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The Face of America: Whistle Stop. Sometimes the fast freight pauses for orders at this way station in Hidalgo County, New Mexico. The event is a welcome diversion in a lonely land. This is Steins Stand, once a stagecoach stop on the old Butterfield Trail from Missouri to California. It perches atop the 4347-foot summit of the pass through the Peloncillo Mountains. Here, when New Mexico was still a territory, travelers to the West had one for the road before descending through Doubtful Canyon where Geronimo's murderous Apaches lurked. For some, Steins was the Last Town on earth. But in September, 1880, Southern Pacific track gangs, pushing eastward from Arizona, made the Butterfield Trail obsolete. Steam engines put the stagecoach drivers out of work and soon the Apaches were left unemployed too. Steins became a whistle stop - population 45 - where the ghosts of whiskey-breathing whipcrackers and redskins prowl. Also the ghost of the Army paymaster, who was murdered near Steins. The Army found the corpse, but not the payroll (it was gold). The paymaster evidently buried it before the Indians killed him. Maybe it's out there in the hills somewhere. Just where, nobody knows. Photograph by Bill Shrout. ..... 1956 Saturday Evening Post Picture, A5228A. 19560218


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The Face of America: Whistle Stop. Sometimes the fast freight pauses for orders at this way station in Hidalgo County, New Mexico. The event is a welcome diversion in a lonely land. This is Steins Stand, once a stagecoach stop on the old Butterfield Trail from Missouri to California. It perches atop the 4347-foot summit of the pass through the Peloncillo Mountains. Here, when New Mexico was still a territory, travelers to the West had one for the road before descending through Doubtful Canyon where Geronimo's murderous Apaches lurked. For some, Steins was the Last Town on earth. But in September, 1880, Southern Pacific track gangs, pushing eastward from Arizona, made the Butterfield Trail obsolete. Steam engines put the stagecoach drivers out of work and soon the Apaches were left unemployed too. Steins became a whistle stop - population 45 - where the ghosts of whiskey-breathing whipcrackers and redskins prowl. Also the ghost of the Army paymaster, who was murdered near Steins. The Army found the corpse, but not the payroll (it was gold). The paymaster evidently buried it before the Indians killed him. Maybe it's out there in the hills somewhere. Just where, nobody knows. Photograph by Bill Shrout. ..... 1956 Saturday Evening Post Picture, A5228A. 19560218
The Face of America: Whistle Stop. Sometimes the fast freight pauses for orders at this way station in Hidalgo County, New Mexico. The ev...
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