El Paso and Southwestern Railroad
| Locale | Arizona, New Mexico, Texas; Sonora, Mexico |
|---|---|
| Dates of operation | 1888–1961 |
| Successor | Southern Pacific |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
The El Paso and Southwestern Railroad was a short-line American railway company which operated in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, with line extensions across the international border into Mexico. The railroad was known as the Arizona and South Eastern Railroad from 1888 to 1902.
James Douglas was a former professor of chemistry working for William E. Dodge, Jr. and Daniel Willis James, majority co-owners of the Phelps, Dodge Corporation. Phelps, Dodge was entering the copper mining industry, and had hired Douglas to make an inspection of mining claims in the Southwestern United States. Douglas suggested that the two men invest in the Detroit Copper Mining Company of Arizona, which owned a copper mining claim in Warren, Arizona. In 1881, Phelps, Dodge not only took a controlling interest in the Detroit Copper Mining Company but also purchased a minority interest in the adjoining Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee, Arizona. After the Copper Queen and Detroit Copper both struck the Atlanta ore body in 1884, Phelps, Dodge bought out the remaining interest in the Copper Queen. The company merged its various mining interests into the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company in 1885, and installed Douglas as president and part-owner.
With production in the Bisbee expanding, Douglas formed the Arizona and South Eastern Railroad in 1888. The railroad ran on a short spur of track from Bisbee to Fairbank, Arizona, where it met the New Mexico and Arizona Railroad, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Shortly thereafter the line was extended to Benson, Arizona, to connect with the Southern Pacific Railroad. Copper Queen Consolidated built a new smelter at the newly built town of Douglas, Arizona (named for James Douglas), to which the railroad was extended again. The line was renamed the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad on June 25, 1901, to reflect its larger scope (even though it did not yet extend to El Paso, Texas).
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