Tucumcari Tonite!

Book excerpt: "Tucumcari, New Mexico, was founded in 1901 by the Rock Island Railroad and soon had major railroad lines converging there from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Memphis as well as a northern branch line from the Dawson coalfields. As a regional railroad center, Tucumcari was the division point between the Rock Island and Southern Pacific and an isolated prairie hotbed of industrial enterprise and labor unionism. The federal highway system established Route 66, the "Main Street of America," through the middle of town in 1926. Tucumcari flourished as a tourist mecca, welcoming travelers with its blazing displays of neon lights. But mergers, reorganizations, and financial problems of the railroads as well as the creation of the interstate highway system that bypassed small places brought a sharp decline to the once-prosperous town.