The Building of the Sonora Railroad

The Federal Government had issued several concessions from 1854 to build a railroad through Sonora. However, the company that finally built one was formed by the british citizens David Ferguson and Robert Symon.

According to Historian Miguel Tinker Salas, Dr. Alberto Pradeau thought that who really financed the construction of this railroad was the Sonora population, thanks to the earnings of the Sonora Mint, of which Symon was concessionary since 1860. The cost of the construction seems to have been around 5 Million dollars, to cover a length of 422.312 KM (262.47 miles) between Nogales, and Guaymas.

According to Article 22 of the Contract, the Mexican Government would pay a subsidy of $7,000 pesos for each Kilometer built, but there is no certainty that all of that amount was actually delivered. The total should have been $2,956,184.00, although by 1896 the Mexican Ambassador in the United States reported that $2,171,310.60 had been paid by then.

From a strategic-economic continental perspective, the building of the Sonora Railroad played a role within the US economic development project to build a transcontinental railroad route.

Two US railroad companies had been competing for ten years for the primacy in crossing the US territory: the Southern Pacific who, starting to build from the West Coast, had by then built a line from Los Angeles, passing through Yuma, Tucson, Benson, and had already arrived to Deming, New Mexico. The other company, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, starting from the East had also already arrived to Deming. That was when the Atchison saw that it would be advantageous for it to acquire the Sonora Railroad, and therefore be the first to communicate both Oceans.

And so was that the building task started. Since 1879, Guaymas had been receiving the construction materials for the railroad, and on November 17, at 4 PM, the whistle of the first locomotive has heard in Guaymas.

The Engineer in charge of the general construction was William R. Morley, while from Mexico Engineer Antonio Moreno had been chosen as General Inspector. By January, 1880, the first 10 kilometers of the track had been built, and by November Hermosillo was reached.

By then, the Mexican Federal Government, trying to block the increase of international contraband in Sonora, established on August 2, 1880, four Custom Houses, at Palominas, Nogales, Sasabe and Quitobaquito. In Los Nogales, the first administrator of the Custom House, Jacobo Andonaegui, assumed position on October 11.

The salaries of the railroad workers, as usual, were lower for Mexicans than for US citizens, while the engineers participating in the construction, Jesus V. Acosta, Enrique Monteverde, and Antonio Moreno, weren't paid at all:

I ask from you... in consideration of the difficult times through which our State is passing, not to ask the Congress to reimburse (at least in my case) for our time, as I am accepting this position only with the welfare of our State in mind, Acosta would wite the Governor.

The original Contract contemplated that the route would be Guaymas - Hermosillo - Ures - Sonora River - El Paso. However, Engineer Leopoldo Zamora, who by then had substituted Moreno as General Inspector, found that if the planned route Hermosillo - Ures was changed to Hermosillo - Magdalena, the cost of building would be lowered from $850,000 to $496,000 dollars.

And then, in Magdalena, Engineer Raymond Morley saw that if the tracks were built to cross the border at Los Nogales Pass, the route would be shorter to connect it with the already built track in Arizona, who by then was reaching Benson. And although the Mexican Government originally didn't want to give a permit for the change in route, finally on December 16, 1881 it was issued,

On April 14, 1882, the Sonora government ordered the Company: liquor will be forbidden to be sold in the encampments and railroad stations. The reason, the daily scandals originated by the US workers who were then building the line between Hermosillo and Magdalena.

Also around that date, another source of disagreement came to the surface between the railroad and the Sonora cattlemen: the higher salaries paid by the railroad had depopulated most of the ranches in Sonora, to the chagrin of the cattlemen. So, it was necessary to import US workers to Sonora, among them 200 of african ancestry.

In Sonora, near Nogales, the route went through more or less open ground, while in Arizona, between Sonoita and Calabazas (today's Rio Rico), it went through rougher terrain.

And to finish sooner this part of the route, 400 men were assigned to work there. Their encampment was located at Calabazas. And proving even with them that the workforce was insuficient, 100 Yaquis were taken to help there. They were magnificent workers, so arrangements were made to bring in even more.

This arrangement brought with it an anachronism, symbol of the new economic order: special trains bringing in the Yaqui workers to work laying the tracks, with cars where their palm sleeping mats were carried, as well as their "metates" to grind the corn, and baskets full of cheeses, and bags with pomegranates and other fruits, as well as bottles full of mescal.

By the middle of May, the track was almost finished to Sonoita, and by June the trains were already arriving at Crittenden (North of Patagonia). With the summer and the rains, the work along the canyon located East ot today's Rio Rico was suspended, while in Sonora the laying of the rails continued along the Magdalena River.

In September 23, the tracks were some 3 miles short of the border, while in Sonora, it was 10 miles North of Magdalena.

The delay in the Sonora portion of the road was due to political problems that would force the resignation of governor Ortiz Retes. On October 5, a new hotel was opened in Calabazas, and a train from Tucson brought people to the official inauguration of the railroad, which took place on October 25.