#raton

Signage: Raton

This seems to be a thing out west—towns erecting lighted signs over their burgs, perhaps for PR reasons. I made it up to the Trinidad sign seven years ago, and wanted to do the same at Raton when I was passing through three years ago now.

Of course, for those of us with an interest in railroads, the word “Raton” carries with it a rich history. I’ll quote myself in an article I wrote in the journal Railroad History, number 221…

Moving south from Trinidad, located in the relatively new state of Colorado, and roughly following the Mountain Route of the Santa Fe Trail, the [Santa Fe] railroad first crawled its way up and over Raton Pass in 1878, supplanting a wagon toll road carved out by Richens Lacey “‘Uncle Dick” Wootton. It then ran down the other side of the pass to Willow Springs, later called Raton, New Mexico.

The pass for this original route of the Santa Fe turned out to be a challenging one due to a steep grade and tight curvature. It’s still in use—but barely, with but one Amtrak train each way per day.