Deming

Officials of the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe came from Kansas City on March 8, 1881, to drive the silver spike joining their lines, and the Deming post office opened on April 11. The Santa Fe brought a Harvey House to the depot. In 1917 the Army opened Camp Cody on the edge of town, where more than 30,000 soldiers trained for World War I, and in 1942 Deming Army Air Field trained bomber crews. Each August the town holds the Great American Duck Race.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Deming Elevation 4,331 ft In 1780, Governor Juan Bautista de Anza passed here while searching for a trade route between Santa Fe and the mines of Sonora, Mexico. Deming, named for Mary Anne Deming, was founded in 1881 when the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroads were connected, giving New Mexico its first railway access to both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• City of Rocks State Park — 25 mi
  Pinnacles of volcanic tuff up to forty feet high standing in the grassland between Deming and Silver City, worn out of an eruption 34.9 million years ago.

More markers nearby

• Mary Ann Deming Crocker — 1.2 mi
• Cathay Williams — 10 mi
• Rockhound State Park — 11 mi
• Carlotta Thompkins Thurmond — 19 mi