Don Beem is the scheduled speaker for the next Westerners meeting, to be held on Tuesday, June 16 at 6:30 p.m. at the Glad Tidings Church Fellowship Hall. Glad Tidings Church is located at 11600 Highway 180 East, 1.1 miles east of the Walmart entrance on the south side of the highway. A full dinner will be catered. Beem will provide a fascinating presentation on Silver City's train depots and railroad history.
As Silver City and the surrounding mining areas developed and grew in the early 1880's, a new narrow gauge railroad was constructed from Deming to Silver City in 1883 to facilitate shipping and the high demand for supplies to meet the miner's needs. A temporary depot structure was constructed in 1883 where local citizens gathered to meet the first train near the south end of Bullard Street. Originally called the Silver City, Deming & Pacific Railroad, it was purchased by the Santa Fe Railroad in 1884 and converted to standard gauge railroad in 1886. The new owners extended the railroad through Silver City to a location in the northern part of town where a new depot was constructed from the old Florida train station, which was shipped to Silver City on the train and recycled as the new depot. This depot was then relocated to the south end of town in 1900.
As Silver City weathered the boom and bust cycles of mining, the railroad company attempted to diversify by luring healthseekers in the late 1800's with advertising campaigns and pamphlets to entice visitors, citing the area's dry climate, high elevation, and unpolluted skies. A new depot was constructed in 1915 during a civic improvement program designed to entice healthseekers as leaders reasoned that the depot was the first building that most new arrivals would see in Silver City.
During the presentation, Beem will display historic pictures history and discuss the railroad history of the area. In addition, he will bring a diorama of the historic train depot which was displayed recently at a MainStreet event.
Beem became a train enthusiast when he was a child in Edgemont, South Dakota, a railroad town which became a shipping hub for coal mining from the Powder River region in Wyoming. Beem would take the mail to the train station and deposit it in a slot on the train car. He noted at that time that the wheels on the steam engine were taller than he was. When he was in high school, his parents gave him an American Fire train, which began his collection of model trains. Over the years his collection grew, and was eventually displayed at his store, Western Stationers, where many children and adults alike enjoyed the huge display of trains running through the miniature landscape and tiny towns.
Beem and his wife have been in the Silver City area since 1968, and owned Western Stationers for many years, where they expanded the store from office supplies to crafts, Hallmark cards, and hobbies. Beem noted that since they sold the business, the local train enthusiast group is still looking for a place to house and display their modular trains. In his free time, Beem enjoys researching and learning more about the local railroad history. The Beems also travel to model railroad meets in the southwest, where other model railroad hobbyists gather to socialize and share modular railroading concepts, design, construction and operation.
Westerners International is an international group dedicated to sharing and preserving the history of the American West. At the close of this month's meeting, plans will be made for the next field trip which will take place on Saturday, June 20th.
The local chapter meets on the third Tuesday of every other month throughout the year, except for December, when the meeting is held on the second Tuesday. Dinner is served at the meeting, and the cost is $12.00 per person for members and $15.00 per person for non-members. The public is invited to attend the meeting, and should make reservations with Mary Margaret Soule at 538-2888 by Sunday, June 14.