Tucumcari

Route 66 sculpture

Once Known as Six Gun Siding (and other colorful names)

Events: The Spring C.R.A.F.T. Fair, first weekend in May, brings craft lovers to the Quay County Fairgrounds for hand crafted finds. For more information, call 505-461-3721.

Downtown Tucumcari today is all about its history and art. With a population of just over 5,000, the City boasts a surprising percentage of artists. The artists cooperative “Art Space” has over 80 members. And that is just one among a growing number of galleries in the City. Route 66, which runs parallel and within view of Interstate 40, has most of the commercial activity, but if you miss the old downtown area you have missed the true essence of a historic New Mexico town with many stories to tell.

Quay County Courthouse

WPA in Tucumcari

Tucumcari has both WPA buildings and art. The Quay County Courthouse and the National Guard Armory were both built with New Deal funding in 1939. The Courthouse is a concrete, granite and cast stone four-story building. The interior has terrazzo floors, plaster ceilings, marble walls and Art Deco detailing, such as hand rails, grilles, and light fixtures. The Courthouse also features a mural on the second floor entitled “Coronado.” The mural was painted by Ben Carlton Mead in 1939 and is 15’ by 9’.

Coronado mural

History

Like many of the towns in New Mexico, Tucumcari owes it origins to a railroad. Actually, in the case of Tucumcari, it was the rumor of a railroad. The five founding fathers of Tucumcari formed the Tucumcari Townsite and Investment Company in 1901, having received information from a survey crew that a railroad would be built between Liberty and Tucumcari Mountain. Tents sprang up around May 1901 and the first newspaper, the Pathfinder, began publication in 1902. At that time it advertised 29 businesses.

The Rock Island and Northwestern Railroad was expanding west from Liberal, Kansas, to meet the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad and the meeting point became Tucumcari. By 1903, Quay County had 3,500 residents. The tents were rapidly being replaced by adobe, sandstone and, eventually, frame structures (after lumber began arriving on the railroad). Many original buildings, waiting patiently for renovation, can still be seen along the railroad tracks in downtown Tucumcari.

The coming of automobile travel brought more tourists to Tucumcari, first on the Ozark Trail, then U. S. Highway 66, constructed in 1926. The classic architectural styles that sprang up on Route 66 can still be seen in period motels and restaurants that remain along the famous highway.

Historical Museum

Museums

If you are a history geek don’t miss the Tucumcari Historical Museum, which resides in the first school house built in 1904 at X. The Museum features a real chuck wagon in the yard and the building is chock-full of artifacts, clothing, furniture and all the stuff of life in New Mexico one hundred years ago.

Chuck Wagon

For those interested in the really old residents of this part of the country, stop by Mesalands Dinosaur Museum, 222 East Laughlin Street. Mesalands is focused on the Mesozoic Age which comprised the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. The 11,000 square foot Exhibit Hall houses replicated and original fossils. They range in size from tiny footprint casts to the 40’ long skeleton of a Torvosaurus, a rare carnivore from the Jurassic that is related to Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Mesalands Dinosaur Museum

Contact:
Mark Lake
Tucumcari MainStreet
207 South 2nd Street
Tucumcari, New Mexico 88401-2855
Phone: 575.461.3701