Steins, Ghost Town at the Peloncillo Pass

Steins is a ghost town in the Peloncillo Mountains right at the Arizona-New Mexico line, and it died the same way it was born: by railroad decision. The Southern Pacific created Steins as a water and fuel stop in eighteen eighty when steam engines needed replenishment every twenty miles or so. At its height it had a population of about one thousand people, a hotel, saloons, and company housing.

When the railroad converted to diesel engines in the nineteen forties, Steins had no reason to exist. Within a few years almost everyone left. A private owner eventually acquired the townsite and stabilized many of the adobe ruins.

The crumbling walls, collapsed rooflines, and rusted machinery are still visible from the interstate, and the site was open for guided tours for years before it closed to the public. The Peloncillo peaks above it rise to nearly six thousand feet and were part of Geronimo's ancestral territory.