Doniphan
- Description: Portrait of Colonel Doniphan by John T. Hughs, a member of the First Regiment of the Missouri Cavalry who marched with Col. Doniphan
- Date: 1847
- Published: Hughs, John T. Doniphan’s expedition; containing an account of the conquest of New Mexico; General Kearney’s overland expedition to California; Doniphan’s campaign against the Navajos; his unparalleled march upon Chihuahua and Durango; and the operations of General Price at Santa Fe. With a sketch of the life of Col. Doniphan. Cincinnati: U. P. James, 1847.
- Source: Image courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Col. Doniphan
American Expansion
The U.S.-Mexican war ended in May 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. It granted the United States lands from Texas to California. By then, Doña Ana was teeming with Americans claiming rights to undeeded lands. Fearing the loss of their traditional way of life, the villagers appealed to the U.S. government to lay out a separate town for these newcomers.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
- Description: First page of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
- Date: 1848
- Click here for transcription of treaty.
- Source: National Archives and Records Administration: Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo [Exchange copy], February 2, 1848; Perfected Treaties, 1778-1945; Record Group 11; General Records of the United States Government, 1778-1992; National Archives.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The City Begins: 1849 to 1860
Founding of Las Cruces
The site for the new American town lay six miles south of Doña Ana near a stand of crosses marking the graves of travelers and soldiers. The landmark crosses gave the town its name – Las Cruces. In 1849, U.S. Army surveyors lead by Lieutenant Delos Bennett Sackett divided Las Cruces into 84 blocks. They used a rawhide rope as a measure and reserved one block each for a church and a cemetery. After the survey, family leaders drew lots to determine which property they would own.
Adobe Buildings in Las Cruces
- Description: View of the town of Las Cruces
- Date: 1905
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Early Las Cruces
Building Begins
Due to the shortage of lumber, the primary building material was adobe, a mix of mud and straw dried in the sun. Logs from cottonwood trees were used for roof supports, called vigas. Jacales, primitive mud-plastered mesquite post and brush dwellings, were another building type. Outlying farms relied on acequias, or irrigation ditches, to carry water from the Rio Grande for their crops of grapes, chile, corn and beans.
Adobe Building and Jacales
- Description: An adobe building between two jacales, typical of some of the early building styles used when Las Cruces was founded.
- Date: c. 1900
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Adobe Building & Jacal
Early Businesses
Located on a major trade route dating back to the Camino Real, Las Cruces supported an array of business. Prussian immigrant Henry Lesinsky prospered as a general mercantile. Other family members moved into the area as well. Julius Freudenthal, Lesinsky’s cousin, ran a freight company, store and hotel. Nestor Armijo’s involvement in the Santa Fe trade, mining and livestock made him a millionaire. With his new wealth, he built the fine home that still stands near downtown. Martin Amador started his business career working in his mother’s store. He later built a successful freight business and a landmark hotel. In the 1850s, German native John May opened the Rio Grande Hotel, a grocery, and a dry goods store. Others found fortune as military contractors, providing the area military forts with supplies and grain.
Rio Grande Hotel, Las Cruces
- Description: Rio Grande Hotel, owned and operated by the May Family
- Date: c. 1887
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Rio Grande Hotel
La Mesilla
La Mesilla, founded March 1, 1850, was named “little table” for its tableland site near the Rio Grande. Its residents were Mexican loyalists from Dona Ana and Mexico. A center for trade and farming, Mesilla became the county seat when Dona Ana County formed in 1852. Mesilla served as a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail Company stage route from St. Louis to San Francisco from 1858 to 1861. By 1860, Mesilla had more than 2,000 residents, twice that of Las Cruces. Both the U.S. and Mexico claimed ownership of the growing village.
Mesilla Lithograph
- Description: Early lithograph of Mesilla by Carl Schuchard. Schuchard traveled with a crew from the Texas Western Railroad Company that was surveying along the 32nd parallel for a transcontinental railroad route.
- Date: 1854
- Source: Image courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Early Mesilla
Gadsden Purchase
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo required Mexico and the U.S. to agree on a new international border. The U.S. wanted a portion of northern Mexico for a railroad to California. Mexico opposed this boundary line. The U.S. Minister to Mexico, James Gadsden, traveled to Mexico to settle the dispute. He negotiated the purchase of a strip of land that now forms the southern portions of New Mexico and Arizona for $10 million. This strip became the last piece of land added to the continental United States. The Gadsden Purchase, ratified on April 25, 1854, also secured the Mesilla Valley and the village of Mesilla within the U.S. border.
Gadsden Treaty Signature Page
- Description: Signature page from the Gadsden Purchase treaty
- Date: 1854
- Source: Treaty Series #208 AO; Gadsden Treaty between U.S. and Mexico, December 30, 1853; General Records of the U.S. Government, Record Group 11; National Archives Building, Washington DC
Gadsden Treaty Details
Organ Mining District
Organ credits its founding to tale of a lost gold mine. In 1849, Juan Garcia, a prospector searching for the Lost Padre Mine, established the first mine in the Organ Mountains. He soon sold the mine to Hugh Stephenson. In ten years, Stephenson mined it for $90,000 worth of silver and lead. By the 1880s, mines like the Modoc and the Torpedo were removing silver, lead, and copper from the Organ Mountains. On February 26, 1885, the town of Organ was established. It had a population of 200, two general stores, seven saloons, a Catholic church, a schoolhouse, and a baseball team. Organ’s glory days ended in the early 1900s when prices for lead and silver began to fall.
Organ Mining District
- Description: Mine in the Organ Mountains
- Date: 1907
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Organ Mining
Soldiers, Ranchers, and Outlaws: 1861 to 1880
Civil War
At the outbreak of the Civil War, a crucial supply route crossed southern New Mexico. It provided access to gold mines in California and Colorado, and Pacific Ocean seaports. On July 25, 1861, Confederate Colonel John R. Baylor and 250 Texas Volunteers marched into Mesilla. They received a warm welcome from Southern sympathizers. Baylor proclaimed New Mexico from Socorro south as part of the Confederate Territory of Arizona. He then named himself military governor. In March 1862, the Confederates were defeated at the Battle of Glorieta Pass. They retreated to Texas, ending Confederate control of the region.
Skirmish at Mesilla: 500 Union troops from Fort Fillmore fought Baylor in a skirmish near Mesilla on July 25, 1861. Defeated, the Union retreated to Fort Fillmore. That night Major Isaac Lynde ordered the fort’s supplies and equipment destroyed to keep them from enemy hands. At daybreak, Lynde’s troops along with 100 women and children began a retreat to Fort Stanton a hundred miles away. About noon, Baylor’s men caught up with them at San Augustin Springs. There they found the road “lined with fainting, famished soldiers, who threw down their arms as we passed and begged for water.”
Bird’s Eyes View of the United States, 1861
- Description: Map showing territories under Confederate control, including the newly created Confederate Territory of Arizona
- Date: 1861
- Published: New York Herald, Waters & Son, engravers
- Source: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Civil War Maps, [Call number G3701.S5 1861 .N44 CW 14.65]
Confederate Territories
Fort Fillmore Lithograph
- Description: Lithograph of Fort Fillmore by Carl Schuchard. Schuchard traveled with a crew from the Texas Western Railroad Company that was surveying along the 32nd parallel for a transcontinental railroad route.
- Date: 1854
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Fort Fillmore
California Column
In the spring of 1862, Union General James H. Carleton and 2,300 soldiers of the California Column marched into Mesilla. They were welcomed with champagne, dinners, and balls. Wary of rebel supporters, Carleton refused to set up headquarters in Mesilla. Instead, he set up camp in Las Cruces. His troops used Saint Genevieve’s plaza as a parade ground. The soldiers spent most of their time responding to Indian depredations, establishing martial law, and constructing roads and ditches.
