ATTENTION please note: TB's are always missing from this cache, please don't leave TB's in cache or they will most likely be stolen, someone local seems to be a collector of TB's without logging them or moving them forward. Sorry for this. Further problems and I will archive the cache even though it is very popular.
This cache has a lock placed on it to help deter thefts. Good L-U-C-K with the word combo lock. If you have problems opening it, just see museum staff and they can help you. Also reread the past sentence and it should be no problem.
The Las Cruces Railroad Museum is open Tuesday--Saturday from 10am to 4:30pm. The cache is available 24/7. The historic depot celebrated it's 100th Anniversary in 2010. Here's a little history of the depot: 1881 The first Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe (AT&SF) train arrived in Las Cruces on April 26, 1881 and regular passenger started in June of that same year. The original depot was a wooden structure that housed the passenger and freight businesses as well as the agent’s family. It was built on the far western edge of Las Cruces. The neighborhood that grew up around it is the Alameda-Depot Historic District. (The District, of which the depot is a part, is on the New Mexico and National Registers of Historic Places.)
1910s As the AT&SF expanded their operations, the railroad built a new depot in Las Cruces a few hundred yards south of the original building and moved the wooden depot to La Tuna (now Anthony, TX). A.W. Anson, a contractor from Albuquerque, finished the new brick depot in 1910. In an effort to make the building fit into its environment, the AT&SF took a standard design, made it more southwestern with stucco and exterior eaves extending over the waiting area windows. This new facing gave the building a more “Mission Revival” look more common to New Mexico towns.
1960s Passenger service continued from this new depot until 1968. Freight service, run by the Railway Express Agency, had started in 1881 alongside passenger service. The railroad built freight additions to the depot in 1910 and in 1968. 1980s Eventually competition from truck and air freight companies and advances in communication technology caused the railroad to close many stations. The Santa Fe Railroad closed Las Cruces’ depot doors in 1988.
Present The City of Las Cruces purchased it in 1992. The depot opened as a museum in 2000 on a limited basis. It closed again briefly in 2007 and then opened with its present hours in December 2007. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Company owns and operates the “live” tracks west of the depot. Their freight trains still use the tracks, and all week long trains come from El Paso, Albuquerque and points beyond, delivering and picking up train cars for local and regional businesses.