Watrous

The railroad, not the village, made the change. When the Santa Fe line arrived in 1879 it already had a station called La Junta, in Colorado, so it named this one for Samuel B. Watrous, the trader whose store stood at the junction and who gave land for the station. The company laid out its new town a little east of the old settlement at the meeting of the Mora and Sapello rivers, which emptied toward it. Watrous's fort-like adobe store and house, twenty rooms around a patio, still stands on a working ranch.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Watrous The Mountain Branch and the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail meet at Watrous. This im- portant spot on the Trail was first known as La Junta, "junction" in Spanish. In 1879, with the coming of the railroad, it was named for Samuel B. Watrous, a prominent local rancher.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Union National Monument — 8.8 mi
  Three forts in one prairie valley where the two branches of the Santa Fe Trail met: a log post, a star-shaped earthwork, and an adobe supply town that fed the army's wars.
• Montezuma Castle — 19 mi
  The railroad's turreted resort at the Las Vegas hot springs, burned twice in its first years, empty for most of a century, and now home to an international school.

More markers nearby

• Fort Union National Monument — 4.5 mi
• Fort Union Arsenal — 8.1 mi
• Santa Fe Trail — 8.6 mi
• Fort Union National Monument / Santa Fe Trail — 10.0 mi