Santa Rosa, New Mexico

Word 2002

Santa Rosa, the county seat of Guadalupe County, New Mexico is located on the old Pecos River; old US 84 & 54 and 66 (new I 40), and a railroad Division Point with shop facilities in 1901. It was first settled in 1865 and named Santa Rosa about 1890 for a chapel built by Don Celso Baca in honor of his mother. Santa Rosa has had a post office since 1873.

The first settlement in the area where Santa Rosa is now (1997) was called Agua Negra Chiquita (little black water)a small stream near Santa Rosa. Don Celso Baca came from Mexico and became lord of the region under the old custom of range domain. Post office 1868 to 1869.

Don Celso Baca, the founder of the town of Santa Rosa. and his family were the earliest settlers located at the Santa Rosa location. When the railroad built through Santa Rosa many of the railroad workers lived in tents or wooden houses with no paint. Olive Smith Wiley reports that Don Celso Baca's house was made of adobe bricks with a flat roof covered with tin. The walls were 16 inches thick and plastered white on the outside. A water system consisted of troughs to catch rain from the roof and then pipe the rain into a cistern. Just outside the corner of the house was an oven which was used for baking bread. Don Celso Baca was a gracious host and his comfortable beds were welcomed by many travelers. Some other early settlers were Don Lorenzo Labadie, Don Benjamin Baca, Don Crescenciano Baca, and Don Placido Baca.

The Rock Island track had been completed as far as Santa Rosa. The bridge crossing the Pecos River was nearing completion. The first train from Chicago had arrived on December 25, 1901. In March of 1902, shortly after the Rock Island had completed the work on their bridge and right of way, the trains began coming up from El Paso. Before long regular freight, passenger and mail service was established between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Santa Rosa had the usual number of bars, and other entertainment for the railroad workers. It was a western railroad construction town. After completion of the railroad and the first trains came into Santa Rosa the people that followed the construction crews loaded up and moved on to another railroad construction project.

There was no plumbing in town. Each establishment had an out-house usually out back. Santa Rosa had springs and lakes and water everywhere; however it was gypsum and was not fit for human consumption. Also it was not good for washing clothes as soap curdled up in it. It was necessary to get good water from other sources. There were two wells and one spring about six miles east of town. A water man would haul water into town and put it in water barrels for fifty cents a barrel.

Mr. Cooper was the publisher and owner of a new weekly newspaper in English. Don Celso Baca's son, Don Placido Baca, published a spanish weekly called "La Voz Publica". The Santa Rosa townsite agent was a C. H. Sterns. Mrs. Stearns offered to teach a private school in her own home until a regular school could be started.

A SANTA ROSA STORY, by Olive Smith Wiley, 1973.

A MARK OF TIME, A History of New Mexico, compiled and written by Mary Grooms Clark1983.

Harold Kilmer

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