Anybody ever try to find the "lost train"?

[Drogo]

Supposedly sometime in the 19th Century a locomotive and its cars were buried by a flash flood somewhere between Hill and Radium Springs. Indeed, there is even a road facetiously named "Sunken Train Place" near Fort Selden.

I've just started becoming interested in this subject, so I haven't done much research.

Has anybody here ever tried to find the buried train?

 

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[bobw53]

Never heard of that "legend", and I lived right behind Fort Seldon for 7 years... The ruins were literally 100 feet outside my front door...

My little yard was littered with busted glass and pottery shards. My land lords had a lot bigger yard and they found all kinds of good stuff, intact bottles,
cannon balls (I have one of them somewhere), bits of old guns, buttons, and even an old key ring with 14 keys on it.

As for Sunken Train Place, I drove by there at least 1000 times and never thought twice about it, even helped a friend pick up a TV on that road...

Are there any articles or anything you've found online? Where did you hear about it?

I love this area... Every time I think I know the history, and every interesting little fact, something new pops up that I had never heard of...
I'm from New England, and there is a lot of history there, but its all paved over... Out here its right in front of your face, and you can still go see it,
or on occasion, find a little bit of it.

And just for fun, my best pottery shard from my yard..

 

[NMChris]

I live in Las Cruces all my life and I've read at least two historical accounts of the buried train. Sorry but I can't remember the exact books. I'm convinced that the buried train exists, but considering the flash floods here, it could be 20 feet deep in sand.

 

[L cubed]

Supposedly sometime in the 19th Century a locomotive and its cars were buried by a flash flood somewhere between Hill and Radium Springs. Indeed, there is even a road facetiously named "Sunken Train Place" near Fort Selden.

I've just started becoming interested in this subject, so I haven't done much research.

Has anybody here ever tried to find the buried train?

That is a true story. My grandfather's plow got caught on it sometime in the 50's (see the Sun News article). There were two attempts to excavate it -- once in the 50's and again in the early 60's. Each time they only exposed a small portion of the last car. I saw the exposed portion before it was reburied. The train is located off of Dona Ana Road roughly at the south end of Sunken Train Road. All of his farm has been divided and sold so I'll leave it at that for the sake of their privacy -- there's absolutely nothing to see now.

 

[GirlWithWolf]

That is a true story. My grandfather's plow got caught on it sometime in the 50's (see the Sun News article). There were two attempts to excavate it -- once in the 50's and again in the early 60's. Each time they only exposed a small portion of the last car. I saw the exposed portion before it was reburied. The train is located off of Dona Ana Road roughly at the south end of Sunken Train Road. All of his farm has been divided and sold so I'll leave it at that for the sake of their privacy -- there's absolutely nothing to see now.

That is an awesome story, thank you for sharing it. As I read along I was trying to decide what kind of shovel to take along when I travel from Las Cruces to ToC next week. Then poof there goes that dream. But it is still a great story.

Did they stop excavating because the cost vs what they'd recover didn't make it worthwhile?

 

[Mackaydon]

Wish I could tell you I found it, but this one was buried in Caliente, Ca. in 1932

Don in SoCal

 

[L cubed]

They stopped excavation each time because they determined it would have been cost prohibitive.

 

[sdcfia]

Great story, LC, thanks. Makes one wonder how many other great stories are out there that have been forgotten.