Glenrio sits on the state line, and the line ran its business. The Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway put a station here in 1906, on the Texas side, while the post office opened on the New Mexico side, so the mail came in at one end of town and was carried across the border for delivery. Cattle and freight moved through the depot's pens, and by 1920 there were a hotel, a land office, stores and cafes.
The road changed what the town was for. Ozark Trail markers stood along the route by 1919, and the Glenrio Hotel was taking in motorists by 1917. When the trail became Route 66 in 1926, the businesses moved up from the railroad to the highway. A welcome station on the Texas side handed out water for boiling radiators. Then the state line sorted the trade. Deaf Smith County was dry, so there were no bars on the Texas side, and New Mexico's higher gasoline tax meant no filling stations on its side. The State Line Motel's sign read Motel, Last in Texas to drivers coming from the east and First in Texas to those coming from the west.
The interstate drew the traffic north, and the Rock Island depot closed in 1955. The district, listed on the National Register in 2007, keeps the old roadbed, now State Loop 504, and seventeen buildings, among them an Art Moderne Texaco station and diner from the 1950s. Nearly all are empty and private: look from the road and do not go inside.
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