Chama, New Mexico is located near the Colorado border at an elevation of 7,850 feet.

In the winter of 1880, the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad company built the Toltec and Cumbres Scenic Railroad as the first route of rail lines through Chama. The railroad construction authorized the company to attain building materials from public lands including stone, timber, earth, and water. The Cumbres and Toltec connected Antonito, Colorado to Chama with a track nearly seventy-five miles long. The railroad served as a part of the Rio Grande's San Juan Extension and used a three feet gauge between the rails, instead of the standard four feet, with the intention of connecting raw materials to nearby mining towns.

With the arrival of the railroad in Chama, the town saw population, economic, and political growth. Along the Chama route, timber became an integral source of industry, and between 1894 and 1895, the New Mexico Lumber Company cut more than seven million feet of lumber along the route.

Today, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad Commission operates the railroad that runs through Chama.

Podcast Written and Narrated by Megan Warden, Public History Student at the University of West Florida.