Many members of the California Column stayed in the area after their military service. Sergeant John D. Barncastle farmed, kept a store, and entered politics. He married the daughter of Pablo Melendres, founder of Dona Ana. Sergeant Albert J. Fountain married into the prominent Perez family of Mesilla. Lieutenant Colonel William L. Rynerson involved himself in law, mining, farming, the railroad and local politics.
Civil War Veterans in Las Cruces
- Description: Union Veterans, Members of Phil Sheridan Post No. 17: John D. Barncastle, Joseph F. Bennett, Albert J. Fountain, Sr., Capt. Thomas Branigan.
- Date: unknown
- Source: Collection of the City of Las Cruces Museum System
Civil War Veterans
Fort Selden
After the Civil War, the U.S. Army turned to the “Indian problem.” In 1865, General James H. Carleton established Fort Selden, one in a network of forts used in an aggressive military campaign against the Apaches. The first troops assigned to Fort Selden were Black soldiers. Many had served in the Union Army during the Civil War. At war’s end, they served in the west. The Indians called them Buffalo Soldiers because they thought the men’s hair resembled a buffalo’s mane and because the soldiers’ shared the buffalo’s tenacity in battle. Soldiers at Fort Selden saw little action. The fort closed in 1878. The pursuit of Geronimo caused its reactivation in 1880. It permanently closed in 1891.
Fort Selden
- Description: Overview of buidings at Fort Selden
- Date: c. 1875
- Source: Collection of the City of Las Cruces Museum System
Fort Selden
Ranching
In the decades following the Civil War, the cattle industry dominated the region and fueled many of the legends of the west. In the late 1860s, Texas cattlemen moved into New Mexico. Their ranches supplied beef to army forts and Indian reservations. John Chisum, established a ranch near Roswell. In the 1870s, men drove thousands of cattle from Roswell past Las Cruces to the Indian agencies in Arizona. This path became known as the Western Chisum Trail.
Thomas J. Bull established San Augustin Ranch in the Organ Mountains. W.W. Cox bought the ranch in the late 1800s. Cox expanded the ranch to 150,000 acres. In 1945, the federal government used eminent domain to take over 90 percent of the Ranch, establishing the White Sands Missile Range.
Cowboys at Cox Ranch
- Description: W.W. Cox and cowboys branding livestock at Cox Ranch.
- Date: Unknown
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Cowboys at Cox Ranch
Billy the Kid & Pat Garrett
The Lincoln County War, 1876 to 1879, was a complex struggle for economic and political power. The lawless New Mexico frontier set the stage for New Mexico’s most notorious outlaw, Billy the Kid. In 1881, local newspapers regularly reported sightings of William Bonney, alias Billy the Kid. Bonney was arrested by Pat Garret and jailed in Mesilla. A Mesilla jury sentenced him to hang in Lincoln for the murder of Sheriff William Brady. Billy the Kid escaped from the Lincoln Jail on April 30, 1881, killing two deputies. He avoided capture until July 14. Sheriff Pat Garrett killed him at Pete Maxwell’s ranch. Billy the Kid is buried in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
After leaving law enforcement, Pat Garrett tried his hand at several enterprises. He finally settled into ranching near San Augustin Pass in 1905. On February 29, 1908, while on his way to Las Cruces, he was shot in the back of the head and killed. Wayne Brazel, a cowboy on W. W. Cox’s ranch, pleaded self-defense and was acquitted. Garrett’s burial in Las Cruces marked the end of the Wild West era in Doña Ana County.
Pat Garrett’s Biography of Billy the Kid
- Description: Pat Garrett, with the help of newpaperman Ash Upson, published his biography of Billy the Kid in 1882, a year after Billy the Kid’s death.
- Date: 1882
- Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [call number: F786.B694 1882]
Book by Pat Garrett
Rustlers
Widespread in the 1880s, cattle rustling was spurred by high beef prices and the railroad’s access to national markets. In January 1883, rustlers stole over 10,000 head of cattle from Las Cruces and the Mesilla Valley. The Governor ordered Colonel Albert J. Fountain and the Mesilla Militia to break up the gangs. Fountain and his men chased down John Kinney’s gang of cattle rustlers. Kinney went to prison in Kansas. Next, the Militia broke up the Farmington Gang operating in the Black Range and northern Mesilla Valley.
Fountain then turned his attention to suspected rustlers in the Tularosa Basin. Small ranchers and tough cowboys led by Oliver Lee accused the big cattle companies of taking all the land and water. In turn, the big outfits charged Lee and his followers with rustling and murder. Albert B. Fall, a lawyer and former miner, often represented the small ranchers. In 1888, Fall ran for the Territorial Legislature, but lost to Fountain. In the 1892 rematch, Oliver Lee and his cowboys helped ensure Fall’s victory over Fountain.
Albert Fountain Mystery
In 1896, Oliver Lee was indicted for cattle rustling in a Lincoln district court. Albert Fountain attended the indictment. On his return to Las Cruces, Fountain and his eight-year-old son disappeared in the Chalk Hill area of the Tularosa Basin. His bloodstained wagon was found miles off the trail. Sheriff Pat Garret arrested murder suspects – Oliver Lee, Bill McNew and Jim Gilliland. Albert B. Fall represented the cowboys in the eighteen-day trial held in Hillsboro. It took the jury eight minutes to find the men not guilty.
Doña Ana County Court Officials, 1891
- Description: Court officials at Doña Ana County Courthouse.
Front row, left to right: Judge Simon B. Newcomb, District Attorney; Albert J. Fountain, Assistant United States Attorney; Judge John R. McFie, District Judge; A.L. Christy, District Clerk.
Back row, left to right: F.A. Kuns, Deputy District Clerk; Herbert B. Holt, Official Court Reporter; William E. Martin, Court Interpreter - Date: May 30, 1891
- Source: Collection of the City of Las Cruces Museum System
Doña Ana County Court Officials
The Railroad Era: 1881 to 1912
Coming of the Railroad
New Mexico’s first railcar steamed through Raton Pass on December 7, 1878. Mesilla Valley business leaders were eager for the railroad to reach the area. Troubled by political problems, floods and a weakening commercial base, Mesilla declined the railroad’s offer to buy a right-of-way. Las Cruces did not decline the offer. The New Mexico Town Company, a group of merchants and developers, donated land to the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad for both a depot and the right-of-way. The first train arrived in April 1881. Las Crucens celebrated with garlands and wagonloads of “native wine.” The railroad influenced nearly every aspect of life in Las Cruces. The first paved street in town, Depot Street (today’s Las Cruces Avenue), led from the railroad tracks to town.
First Las Cruces Depot
- Description: Wood frame building, built as the first railroad depot in Las Cruces in 1881.
- Date: 1901
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
First Las Cruces Depot
Architecture
The railroad brought new building materials and styles to Las Cruces. When the county seat moved from Mesilla to Las Cruces, a new, two-story brick Italianate courthouse was built in 1883. (It was demolished in 1938.) New building materials arriving by train allowed for frame construction. Hip-roofed houses on broad lawns set the new neighborhood apart from the traditional one-story adobe and territorial style homes in the original town site. These new styles were most apparent in the varied architecture of the Alameda Depot Historic District. Architect Henry Trost designed some of the finer homes in the Alameda district in the early 1900s.
