Throughout the 1890s traffic on the Arizona & Southeastern Railroad continued to grow. It remained a profitable year every year of its existence save for one, and that was due to the costs of upgrading the entire railroad. The tables below show how some key metrics changed over the years. It is interesting to remember that during this time the A&SE only ran a single scheduled train per day, six days a week. It wasn't until around 1900 before a Sunday round trip to Benson was added.
Some comparisons of the railroad's growth every 5 years
Selected Major Commodities Carried in Tons
Annual Reports. Report of the Postmaster-General from 1890 shows the road at 36.37 miles long. It averaged 90 lbs of mail each day. The 1902 Postmaster General report shows the length of the A&SE as 54.76 miles. That report shows in the previous year the railroad was paid $295.73 for mail originating on the Fairbank to Benson extension, but $2093.37 for the mail from Bisbee.
This report also shows the railroad had at some point increased the scheduled trips per week to 7. Apparently they added a Sunday roundtrip to Benson to the schedule.
An announcement in the December 31, 1897 issue of Railway Age reports the road will relay the entire road with 75 lb rail. That's not surprising considering how quickly the railroad traffic expanded. The original railroad was under built and needed the upgrading very badly. This upgrade to the railroad almost certainly was accomplished during the first 7 or 8 months of 1898. In that same Railway Age announcement is the mention of a planned abandonment of the recently constructed Benson Extension due to that line becoming unprofitable after the Southern Pacific had purchased the Sonoran RR. As far as I can tell this abandonment never got beyond the discussion stage.
The June 18, 1898 issue of "The Coconino Sun" (Flagstaff) reports on the findings of "The Board of Equalization". In it we find that board valued the Arizona & South Eastern at $5025.33 per mile for a total valuation of $199,499. Strangely it shows the road as only 37.9 miles!
In that same year of 1898 Phelps-Dodge and the Copper Queen had gotten control from the Guggenheim group, a small, old mine in Nacozari, Mexico along with a very uncommon permission from the Mexican government to build and operate a railroad over 100 miles inside of Mexico from the mines to the border. After the upgrade of the original rails, a branch line was constructed beginning 8.6 miles down from Bisbee just north of the bend around Deer Point at the southern end of the Mule Mountains. From there the spur extended the 4 miles to the border with Mexico in the Fall of 1898.
This was when the plan was to run a road all the way to the border and a sister line the rest of the way to Nacozari, Mexico. B. A. Packard, a local rancher, later related that when he was asked where the destination of this extension was to be, said “Naco”, abbreviating the name Nacozari.
The Nacozari Rail Road was incorporated in March, 1899. Construction paused at the border, but supplies for the new railroad started to arrive and be stockpiled.
In November, 1899 both of the Williams brothers took retirement and Dr. James Douglas became the head of all Bisbee copper operations and well as becoming the A&SE's managing director.
The town of Naco, Arizona quickly sprung up around the rail head with the post office opening in time for Christmas. By May, 1900 the town claimed 150 houses! Supplies for the Nacozari Railroad continued to arrive and be stockpiled at Naco and it was reported that there were enough there to build 2/3rds the way to the mines!
On July 16, 1900 the Mexican government officially moved their Port of Entry to Naco, Sonora, and voter registration lists for the United States for 1900 also show that the U.S. customs house had been moved there as well. Naco had become a convenient rail head for loading cattle on their way to market, but there was no progress on construction of a railroad south of Naco.
It wasn't long before the townspeople and land speculators began to become concerned...
During 1901, construction of the 38 mile long Cananea, Yaqui River & Pacific Railroad was begun, heading south of the border at Naco. The construction of the line spurred further growth, but by then it was too late for Naco to be the main international interchange with the mines and communities in Mexico.
Next Chapter - Locomotives & rolling stock