Tucumcari

The depot the panel praises was a meeting point for two railroads. The Rock Island ran its trains east from here and the Southern Pacific, successor to the El Paso and Northeastern, ran them west, so passengers changed at Tucumcari; the Choctaw Rocket between Memphis and Los Angeles swapped its coaches here. Most sources date the Mission Revival station to 1926, a year before the panel's 1927. Restored, it now holds the Tucumcari Railroad Museum.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Tucumcari Population 6,765 - Elevation 4,096 This area was troubled by both Comanches and Comancheros, New Mexicans who traded illegally with the Indians, until the military campaigns of 1874. With the coming of the railroad in 1898, the small community of Liberty, eight miles to the north, moved here to form the nucleus of Tucumcari, which was incorporated in 1908. The Rock Island-Southern Pacific Depot built in 1927 is an outstanding example of a Mission Revival- style depot and recently restored.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blue Swallow Motel — 1.6 mi
  A twelve-room tourist court on Tucumcari's stretch of Route 66, built in 1939, run for four decades by one woman, and lit by one of the most photographed motel signs on the road.

More markers nearby

• Tucumcari Mountain — steps away
• Comanche Country — 0.8 mi
• Tucumcari — 1.5 mi
• Tucumcari Mountain — 2.7 mi