Las Cruces Courthouse
- Description: Dona Ana County Courthouse, built in 1883 when the county seat was moved from Mesilla to Las Cruces
- Date: c. 1900
- Source: Collection of the City of Las Cruces Museum System
Las Cruces Courthouse
A Community Grows
Prosperity was evident in the 1890s as newcomers filled Las Cruces’ six hotels and eighteen saloons “to overflowing.” The newspaper credited the railroad with making Las Cruces “the best point in the country for retail merchants to purchase their goods.” Hispanic and Anglo merchants belonged to the same civic organizations. They socialized together at parties and balls. Many residents participated in the Community Band and in the Las Cruces Dramatic and Musical Club. Through the efforts of the Women’s Improvement Association, the town soon had a park, a library, a hearse, and a water-sprinkling wagon for the dusty streets.
Main Street, Las Cruces
- Description: Main Street in downtown Las Cruces, looking North
- Date: c. 1905
- Source: Collection of the City of Las Cruces Museum System
Main Street
Churches
Although the Catholic Church continued its dominance, new settlers brought their religious beliefs to the community. By the turn of the century, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, and Presbyterian congregations had established churches in town. Phillips Chapel, a CME Church established in 1911, was the first Black church in Las Cruces. Early Jewish settlers either held services in their homes or attended holy day services in El Paso. After meeting for many years at the original Branigan Library, the Jewish community built a synagogue in 1961.
Hendrix Methodist Episcopal Church
- Description: Hendrix Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1889 as the first Methodist church in Las Cruces. It was demolished in 1912.
- Date: unknown
- Source: Photo courtesy of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church
Hendrix Church
Shalam Colony
In 1884, John Newbrough established a utopian colony a few miles north of Las Cruces. He claimed an angel guided his hands to write Oahspe: A New Bible. The book inspired the founding of Shalam Colony. The colony included farmland and thirty-five buildings. The primary purpose of the colony was to raise orphan children in a strictly controlled environment “to become sinless leaders of the world.” After Newbrough died in 1891, the colony declined financially. In 1907, the farm was sold and Shalam was abandoned.
Schools
Loretto Academy, founded in 1870 by the Sisters of Loretto, was the first school established in Southern New Mexico. Initially an all girl’s school, it occupied fifteen acres of land in the heart of Las Cruces. Tuition and board was $200 a year, with non-boarders paying $5 a month. Poor students were admitted free.
Public schools in Las Cruces had an erratic start in 1881. In 1882, the Las Cruces School Association raised enough money to open the two-room South Ward School. Different precincts sponsored public schools but none succeeded. Territorial law required the creation of public schools in all communities, but lawmakers failed to fund them until 1912.
In 1914, Central School was built as a high school. The name changed to Las Cruces Union High School in 1925 when it moved to a new building on Alameda Avenue. While Las Cruces schools were fully integrated from the beginning, students were prohibited from speaking Spanish on school grounds. In 1926, Black students attended school at Phillips Chapel. In 1935, Booker T. Washington School was completed for the Black students. Las Cruces schools remained segregated until 1954.
Loretto Academy
- Description: The Loretto Academy, which sat at the south end of Main Street in Las Cruces.
- Date: c. 1908
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Loretto Academy
School Yard at the South Ward School
- Description: Yard at the South Ward School, built 1893.
- Date: unknown
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
South Ward School
Las Cruces College
Las Cruces College opened in the fall of 1888 in a two-room adobe building. It combined elementary, college preparatory and business schools. Indiana educator Hiram Hadley was its first President.
In 1889, the New Mexico territorial legislature created a land grant college – the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. The new school merged with Las Cruces College and opened in January 1890. In June 1894, Hadley presented diplomas to four men and one woman in the college’s first graduating class. In 1960, the name was changed to New Mexico State University.
First Freshman Class
- Description: Students of the first Freshman class at the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.
- Back row, left to right: Charles Buchoz, George M. Williams, Oscar C. Snow, William Skidmore, Frank Woods, Claude A. Thompson, Fabian Garcia; seated left to right: Ivah Mead, Myrtle Bailey, Sophia French, Mattie Bowman, Leona Litsey (standing)
- Date: 1890
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
First Freshman Class
Health
Health seekers migrated to Las Cruces at the turn of the century. They believed that New Mexico’s mountain air and “altitude therapy” would cure tuberculosis. In 1897, Eugene Van Patten’s Dripping Springs camp became the first sanatorium in southern New Mexico. High in the Organ Mountains, it featured a thirty-two room hotel.
Las Cruces benefited from the influx of physicians who came to treat tubercular patients. Dr. Robert E. McBride, who came to Las Cruces in 1904 for his wife’s health, opened a sanatorium in town and, in 1935. He also established the first community hospital. By World War II, new treatments, including drug therapy, eliminated the need for expensive altitude cures. Dripping Springs was abandoned. Today Dripping Springs is a recreation area jointly managed by the Nature Conservancy and the Bureau of Land Management.
Dripping Springs Camp
- Description: Van Patten’s Sanatorium at Dripping Springs in the Organ Mountains
- Date: unknown
- Source:Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Dripping Springs Camp
Statehood
By the time New Mexico became a state on January 6, 1912, it had been bypassed for statehood fifteen times. In the 1850s, New Mexico fell victim to the national debate that tied statehood to slavery. New Mexico also suffered from a perception in Washington that its largely Spanish-speaking, Catholic population was too “foreign.” New Mexicans themselves contributed to delays, failing to ratify a state constitution. New Mexico finally approved a constitution in 1911. It protected Hispanic New Mexicans’ right to vote and their right to an education. After sixty-two years as a territory, the new state elected William C. McDonald as its first governor. Albert B. Fall and Thomas B. Catron were elected U.S. Senators.
Water and Hard Times: 1913 – 1940
Elephant Butte Dam
Cycles of flood and drought around the turn of the century threatened the economic stability of agriculture in the Mesilla Valley. The newly formed Bureau of Reclamation conducted a feasibility study for a proposed dam at Elephant Butte, in 1903. The dam was completed in 1916. It was the largest of its kind in the world. The Elephant Butte Irrigation District manages water allotment.
The availability of water made possible by the dam affected both land ownership and cropping patterns. The dam attracted new families, from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. They worked hard clearing bosques and leveling sand dunes to create new farms. To pay their share of the construction and irrigation costs, Farmers switched from growing fruits and vegetables to more profitable crops such as cotton. Cotton, along with chile and pecans, are an important part of the county’s economy.
Elephant Butte Dam, New Mexico
Elephant Butte Dam Construction Site
- Description: Postcards of Elephant Butte Dam
- Date: c. 1916
- Source: Collection of the City of Las Cruces Museum System
Elephant Butte Dam
Farmers
Fabian Garcia, a young orphan, came from Mexico with his grandmother in the 1880s. They found work with the Thomas Casad family. The Casads owned 5,000 acres south of Mesilla. Casad sent Garcia to college, where he was a member of New Mexico College A&M’s first graduating class. In 1914, he was named station horticulturalist and first director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at the college. He was successful in producing new varieties of chile, onions, and pecans. He championed poor Hispanic students and bequeathed the money to build them a dormitory at the college.
Another early farmer, Francis Boyer walked from Georgia to New Mexico in 1899. Near Roswell, the college-educated Boyer founded Blackdom. It was a settlement where Blacks could raise families, own land, and live in peace. By 1920, irrigation had proved unsuccessful, and many of the residents followed Boyer to establish a new town at Vado. Boyer leased 250 acres of farmland where he profited from growing cotton. Gradually, he bought small tracts of land, eventually owning 500 acres. Within a decade, Vado had two Baptist churches, a Catholic mission, and a school with 175 black students. Boyer also established a small college where he and his wife taught classes. Francis Boyer died in 1949 and his dream of a Black community faded.
