Description
by Vernon J. Glover
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, copper was a growth industry in the nation. The rapid growth of copper production and the surrounding towns in southeastern Arizona made clear that wagon freight from main line railheads was no longer sufficient — there was a need for more direct rail connections to the east.
Discussions with the Southern Pacific led to building the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad, an independent railroad, to El Paso, Texas, financed entirely from cash reserves of the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company. In the meantime, the El Paso & Northeastern was building northward from El Paso, up through the Territory of New Mexico, creating new towns as it went along. In 1905, the two railroads were joined and their operations merged as rapidly as possible.
The EP&SW story is told in three parts: first, the origins of the western part of the system; second, connecting El Paso with the coal mines of Dawson, New Mexico; and third, the merger of the eastern and western lines in 1905 into a unified system. Throughout its story, strong personalities influenced the activities of the system: James Douglas of the Copper Queen at Bisbee, Arizona; Charles Bishop Eddy and John Arthur Eddy, guiding the EP≠ Attorney William Ashton Hawkins who, along with Douglas, influenced the merged EP&SW system until its sale to the Southern Pacific in 1924.
216 pages, 11″ x 8 1⁄2″ library bound with dust jacket, with over 330 photographs, maps and diagrams.
Published by the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society.
