Builders of the Santa Fe

Having made a preliminary location as far as the present town of Raton, Mr. Kingman was instructed to extend the line to Albuquerque. A little later he was joined by Morley, and the two men worked together. They did not survey the line all the way to Albuquerque as they judged it best first to make some careful reconnaissance. In this connection they went to Cañon Blanco summit, northeast of Galisteo, thinking this would prove the best route. Then they ran a line through Tejares Cañon, east of Albuquerque, which Kingman had surveyed for the A. & P. six years before. Cold weather having set in they obtained fresh supplies at Albuquerque and headed for Cimarron, where both of their families lived, and there they spent most of the winter. 

On February 28, 1878, Kingman was instructed by wire to go immediately to Raton Pass. This haste was occasioned by the rivalry with which the Santa Fe and D. & R. G. people were contending for a right of way through the pass. Securing passage for himself and men on a government telegraph repair wagon, Kingman bribed the driver to rush them through that night.

Mr. Robinson then ordered Kingman to survey a proposed route from Albuquerque to Tucson, Ariz.

By daybreak they had covered fifty miles, and by five o'clock that afternoon his party and about twenty Mexicans whom he had picked up on the road had crossed the mountain and were four or five miles down the foot of the pass on the Colorado side. Here they camped in a strategic position. As soon as it was light, on the morning of March 2, Kingman located a line without the use of instruments and at once started his Mexicans grading. A Denver & Rio Grande force was encamped about one hundred yards from the Santa Fe's "grade," but they had been caught napping. Having been first on the job the Santa Fe men clearly were entitled to possession, and, after blustering about for a while, their rivals turned and made a location up Chicken Creek. This route, which they had been forced to choose, soon proved impracticable, and the D. & R. G. finally left the Santa Fe in undisturbed possession. 

After this episode Kingman was stationed about two months in Cañon City. In April he was ordered to Wichita to ocate the line from that city to Arkansas City and Wellington, Kansas. But he scarcely had gotten this work under way before General Manager Strong ordered him to turn over his men and outfit to J. W. Sterrit and report at once to Mr. Robinson in New Mexico. Kingman admits that by this time he had had enough of pioneering. He had moved his family to Topeka; he liked Kansas and wanted to remain there, but back to New Mexico he went. His extensive experience and wide acquaintance in that section made his services peculiarly desirable to the company. 

The last days of June, 1879, found Kingman back on the New Mexican survey, this time running the line which he and Morley had abandoned from Las Vegas toward Albuquerque. From Vegas through the Apache Cañon there was timber for shade and fuel, good water, fine camping places, and the work moved rapidly. By September they had reached Albuquerque. Mr. Robinson then ordered Kingman to survey a proposed route from Albuquerque to Tucson, Ariz. The latter then detailed this work. W. A. Drake with one party was started from Albuquerque, while E. Miller and another gang were sent to Tucson to work north. Miller was followed by Kingman, who, with eight mounted men and a burro train to move tents and supplies, came across country to cooperate. These forces finally got a line from Tucson via San Carlos up the Salt River Cañon, while Drake had nearly reached Camp Apache. But, before their lines met, Kingman decided that the route was inadvisable and it was abandoned. 

Leaving his own and Miller's men, Kingman joined Drake's crowd, whom he led to St. John's. There he organized a small party for a pack mule trip to the Colorado River. This was to make reconnaissance. Starting from St. John's on December 16, they reached Prescott on the twentieth and Skull Valley on the twenty-second. Leaving his men and the animals at Skull Valley, Kingman, accompanied only by Drake, entered the San Francisco Mountains. Houses were very scarce and early winter made mountain travel dangerous. The first night out from Skull Valley they reached Banghart's house in the Chino Valley; the next night they were at McCullom's on the south slope of Bill Williams Mountain. McCullom had gone to Prescott to spend Christmas, but the tired surveyors, knowing there was no other house within twenty miles, enjoyed his absent hospitality. A heavy snowstorm was on; they were cold and hungry. So they built a roaring fire, made biscuits, cooked a good mess of venison steak which the landlord had on hand, and passed a good night. Such unsolicited hospitality was common in the West in those days.