Fabian Garcia, 1871-1948
- Description: Fabian Garcia, c. 1900
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Fabian Garcia
Francis Boyer, 1871-1949
- Description: Francis Boyer, unknown date
- Source: Courtesy of Roosevelt Boyer
Francis Boyer
In 1909 W.J. Stahmann, a buggy-maker, left Wisconsin for the southwest. Settling first near El Paso, Stahmann raised cotton and tomatoes, built a canning plant, and operated four cotton gins. In 1926, W.J. purchased 2,900 acres in the Mesilla Valley. It became Stahmann Farms. In 1932, Stahmann’s son, Deane, bought a shipment of pecan trees at cut-rate prices from a farmer unable to pay for them. Deane expanded the farm to 4,000 acres, replacing cotton fields with pecan orchards. The farm included a processing plant, housing for 150 families, a store, a health clinic, a school, and a church. Today, Stahmann Farms is one of the largest pecan producers in the world.
John Nakayama joined about a dozen Japanese farmers in the valley in 1919. He leased land on the old Shalam Colony farm. By the time he had saved enough to buy land, a 1918 New Mexico land law excluded “persons ineligible for citizenship” from owning property. Therefore, he bought it in the name of his American born son, Carl. By the 1930s, his family and as many as fifty workers from nearby Doña Ana were harvesting 300 acres of cantaloupe on one of his farms. During World War II, Japanese farmers in the valley had their business assets frozen and their homes searched. Fear of a Japanese takeover prompted valley landowners to pledge not to sell land to Japanese-Americans. Four of Nakayama’s sons served in the war, where the youngest, Roy, was captured during the Battle of the Bulge and held as a prisoner of war. When Roy returned home to finish college, he was refused admission. His former college professors challenged the decision. He was soon admitted. Roy’s research in developing chile varieties contributed more than $10 million a year to New Mexico’s economy by 1988.
Produce Label
- Description: Packing label for J.K. Nakayama and Sons, Growers and Shippers, Las Cruces, New Mexico
- Source: Collection of the City of Las Cruces Museum System
Produce Label
Nakayama Family
- Description: John K. Nakayama and family
Back rows, left to right: Roy, Martha, William, Carl, Mary, John
Front row, left to right: Joe, John K., Tome, Ann - Date: c. 1939
- Source: Courtesy of Peggy Nakayama
Nakayama Family
Pancho Villa’s Raid
The Mexican Revolution spilled over into the U.S. when Pancho Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico on March 9, 1916. Villistas torched and looted the town. They killed seventeen Americans. Soldiers stationed at Columbus quickly pursued the Villistas into Mexico. In the days after the raid, thirty New Mexico College A&M students were called to border duty. General “Black Jack” Pershing and 11,000 troops spent nearly a year in Mexico tracking Villa. Pancho Villa escaped capture and was assassinated in 1923. As a prelude to World War I, the Punitive Expedition marked the first time the army used trucks and airplanes under combat conditions.
Mexican Revolutionary Leaders
- Description: Pancho Villa, fourth from left, and his commanding officers
- Date: c. 1915
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Mexican Revolutionary Leaders
The Great Depression
In 1931, a threat of a run on the First National Bank of Las Cruces prompted its closing. They promised to reopen when the “hysteria subsides.” It remained closed fifty-five days. In the 1930s, New Mexico’s farmland prices dropped to $4.95 an acre, among the lowest in the United States. Mesilla Valley farmers, heavily dependent upon cotton, saw its price fall to four cents a pound. In hopes of raising prices, the government paid farmers not to plant cotton.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs put people to work. Young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built flood control projects at Elephant Butte Dam. Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers built three schools in Las Cruces, including Court Junior High. They also built numerous tourist and recreation facilities in the area.
Picacho Avenue earned the nickname “Little Oklahoma” when it became a thoroughfare for refugees bound for California. Stranded and destitute, travelers sold their belongings for gas money. This roadside trade was the precursor of Picacho Avenue’s antique and second-hand stores.
Griggs Street
- Description: Intersection of Church and Griggs Street, looking west
- Date: c. 1938
- Source: Collection of the City of Las Cruces Museum System
Griggs Street
Drought Refugees Crossing New Mexico
- Description: Oklahoma drought refugees stalled on highway near Lordsburg, New Mexico
- Date: May, 1937
- Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection [Call number: LC-USF34- 016681-C]
Drought Refugees Crossing New Mexico
War, Rockets, and Renewal: 1941 to Present
World War II
The year after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, enrollment at New Mexico College A&M fell from 935 to 209. With many of the students at war, the campus was utilized by the Army Specialized Training Program. By the end of the war, 124 of the college’s former students had died in military service.
Eighteen hundred men of the New Mexico National Guard were sent to the Philippines in 1941. The islands fell to the Japanese in April 1942. Taken prisoner, the American troops were forced to march more than sixty miles through intense heat with almost no water or food. Known as the Bataan Death March, less than half of the prisoners survived. There were thirty-one soldiers from the Las Cruces area on the March, only fourteen survived.
Resentment against the Japanese was so high that the Emergency Farm Labor Program could not use Japanese war prisoners to work on Mesilla Valley farms. Instead, Italian prisoners picked cotton. In July 1944, Germans prisoners replaced the Italians. They worked on local farms until 1946. Generally, the prisoners of war were valued as wartime laborers.
Wartime meant rationing everything from gasoline to sugar to tires. In 1942, Dona Ana County invested $93,894 in war bonds and stamps, more than twice its quota. Children brought dimes to school on Wednesdays to buy war bond stamps. College girls volunteered to pick cotton. Las Crucens also held drives to collect scrap metal, rubber, and tin foil for the war effort.
At 5:30 a.m., July 16, 1945, scientists from Los Alamos tested the atomic bomb on the Alamogordo Bombing Range. Shock waves from the explosion broke windows 120 miles away. Officials said the blast was an accidental munitions explosion. In August, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan’s surrender five days later ended World War II.
War Bonds Poster
- Description: War Bonds Poster featuring fallen soldier from Bataan Death March.
- Date: c. 1943
- Source: Office for Emergency Management, Office of War Information; Record Group 44: Records of the Office of Government Reports, 1932 – 1947; Special Media Archives Services Division, National Archives at College Park, MD.
War Bonds Poster
Trinity Site Explosion
- Description: Mushroom cloud created by nuclear bomb detonation at the Trinity Site.
- Date: July 16, 1945
- Source: General Records of the Department of Energy, Record Group 434; National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD
Trinity Site Explosion
White Sands Missile Range
New Mexico became a testing ground in 1930 when Robert Goddard brought his rocket research program to Roswell. In 1944, the government took over the Alamogordo Bombing Range and nearby lands for the new White Sands Proving Ground. This area was approximately 100 miles long and forty miles wide.
In August 1945, German scientists, who had surrendered during the war, arrived at the testing ground. With them came confiscated V-2 rocket components. The scientists, including Wernher Von Braun, were cleared by security officials to work on the missile project. The Army’s Ballistic Missile Program was led by Von Braun. After the proving ground was selected as a missile testing range, it was renamed White Sands Missile Range. Covering 3,200 square miles, it is one of the largest military installations in the country.
White Sands Missile Range
- Description: White Sands Missile Range covers 3,200 square miles northeast of Las Cruces.
White Sands Missile Range
Post War
Almost half of the students enrolled at the New Mexico College A&M were soldiers returning from the war. Housing was scarce. Some families camped along the riverbank. The housing shortage eased when builders began developing entire subdivisions. Most of the builders were local, including C. B. Smith and Jamie Stull.
