FARMINGTON – Before four lanes of paved asphalt weaved over the hills and into the valleys between Durango and Farmington, iron rails stitched the two communities together. In the early 1900s, fruit, wool and pinto beans went north along the newly established railroad line, and lumber trundled south. When the oil boom came in the 1950s, agricultural products were replaced by drilling equipment and piping carted south, as the orchards of Farmington were replaced by a rapidly expanding town.

“It’s thought of as a thing of the past,” said Bart Wilsey, Farmington Museum director. “What I wouldn’t give to have it back though.”

Historical ties between the townsThe line was constructed in 1905 by the Denver & Rio Grande Western with the intention of continuing south to Gallup. While the track never continued beyond Farmington, the line would connect the economies and people of Durango and Farmington for the next 60 years.

The track was standard gauge, like the one in Gallup, and made train travel connections to Durango’s narrow gauge track difficult. To go from Durango to Farmington every shipment needed to be transferred to different cars.

“That became problematic,” Wilsey said. When it became clear the line would most likely never link up with Gallup, it was eventually replaced with narrow gauge track in 1923, ensuring smoother travel between the two towns. “That made it easier to haul things down here,” he added. This line transfer was unique for its day – it was more common to see lines converted from narrow gauge lines to standard gauge lines, according to Abandoned Rails.

Wilsey said throughout the track’s history, it was a fairly equal exchange of goods between the two communities. “There was definitely a back and forth of goods coming in and produce and livestock going out,” he said.

In the early days of the railroad, mercantile supples from Durango would ship to Farmington, then into a network of trading posts in surrounding communities. “It supplied goods to a wholesaler who sold it to trading posts all over the reservation,” the museum director said. And during the peak of the growing season, Farmington would regularly ship out three freight car loads of fruit north every day, he said.

The history of the railroad reveals surprising details about both communities. For example, in the early 1900s, the pinto bean was a big crop – 1.5 million pounds of beans grown on Crawford Mesa near Bloomfield were shipped north, Wilsey said.

Although a couple of passenger cars traveled along with the freight cars, “there just weren’t a lot of people going in and out,” Wilsey said. That changed in the 1950s with the discovery of oil and gas in the region. The sleepy town of 3,500 people in 1950 grew to over 23,000 people by the end of 1960.

“That 10-year period just exploded Farmington,” Wilsey said.

The boom also changed the course of the railroad. Orchards were bulldozed to make way for subdivisions and an ever-expanding population. Mercantile goods coming into Farmington were replaced by oil equipment, piping and lumber to fuel the growing town, and tank cars began shipping oil out of town.

There’s a certain nostalgia around train travel now. Durango maintained its line to Silverton and has capitalized on its history with regular passenger excursions and seasonal events such as the Polar Express train.

But the line to Farmington carried its last scheduled train in 1968, according to records. The old train depot in downtown Farmington burned down in a gas leak around the same time. Although there was the occasional and intermittent train for a few years after, the line was pulled out around 1972, Wilsey said.

Yet, there’s no denying it left an imprint on the region, creating a historic network of economic give-and-take stitching the two towns together. “It played a big role in Farmington’s history,” he added.

Driving along U.S. Highway 550, traces of the railroad grading can still be seen in spots along with a few of the Animas River bridge crossings, echoes of the ties that still bind the two towns for those who know where to look.

lweber@durangoherald.com