Working on the
Railroad
By Don Fuchik
The Chihuahua al Pacifico ("Chepe") Copper Canyon rail journey through the Sierra
Tarahumara is one of the world’s most dramatic train rides. Spectacular in
scenery and engineering, the line spans 37 bridges, passes through 86 tunnels
and rises 8,000 feet in the 410 mile trip from Los Mochis to Chihuahua City.
This amazing rail line owes its creation to the farsightedness and creativity
of two nineteenth century American visionaries—Albert Kinsey Owens and
Arthur Edward Stilwell (as seen in photo below).
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Arthur Edward Stilwell |
A Pennsylvania-born civil engineer, Owens saw the enormous potential of the
huge natural harbor at Topolobampo and conceived the idea of a Pacific to
Atlantic rail route through Mexico’s rugged Sierra Madre as a land bridge
connecting markets in the Far East with Europe. He had worked as a surveyor on
the Laredo-Mexico City Railroad and knew that another line could be built
through the seemingly impenetrable Sierra. At this time the French had failed
in their attempt to build a waterway across Panama so a bi-national railroad
seemed a more viable alternative.
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Cuiteco monument to Owens & Hays
This is the only monument along the route to the railroad engineers who
did the impossible. |
But Owens was a dreamer and turned his efforts to founding a utopian American
colony at Topolobampo. The colony failed after only five years.
Another man, who had practical business skills as well as vision, carried on
the quest for the railroad. He was Arthur Edward Stilwell, scion of a wealthy
Rochester, New York family, who, at age 32, became the nation’s youngest
railroad owner.
Stilwell planned his rail line to run from Kansas City to Presidio, Texas,
then join a Mexican line across the Rio Grande at Ojinaga, which would run
through the state of Chihuahua and cross the Sierras to reach Topolobampo—several
hundred miles shorter than the Union Pacific’s Kansas City to San Francisco
line.
Financing was obtained in the U.S. from local communities and oil companies,
and in Mexico by the government of Porfirio Diaz promising land and cash
concessions to wealthy entrepreneurs including Enrique Creel and Luis Terrazas.
Construction began and the tracks pushed forward throughout the 1890’s. The
Topolobampo-El Fuerte segment was completed in 1903, followed by the
Chihuahua-Creel section in 1907.
Then the Mexican Revolution began in 1910 and over the next ten years put a
stop to the project—the Mexican government could not meet its economic
commitments, and Pancho Villa attacked the trains. Villa was miffed at being
snubbed by Luis Terrazas at a ceremony celebrating the completion of a portion
of the route. Terrazas correctly believed that Villa had been rustling his
cattle. Because of all this, the Stilwell interests were forced into
receivership.
Plans to complete the railroad languished for the next twenty years. Then, in
1940, President Lazaro Cardenas nationalized Mexico’s railroads and
announced the government would complete the several hundred kilometers
that still remained to be built. In 1941 the remaining route was surveyed and,
on November 22, 1961, the first train arrived in Los Mochis from
Chihuahua—almost a century after Owens first had his vision.
The railroad was completed by the Mexican government at a cost of over a
billion pesos, without foreign aid. It was a colossal project far beyond the
capacities of most developing nations. Engineering marvels abound: the El
Descanso Tunnel extends over 6,000 feet; the Chinipas Bridge is 355 feet high;
the Rio Fuerte Bridge is over 1,600 feet long. The gentle curvature of the
rails, the gradual grades never exceeding 2.5%, and widespread use of 6-mile
long spans of rail make for a smooth and comfortable passage
(Above article from The
California Native Newsletter - reprinted with permission)