Las Cruces celebrated its Centennial in 1949. Centennial Queen Teresa Viramontes led the Main Street parade. The weeklong celebration ended with “La Gran Fiesta,” an extravagant pageant at the college football stadium. Two hours before show time a windstorm knocked down the sets. Volunteers quickly rebuilt the set, and the show went on. The pageant included more than 1,000 participants.
Temporary Student Housing
- Description: A temporary trailer village helped ease the housing shortage on campus caused by returning soldiers and their families.
- Date: c.1946
- Source: Photo courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University Library
Temporary Student Housing
Growth & Urban Renewal
From 1950 to 1960, the population of Las Cruces grew from 12,000 to more than 29,000. City leaders adopted an Urban Renewal Program for downtown. This program closed several blocks of Main Street and created a walking mall. The owners of historic Saint Genevieve’s Catholic Church and Loretto Academy tore down their buildings. Many houses were built when a thousand acres of land was developed on the east mesa.
Downtown Urban Renewal
- Description: Downtown Las Cruces after several blocks were leveled during Urban Renewal.
- Date: c. 1974
- Source: Collection of the City of Las Cruces Museum System
Downtown Urban Renewal
Exhibit Information
The “Las Cruces: Crossroads of History” exhibit was open at the Branigan Culture Center from September 8, 2023 to May 31, 2025. It has since closed, but much of the information can be found here.
Gallery Hours
The Branigan Cultural Center is open
- Monday-Friday: 10 am – 4:30 pm
- Saturday: 9 am – 4:30 pm
- First Friday of the Month: 10 am – 7 pm
Location
501 North Main Street
on the north end of Main Street Downtown (Downtown Mall),
next to the Museum of Art. (map)
Admission
Admission to the Branigan Cultural Center is free.
Contact Us
For questions or to book tours, please contact us at (575) 541-2321/TTY 711.
Resources
Educator Guides
- Primary grades activity (pdf)
- Middle school activity (pdf)
Learn More! See the Learn More >>> sections for more details about some of these stories
- Mogollon Pithouses
- Text of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
- The Amador Hotel
- Retreat from Fort Fillmore
- Las Cruces Railroad Depots
- Woman’s Improvement Association
- New Mexico National Guard in Columbus
Explore More! Visit these museums and sites related to Las Cruces history
- Las Cruces Railroad Museum
- El Camino Real International Heritage Center
- Fort Selden State Monument
- Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument
- Lincoln State Monument
- New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum
- New Mexico Museum of Space History
- New Mexico State University Museums
- White Sands Missile Range Museum
General New Mexico History
Exhibit Acknowledgments
Exhibit Team Leader
- Garland Courts, Museum Manager
Exhibit Team
- Will Ticknor, Museums Administrator
- Rebecca Slaughter, Assistant Manager
- Stephanie Long, Collections Curator
- Mary Kay Shannon, Education Curator
- Joanne Beer, Education Curator
- Nathan Japel, Exhibits Technician
- Brian Fallstead, Museum Assistant
Original Script and Research
- Linda G. Harris
Website Design and Development
- Cody Osborn, EnvisionIT Solutions
Exhibit and Graphic Design
- Darrol Schillingburg
Transcription courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
TREATY OF PEACE, FRIENDSHIP, LIMITS, AND SETTLEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE UNITED MEXICAN STATES CONCLUDED AT GUADALUPE HIDALGO, FEBRUARY 2, 1848; RATIFICATION ADVISED BY SENATE, WITH AMENDMENTS, MARCH 10, 1848; RATIFIED BY PRESIDENT, MARCH 16, 1848; RATIFICATIONS EXCHANGED AT QUERETARO, MAY 30, 1848; PROCLAIMED, JULY 4, 1848.
IN THE NAME OF ALMIGHTY GOD
The United States of America and the United Mexican States animated by a sincere desire to put an end to the calamities of the war which unhappily exists between the two Republics and to establish Upon a solid basis relations of peace and friendship, which shall confer reciprocal benefits upon the citizens of both, and assure the concord, harmony, and mutual confidence wherein the two people should live, as good neighbors have for that purpose appointed their respective plenipotentiaries, that is to say: The President of the United States has appointed Nicholas P. Trist, a citizen of the United States, and the President of the Mexican Republic has appointed Don Luis Gonzaga Cuevas, Don Bernardo Couto, and Don Miguel Atristain, citizens of the said Republic; Who, after a reciprocal communication of their respective full powers, have, under the protection of Almighty God, the author of peace, arranged, agreed upon, and signed the following: Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic.
ARTICLE I
There shall be firm and universal peace between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic, and between their respective countries, territories, cities, towns, and people, without exception of places or persons.
ARTICLE II
Immediately upon the signature of this treaty, a convention shall be entered into between a commissioner or commissioners appointed by the General-in-chief of the forces of the United States, and such as may be appointed by the Mexican Government, to the end that a provisional suspension of hostilities shall take place, and that, in the places occupied by the said forces, constitutional order may be reestablished, as regards the political, administrative, and judicial branches, so far as this shall be permitted by the circumstances of military occupation.
ARTICLE III
Immediately upon the ratification of the present treaty by the Government of the United States, orders shall be transmitted to the commanders of their land and naval forces, requiring the latter (provided this treaty shall then have been ratified by the Government of the Mexican Republic, and the ratifications exchanged) immediately to desist from blockading any Mexican ports and requiring the former (under the same condition) to commence, at the earliest moment practicable, withdrawing all troops of the United States then in the interior of the Mexican Republic, to points that shall be selected by common agreement, at a distance from the seaports not exceeding thirty leagues; and such evacuation of the interior of the Republic shall be completed with the least possible delay; the Mexican Government hereby binding itself to afford every facility in its power for rendering the same convenient to the troops, on their march and in their new positions, and for promoting a good understanding between them and the inhabitants. In like manner orders shall be despatched to the persons in charge of the custom houses at all ports occupied by the forces of the United States, requiring them (under the same condition) immediately to deliver possession of the same to the persons authorized by the Mexican Government to receive it, together with all bonds and evidences of debt for duties on importations and on exportations, not yet fallen due. Moreover, a faithful and exact account shall be made out, showing the entire amount of all duties on imports and on exports, collected at such custom-houses, or elsewhere in Mexico, by authority of the United States, from and after the day of ratification of this treaty by the Government of the Mexican Republic; and also an account of the cost of collection; and such entire amount, deducting only the cost of collection, shall be delivered to the Mexican Government, at the city of Mexico, within three months after the exchange of ratifications.
The evacuation of the capital of the Mexican Republic by the troops of the United States, in virtue of the above stipulation, shall be completed in one month after the orders there stipulated for shall have been received by the commander of said troops, or sooner if possible.
ARTICLE IV
Immediately after the exchange of ratifications of the present treaty all castles, forts, territories, places, and possessions, which have been taken or occupied by the forces of the United States during the present war, within the limits of the Mexican Republic, as about to be established by the following article, shall be definitely restored to the said Republic, together with all the artillery, arms, apparatus of war, munitions, and other public property, which were in the said castles and forts when captured, and which shall remain there at the time when this treaty shall be duly ratified by the Government of the Mexican Republic. To this end, immediately upon the signature of this treaty, orders shall be despatched to the American officers commanding such castles and forts, securing against the removal or destruction of any such artillery, arms, apparatus of war, munitions, or other public property. The city of Mexico, within the inner line of intrenchments surrounding the said city, is comprehended in the above stipulation, as regards the restoration of artillery, apparatus of war, & c.
