70 Years Spans These 2 Images

Serendipity is defined as "the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way" (1).  About a week ago I came across a reference to one of my early photographs while online.  The image was of the old El Paso and Southwestern railroad line I took while flying the abandoned rail line looking for old town sites and sidings.  The reference was on the website "SHORPY "always something interesting"".  The post entitled "South by Southwest" was of an image taken in 1938 by Dorothea Lange a depression era photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the depression documenting the plight of citizens struggling with the depression and dust bowl.  Best known for her image of Florence Owens Thompson (another serendipitous coincidence?) entitled "Migrant Mother", Dorothea visited Rodeo during the summer of 1938 where she captured this image below.

Now fast forward 70 years and I'm flying about 50 feet off the ground along the old abandoned railroad north of Rodeo NM looking for old towns (specifically Apan NM) and sidings to document and I see an image so snap a photograph.  I submit it to Google Earth and it is accepted and published.  Not quite languishing in obscurity, the image has picked up over 11,000 views since being published in 2009, the image was rediscovered by someone investigating Dorothea Lange's 1938 image.  After some back and forth trying to figure out where Lange was positioned to take her image (I thought perhaps she climbed a signal pole) I found another photograph with a hint.  This additional image has a shadow in the lower left foreground indicating the photograph was taken from the old bridge over the rail line on Highway 80 just north of Rodeo NM.  After the railroad ceased, the highway was realigned and the bridge removed.  So 2 photographers, 70 years apart, looked at the same scene while perched above the landscape, saw something interesting, and captured an image.  One more clue in the search to understand "how people see".  Clearly, time is not a component in this equation.

1938 looking north along the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad from Rodeo NM towards Antelope Pass in the Peloncillo Mountains.  Note the rail bed is wide along this stretch of tacks with room for 2 sets of rails.  Image by Dorothea Lange.

2009 looking north along the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad from Rodeo NM towards Antelope Pass in the Peloncillo Mountains.  Image by BAlvarius.

1938 looking north along the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad from Rodeo NM towards Antelope Pass in the Peloncillo Mountains.  Note the shadow in the lower left indicating the location.  Image by Dorothea Lange.

1. Google search for "Serendipity".

Addendum: 
1.  Dorothea Lange's images are courtesy of the Library of Congress. 
2.  Just to show that time has slowed in the Bubble here is an image from 2011 of a steam locomotive passing Steins NM along the northern segment of the east/west rail line.

The Union Pacific steam locomotive 844 passing Steins NM in 2011.

More from Apan New Mexico

While back out walking, looking for survey markers, a side trip was taken to further explore the site of Apan NM.  A turn of the century rail/water stop on the old El Paso and Southwestern railroad north of Rodeo NM, Apan was of no particular importance in the grand scheme of things just a place to pick up water, drop off the mail, and perhaps load some cattle.  But it does help place into context how people have used the landscape through time.  This trip revealed the foundations of 4 buildings just south of the water tank (all on the east side of the tracks about 10' x 15') as well as parts of battery jars.  Wet cell battery jars were prevalent before electrification and were used to power railroad signal lights, telegraphs, and telephones.  Although no evidence of a signal light remains, an insulated guy wire for a pole as well as a cross arm and broken glass insulators were found which is consistent with battery use for telegraph/telephone.

"Edison" ceramic battery jar lids and other electrical parts from Apan NM.

A broken Corning battery jar.

Apan New Mexico Cultural Resource Inventory VII

Along the former El Paso and Southwestern railroad, rail stops, water stops, and sidings were spaced about every 6 miles.  After the decommissioning of the railroad in 1961 many of the rail stops became ghost towns as local residents moved elsewhere.  One of these abandoned sidings was Apan, New Mexico.  A siding and waterstop, Apan was the home of  a Post Office from 1905 -1913.  Located between Rodeo and Pratt, Apan is one those places found in the literature but one no one seems to know about.  While out walking part of the Painted Pony Resort property Apan was rediscovered.  The presence of an underground water tank as well as another concrete footing on the other side of the rail bed combined with the presence of broken dishware and a remains of a telegraph/power pole indicate that the location was once Apan.  Located at 31 54.272 N, 108 58.867 W Apan was officially located at mile marker 1170.5 along the rail line.  One more piece of the puzzle for the cultural resource inventory.  A map of the towns and sidings of the old El Paso and Southwestern railroad may be found here.

The view east of the underground water tank at Apan

The view north to the underground water tank at Apan NM

The view facing west of Apan NM.

The El Paso and Southwestern Railroad

Rodeo New Mexico was served by the railroad at one time.  Founded in 1901, the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad ran from Tucson to El Paso servicing the mines in Bisbee and the smelter in Douglas.  A number of small towns and sidings sprang up including Rodeo which was initially founded by the railroad in 1902.  But the railroad eventually passed like many things.  Its demise in the early 1960's saw the removal of the tracks leaving only the rail bed and bridges along the former route.  The stations remained in several small towns but many of these slowly disappeared, giving way to neglect and decay.

Below is an image of one bridge north of Rodeo NM along the abandoned El Paso and Southwestern Railroad line.  Spanning a drainage from the western slopes of the Peloncillo mountains, this desaturated image reflects the stark reality of a decaying concrete bridge sitting alone in the high New Mexican desert.  More on the history of the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad may be found here.

A railroad bridge north of Rodeo