The final evacuation of the territory of the Mexican Republic, by the forces of the United States, shall be completed in three months from the said exchange of ratifications, or sooner if possible; the Mexican Government hereby engaging, as in the foregoing article to use all means in its power for facilitating such evacuation, and rendering it convenient to the troops, and for promoting a good understanding between them and the inhabitants.
If, however, the ratification of this treaty by both parties should not take place in time to allow the embarcation of the troops of the United States to be completed before the commencement of the sickly season, at the Mexican ports on the Gulf of Mexico, in such case a friendly arrangement shall be entered into between the General-in-Chief of the said troops and the Mexican Government, whereby healthy and otherwise suitable places, at a distance from the ports not exceeding thirty leagues, shall be designated for the residence of such troops as may not yet have embarked, until the return of the healthy season. And the space of time here referred to as, comprehending the sickly season shall be understood to extend from the first day of May to the first day of November.
All prisoners of war taken on either side, on land or on sea, shall be restored as soon as practicable after the exchange of ratifications of this treaty. It is also agreed that if any Mexicans should now be held as captives by any savage tribe within the limits of the United States, as about to be established by the following article, the Government of the said United States will exact the release of such captives and cause them to be restored to their country.
ARTICLE V
The boundary line between the two Republics shall commence in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, otherwise called Rio Bravo del Norte, or Opposite the mouth of its deepest branch, if it should have more than one branch emptying directly into the sea; from thence up the middle of that river, following the deepest channel, where it has more than one, to the point where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico; thence, westwardly, along the whole southern boundary of New Mexico (which runs north of the town called Paso) to its western termination; thence, northward, along the western line of New Mexico, until it intersects the first branch of the river Gila; (or if it should not intersect any branch of that river, then to the point on the said line nearest to such branch, and thence in a direct line to the same); thence down the middle of the said branch and of the said river, until it empties into the Rio Colorado; thence across the Rio Colorado, following the division line between Upper and Lower California, to the Pacific Ocean.
The southern and western limits of New Mexico, mentioned in the article, are those laid down in the map entitled “Map of the United Mexican States, as organized and defined by various acts of the Congress of said republic, and constructed according to the best authorities. Revised edition. Published at New York, in 1847, by J. Disturnell,” of which map a copy is added to this treaty, bearing the signatures and seals of the undersigned Plenipotentiaries. And, in order to preclude all difficulty in tracing upon the ground the limit separating Upper from Lower California, it is agreed that the said limit shall consist of a straight line drawn from the middle of the Rio Gila, where it unites with the Colorado, to a point on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, distant one marine league due south of the southernmost point of the port of San Diego, according to the plan of said port made in the year 1782 by Don Juan Pantoja, second sailing-master of the Spanish fleet, and published at Madrid in the year 1802, in the atlas to the voyage of the schooners Sutil and Mexicana; of which plan a copy is hereunto added, signed and sealed by the respective Plenipotentiaries.
In order to designate the boundary line with due precision, upon authoritative maps, and to establish upon the ground land-marks which shall show the limits of both republics, as described in the present article, the two Governments shall each appoint a commissioner and a surveyor, who, before the expiration of one year from the date of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty, shall meet at the port of San Diego, and proceed to run and mark the said boundary in its whole course to the mouth of the Rio Bravo del Norte. They shall keep journals and make out plans of their operations; and the result agreed upon by them shall be deemed a part of this treaty, and shall have the same force as if it were inserted therein. The two Governments will amicably agree regarding what may be necessary to these persons, and also as to their respective escorts, should such be necessary.
The boundary line established by this article shall be religiously respected by each of the two republics, and no change shall ever be made therein, except by the express and free consent of both nations, lawfully given by the General Government of each, in conformity with its own constitution.
ARTICLE VI
The vessels and citizens of the United States shall, in all time, have a free and uninterrupted passage by the Gulf of California, and by the river Colorado below its confluence with the Gila, to and from their possessions situated north of the boundary line defined in the preceding article; it being understood that this passage is to be by navigating the Gulf of California and the river Colorado, and not by land, without the express consent of the Mexican Government.
If, by the examinations which may be made, it should be ascertained to be practicable and advantageous to construct a road, canal, or railway, which should in whole or in part run upon the river Gila, or upon its right or its left bank, within the space of one marine league from either margin of the river, the Governments of both republics will form an agreement regarding its construction, in order that it may serve equally for the use and advantage of both countries.
ARTICLE VII
The river Gila, and the part of the Rio Bravo del Norte lying below the southern boundary of New Mexico, being, agreeably to the fifth article, divided in the middle between the two republics, the navigation of the Gila and of the Bravo below said boundary shall be free and common to the vessels and citizens of both countries; and neither shall, without the consent of the other, construct any work that may impede or interrupt, in whole or in part, the exercise of this right; not even for the purpose of favoring new methods of navigation. Nor shall any tax or contribution, under any denomination or title, be levied upon vessels or persons navigating the same or upon merchandise or effects transported thereon, except in the case of landing upon one of their shores. If, for the purpose of making the said rivers navigable, or for maintaining them in such state, it should be necessary or advantageous to establish any tax or contribution, this shall not be done without the consent of both Governments.
The stipulations contained in the present article shall not impair the territorial rights of either republic within its established limits.
ARTICLE VIII
Mexicans now established in territories previously belonging to Mexico, and which remain for the future within the limits of the United States, as defined by the present treaty, shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove at any time to the Mexican Republic, retaining the property which they possess in the said territories, or disposing thereof, and removing the proceeds wherever they please, without their being subjected, on this account, to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever.
Those who shall prefer to remain in the said territories may either retain the title and rights of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizens of the United States. But they shall be under the obligation to make their election within one year from the date of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty; and those who shall remain in the said territories after the expiration of that year, without having declared their intention to retain the character of Mexicans, shall be considered to have elected to become citizens of the United States.
In the said territories, property of every kind, now belonging to Mexicans not established there, shall be inviolably respected. The present owners, the heirs of these, and all Mexicans who may hereafter acquire said property by contract, shall enjoy with respect to it guarantees equally ample as if the same belonged to citizens of the United States.
ARTICLE IX
The Mexicans who, in the territories aforesaid, shall not preserve the character of citizens of the Mexican Republic, conformably with what is stipulated in the preceding article, shall be incorporated into the Union of the United States. and be admitted at the proper time (to be judged of by the Congress of the United States) to the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens of the United States, according to the principles of the Constitution; and in the mean time, shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property, and secured in the free exercise of their religion without restriction.
ARTICLE X
[Stricken out]
Article XI
Considering that a great part of the territories, which, by the present treaty, are to be comprehended for the future within the limits of the United States, is now occupied by savage tribes, who will hereafter be under the exclusive control of the Government of the United States, and whose incursions within the territory of Mexico would be prejudicial in the extreme, it is solemnly agreed that all such incursions shall be forcibly restrained by the Government of the United States whensoever this may be necessary; and that when they cannot be prevented, they shall be punished by the said Government, and satisfaction for the same shall be exacted all in the same way, and with equal diligence and energy, as if the same incursions were meditated or committed within its own territory, against its own citizens.
It shall not be lawful, under any pretext whatever, for any inhabitant of the United States to purchase or acquire any Mexican, or any foreigner residing in Mexico, who may have been captured by Indians inhabiting the territory of either of the two republics; nor to purchase or acquire horses, mules, cattle, or property of any kind, stolen within Mexican territory by such Indians.
And in the event of any person or persons, captured within Mexican territory by Indians, being carried into the territory of the United States, the Government of the latter engages and binds itself, in the most solemn manner, so soon as it shall know of such captives being within its territory, and shall be able so to do, through the faithful exercise of its influence and power, to rescue them and return them to their country. or deliver them to the agent or representative of the Mexican Government. The Mexican authorities will, as far as practicable, give to the Government of the United States notice of such captures; and its agents shall pay the expenses incurred in the maintenance and transmission of the rescued captives; who, in the mean time, shall be treated with the utmost hospitality by the American authorities at the place where they may be. But if the Government of the United States, before receiving such notice from Mexico, should obtain intelligence, through any other channel, of the existence of Mexican captives within its territory, it will proceed forthwith to effect their release and delivery to the Mexican agent, as above stipulated.
For the purpose of giving to these stipulations the fullest possible efficacy, thereby affording the security and redress demanded by their true spirit and intent, the Government of the United States will now and hereafter pass, without unnecessary delay, and always vigilantly enforce, such laws as the nature of the subject may require. And, finally, the sacredness of this obligation shall never be lost sight of by the said Government, when providing for the removal of the Indians from any portion of the said territories, or for its being settled by citizens of the United States; but, on the contrary, special care shall then be taken not to place its Indian occupants under the necessity of seeking new homes, by committing those invasions which the United States have solemnly obliged themselves to restrain.
ARTICLE XII
In consideration of the extension acquired by the boundaries of the United States, as defined in the fifth article of the present treaty, the Government of the United States engages to pay to that of the Mexican Republic the sum of fifteen millions of dollars.
Immediately after the treaty shall have been duly ratified by the Government of the Mexican Republic, the sum of three millions of dollars shall be paid to the said Government by that of the United States, at the city of Mexico, in the gold or silver coin of Mexico. The remaining twelve millions of dollars shall be paid at the same place, and in the same coin, in annual installments of three millions of dollars each, together with interest on the same at the rate of six per centum per annum. This interest shall begin to run upon the whole sum of twelve millions from the day of the ratification of the present treaty by–the Mexican Government, and the first of the installments shall be paid-at the expiration of one year from the same day. Together with each annual installment, as it falls due, the whole interest accruing on such installment from the beginning shall also be paid.
ARTICLE XIII
The United States engage, moreover, to assume and pay to the claimants all the amounts now due them, and those hereafter to become due, by reason of the claims already liquidated and decided against the Mexican Republic, under the conventions between the two republics severally concluded on the eleventh day of April, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, and on the thirtieth day of January, eighteen hundred and forty-three; so that the Mexican Republic shall be absolutely exempt, for the future, from all expense whatever on account of the said claims.
ARTICLE XIV
The United States do furthermore discharge the Mexican Republic from all claims of citizens of the United States, not heretofore decided against the Mexican Government, which may have arisen previously to the date of the signature of this treaty; which discharge shall be final and perpetual, whether the said claims be rejected or be allowed by the board of commissioners provided for in the following article, and whatever shall be the total amount of those allowed.
ARTICLE XV
The United States, exonerating Mexico from all demands on account of the claims of their citizens mentioned in the preceding article, and considering them entirely and forever canceled, whatever their amount may be, undertake to make satisfaction for the same, to an amount not exceeding three and one-quarter millions of dollars. To ascertain the validity and amount of those claims, a board of commissioners shall be established by the Government of the United States, whose awards shall be final and conclusive; provided that, in deciding upon the validity of each claim, the boa shall be guided and governed by the principles and rules of decision prescribed by the first and fifth articles of the unratified convention, concluded at the city of Mexico on the twentieth day of November, one thousand eight hundred and forty-three; and in no case shall an award be made in favour of any claim not embraced by these principles and rules.
If, in the opinion of the said board of commissioners or of the claimants, any books, records, or documents, in the possession or power of the Government of the Mexican Republic, shall be deemed necessary to the just decision of any claim, the commissioners, or the claimants through them, shall, within such period as Congress may designate, make an application in writing for the same, addressed to the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, to be transmitted by the Secretary of State of the United States; and the Mexican Government engages, at the earliest possible moment after the receipt of such demand, to cause any of the books, records, or documents so specified, which shall be in their possession or power (or authenticated copies or extracts of the same), to be transmitted to the said Secretary of State, who shall immediately deliver them over to the said board of commissioners; provided that no such application shall be made by or at the instance of any claimant, until the facts which it is expected to prove by such books, records, or documents, shall have been stated under oath or affirmation.
ARTICLE XVI
Each of the contracting parties reserves to itself the entire right to fortify whatever point within its territory it may judge proper so to fortify for its security.
ARTICLE XVII
The treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, concluded at the city of Mexico, on the fifth day of April, A. D. 1831, between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, except the additional article, and except so far as the stipulations of the said treaty may be incompatible with any stipulation contained in the present treaty, is hereby revived for the period of eight years from the day of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty, with the same force and virtue as if incorporated therein; it being understood that each of the contracting parties reserves to itself the right, at any time after the said period of eight years shall have expired, to terminate the same by giving one year’s notice of such intention to the other party.
ARTICLE XVIII
All supplies whatever for troops of the United States in Mexico, arriving at ports in the occupation of such troops previous to the final evacuation thereof, although subsequently to the restoration of the custom-houses at such ports, shall be entirely exempt from duties and charges of any kind; the Government of the United States hereby engaging and pledging its faith to establish and vigilantly to enforce, all possible guards for securing the revenue of Mexico, by preventing the importation, under cover of this stipulation, of any articles other than such, both in kind and in quantity, as shall really be wanted for the use and consumption of the forces of the United States during the time they may remain in Mexico. To this end it shall be the duty of all officers and agents of the United States to denounce to the Mexican authorities at the respective ports any attempts at a fraudulent abuse of this stipulation, which they may know of, or may have reason to suspect, and to give to such authorities all the aid in their power with regard thereto; and every such attempt, when duly proved and established by sentence of a competent tribunal, They shall be punished by the confiscation of the property so attempted to be fraudulently introduced.
ARTICLE XIX
With respect to all merchandise, effects, and property whatsoever, imported into ports of Mexico, whilst in the occupation of the forces of the United States, whether by citizens of either republic, or by citizens or subjects of any neutral nation, the following rules shall be observed:
(1) All such merchandise, effects, and property, if imported previously to the restoration of the custom-houses to the Mexican authorities, as stipulated for in the third article of this treaty, shall be exempt from confiscation, although the importation of the same be prohibited by the Mexican tariff.
(2) The same perfect exemption shall be enjoyed by all such merchandise, effects, and property, imported subsequently to the restoration of the custom-houses, and previously to the sixty days fixed in the following article for the coming into force of the Mexican tariff at such ports respectively; the said merchandise, effects, and property being, however, at the time of their importation, subject to the payment of duties, as provided for in the said following article.
(3) All merchandise, effects, and property described in the two rules foregoing shall, during their continuance at the place of importation, and upon their leaving such place for the interior, be exempt from all duty, tax, or imposts of every kind, under whatsoever title or denomination. Nor shall they be there subject to any charge whatsoever upon the sale thereof.
(4) All merchandise, effects, and property, described in the first and second rules, which shall have been removed to any place in the interior, whilst such place was in the occupation of the forces of the United States, shall, during their continuance therein, be exempt from all tax upon the sale or consumption thereof, and from every kind of impost or contribution, under whatsoever title or denomination.
(5) But if any merchandise, effects, or property, described in the first and second rules, shall be removed to any place not occupied at the time by the forces of the United States, they shall, upon their introduction into such place, or upon their sale or consumption there, be subject to the same duties which, under the Mexican laws, they would be required to pay in such cases if they had been imported in time of peace, through the maritime custom-houses, and had there paid the duties conformably with the Mexican tariff.
(6) The owners of all merchandise, effects, or property, described in the first and second rules, and existing in any port of Mexico, shall have the right to reship the same, exempt from all tax, impost, or contribution whatever.
With respect to the metals, or other property, exported from any Mexican port whilst in the occupation of the forces of the United States, and previously to the restoration of the custom-house at such port, no person shall be required by the Mexican authorities, whether general or state, to pay any tax, duty, or contribution upon any such exportation, or in any manner to account for the same to the said authorities.
ARTICLE XX
Through consideration for the interests of commerce generally, it is agreed, that if less than sixty days should elapse between the date of the signature of this treaty and the restoration of the custom houses, conformably with the stipulation in the third article, in such case all merchandise, effects and property whatsoever, arriving at the Mexican ports after the restoration of the said custom-houses, and previously to the expiration of sixty days after the day of signature of this treaty, shall be admitted to entry; and no other duties shall be levied thereon than the duties established by the tariff found in force at such custom-houses at the time of the restoration of the same. And to all such merchandise, effects, and property, the rules established by the preceding article shall apply.
ARTICLE XXI
If unhappily any disagreement should hereafter arise between the Governments of the two republics, whether with respect to the interpretation of any stipulation in this treaty, or with respect to any other particular concerning the political or commercial relations of the two nations, the said Governments, in the name of those nations, do promise to each other that they will endeavour, in the most sincere and earnest manner, to settle the differences so arising, and to preserve the state of peace and friendship in which the two countries are now placing themselves, using, for this end, mutual representations and pacific negotiations. And if, by these means, they should not be enabled to come to an agreement, a resort shall not, on this account, be had to reprisals, aggression, or hostility of any kind, by the one republic against the other, until the Government of that which deems itself aggrieved shall have maturely considered, in the spirit of peace and good neighbourship, whether it would not be better that such difference should be settled by the arbitration of commissioners appointed on each side, or by that of a friendly nation. And should such course be proposed by either party, it shall be acceded to by the other, unless deemed by it altogether incompatible with the nature of the difference, or the circumstances of the case.
ARTICLE XXII
If (which is not to be expected, and which God forbid) war should unhappily break out between the two republics, they do now, with a view to such calamity, solemnly pledge themselves to each other and to the world to observe the following rules; absolutely where the nature of the subject permits, and as closely as possible in all cases where such absolute observance shall be impossible:
(1) The merchants of either republic then residing in the other shall be allowed to remain twelve months (for those dwelling in the interior), and six months (for those dwelling at the seaports) to collect their debts and settle their affairs; during which periods they shall enjoy the same protection, and be on the same footing, in all respects, as the citizens or subjects of the most friendly nations; and, at the expiration thereof, or at any time before, they shall have full liberty to depart, carrying off all their effects without molestation or hindrance, conforming therein to the same laws which the citizens or subjects of the most friendly nations are required to conform to. Upon the entrance of the armies of either nation into the territories of the other, women and children, ecclesiastics, scholars of every faculty, cultivators of the earth, merchants, artisans, manufacturers, and fishermen, unarmed and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages, or places, and in general all persons whose occupations are for the common subsistence and benefit of mankind, shall be allowed to continue their respective employments, unmolested in their persons. Nor shall their houses or goods be burnt or otherwise destroyed, nor their cattle taken, nor their fields wasted, by the armed force into whose power, by the events of war, they may happen to fall; but if the necessity arise to take anything from them for the use of such armed force, the same shall be paid for at an equitable price. All churches, hospitals, schools, colleges, libraries, and other establishments for charitable and beneficent purposes, shall be respected, and all persons connected with the same protected in the discharge of their duties, and the pursuit of their vocations.
(2). In order that the fate of prisoners of war may be alleviated all such practices as those of sending them into distant, inclement or unwholesome districts, or crowding them into close and noxious places, shall be studiously avoided. They shall not be confined in dungeons, prison ships, or prisons; nor be put in irons, or bound or otherwise restrained in the use of their limbs. The officers shall enjoy liberty on their paroles, within convenient districts, and have comfortable quarters; and the common soldiers shall be dispose( in cantonments, open and extensive enough for air and exercise and lodged in barracks as roomy and good as are provided by the party in whose power they are for its own troops. But if any office shall break his parole by leaving the district so assigned him, or any other prisoner shall escape from the limits of his cantonment after they shall have been designated to him, such individual, officer, or other prisoner, shall forfeit so much of the benefit of this article as provides for his liberty on parole or in cantonment. And if any officer so breaking his parole or any common soldier so escaping from the limits assigned him, shall afterwards be found in arms previously to his being regularly exchanged, the person so offending shall be dealt with according to the established laws of war. The officers shall be daily furnished, by the party in whose power they are, with as many rations, and of the same articles, as are allowed either in kind or by commutation, to officers of equal rank in its own army; and all others shall be daily furnished with such ration as is allowed to a common soldier in its own service; the value of all which supplies shall, at the close of the war, or at periods to be agreed upon between the respective commanders, be paid by the other party, on a mutual adjustment of accounts for the subsistence of prisoners; and such accounts shall not be mingled with or set off against any others, nor the balance due on them withheld, as a compensation or reprisal for any cause whatever, real or pretended Each party shall be allowed to keep a commissary of prisoners, appointed by itself, with every cantonment of prisoners, in possession of the other; which commissary shall see the prisoners as often as he pleases; shall be allowed to receive, exempt from all duties a taxes, and to distribute, whatever comforts may be sent to them by their friends; and shall be free to transmit his reports in open letters to the party by whom he is employed. And it is declared that neither the pretense that war dissolves all treaties, nor any other whatever, shall be considered as annulling or suspending the solemn covenant contained in this article. On the contrary, the state of war is precisely that for which it is provided; and, during which, its stipulations are to be as sacredly observed as the most acknowledged obligations under the law of nature or nations.
ARTICLE XXIII
This treaty shall be ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof; and by the President of the Mexican Republic, with the previous approbation of its general Congress; and the ratifications shall be exchanged in the City of Washington, or at the seat of Government of Mexico, in four months from the date of the signature hereof, or sooner if practicable. In faith whereof we, the respective Plenipotentiaries, have signed this treaty of peace, friendship, limits, and settlement, and have hereunto affixed our seals respectively. Done in quintuplicate, at the city of Guadalupe Hidalgo, on the second day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
LUIS P. CUEVAS
BERNARDO COUTO
MIGL. ATRISTAIN
The first Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe (AT&SF) train arrived in Las Cruces on April 26, 1881, and passenger service continued until 1968. The first depot was a wood frame building that was later moved on flatcars down the line to Al Tuna (present day Anthony, TX). The wood frame building provided passenger and freight services, a telegraph office, and housing for the Railroad Agent.
In 1910, a Mission Revival style building replaced the frame depot. The new structure was a variation of the Santa Fe’s standard county seat design. The new depot featured separate men’s and women’s waiting rooms, a ticket window, and an expanded freight section. It also had a small newsstand, operated by the Fred Harvey company. In the 1960s, the number of people traveling by rail decreased while freight service increased. To serve the additional freight business, the railroad built a sixty-foot freight addition in 1961.
Passenger service to Las Cruces stopped in 1968. Cheaper freight rates offered by truck or plane service brought an end to local train service in 1988. The Depot was purchased by the City of Las Cruces in 1992. The tracks west of the depot are presently owned and operated by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Company. Freight trains still use the tracks, and trains come from El Paso, Albuquerque and points beyond, delivering and picking up train cars for local and regional businesses.
To learn more about the railroad’s influence on Las Cruces, visit the Las Cruces Railroad Museum, located in Las Cruces’s historic depot. The Depot is located at 351 N. Mesilla St., at the intersection of Las Cruces Ave. and Mesilla St.
