While the thought of taking-in a frozen treat in the middle of winter would seem contradicting, riders on the Santa Fe railroad would have the luck of eating ice-cream, a delicacy that was often times seasonal at their stop in Las Vegas. Early refrigeration was limited to climates closer in elevation where winter months were extended. Las Vega's climate in the mountains was perfect to produce ice as early as August, and as late as May. This made Las Vegas a venerable oasis for passengers arriving to town, or connecting to Albuquerque. Additionally, in partnership with Fred Harvey and his service-oriented Hotels, it developed the backdrop of what would be a lucrative ice harvest. While this was the outcome, it didn't happen overnight without major investments into the interior of Las Vegas. Grading for the Hot springs began as early as 1881 as men began to gather along the east banks of the Gallinas river to level dirt and dump stone for the right of way. This major development project followed the river 7 miles into the Valley of the Sangre De Christo mountains until it reached a major clearing where the narrow stream gave way to a wide meadow and towering cliffs.

 

In December of 1880, the Agua Pura Co. incorporated under the guidance of President L. P. Browne and began advertising clean mountain spring water and fresh blocked ice. When their reservoirs and dams opened, locals would soon see boxcars rolling past Bridge Street in abundance on their way up the mountainside. They would also eventually become the primary source of clean water for the city of Las Vegas, aside form their other enterprising ventures. The Santa Fe began setting out large swathes of the yard track and a special icing platform specifically for empty/full reefer boxcars. There were as many as 300 men in teams of cutters, stackers, and draggers and train men that built up their blocks, they would be dragged out of the water and onto a ramp/conveyor. Once the ice was loaded, the reefers were pulled down the mountain side making frequent stops with the different ice house locations in the town. While this was seasonal, the work never stopped. During the summer months, the Agua Pura Co. spent its time bottling mineral drinking water. Mineral water was a HOT commodity that the Gallinas was rich in. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows however, several dam collapses caused strain and headaches that resulted in many legal battles for the company and in one instance in September of 1906, marooned 250 people at Montezuma Hotel unable to get out because of the flood damage to the rails and bridges downstream. Priorities shifted with efforts to resize dam operations, and ensure longevity. Barnes engineering firm aided the company in a major way. Their goals were to increase the viability of the damming procedures by building a reinforced arched concrete dam that spanned a radius of over 250ft across the valley and 50 ft tall. This proposal required major updates to construction techniques not yet realized. In 1911, quarrying of rock and crushing began to shape an astonishingly large dam that dominated the area. The turreted style gate house could be seen from the balcony of the Montezuma hotel. It may look oddly similar, as this was one of the earlier examples of arched dams. The reader should also know that this stylization of dam was 25 years ahead of its time, as the Hoover dam didn't undergo construction until 1936. Their headquarters, situated on the east side on Douglas Ave. certainly was busy that year, claiming a major ice harvest that had stocked all icehouses and reefer box cars they had available from the yard. Business was booming.

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By 1901 the Hot Springs branch had become less about delivering on the bourgeoise classes opulent retreat, to targeting travel within the city of Las Vegas. The railroad saw bleak returns from their Montezuma Hotel stemming from brand new investments into La Castaneda in 1897. Customers were now accustomed to the convenience of rail-side Harvey service, rather than adding an additional connection point and 45 minutes of travel, they were greeted at the platform by Harvey's exceptional team of employees. This was the writing on the wall for the Montezuma hotel, the bath houses, and facilities in the Valley. The Las Vegas Light and Power Co. eventually took on the lease offered by the A.T. & S.F. Ry as a new opportunity dawned for the expanding communities: public transportation. Typically, locals were used to having to walk, or take a horse-drawn trolley in order to get around town, lest we forget this all happened 15 years before the automobile was readily available for purchase by the common man. The L.V.E.L. & P. Co. developed major investments into specialized steam engines and generators to provide the electrical needs of the system, even boasting to digests and investor meetings about future additional lengths of track totaling of 40+ miles. While this was never realized, the town saw an immediate boost in incoming travelers from the newly leased operations.  

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This phase of change illuminated one interesting part of Las Vegas' History. To save on the cost of fuel for locomotives entering the hot springs branch, occasionally the Santa Fe railroad would tap the Leasee on the shoulder for work in the mountains. Locomotive #1 (powered trolley) that was first placed into service in 1902, eventually became a mule for the Agua Pura Co. pulling carloads of ice down from the mountain side. An obscure and often forgotten example of the transition from farmed ice, to refrigeration. Electricity was a cheap resource, and because trolleys didn't need to use wood, coal, or oil, the overhead was frankly limited to the grid within town, and demand was minimum (at best) or at least until people could afford to change their company stores and homes to accept electrical. This showed a renewed effort to continue using the line for commodities. While the advent of electrical power was working its way into the public domain, so too was the necessity to hospitalize and treat those with disease and ailments. Montezuma Hotel found itself an oasis of a different kind for those suffering. By 1903 Montezuma became a sanitarium for the military.

 

In 1936 the Santa Fe finally closed up shop on the once magnificent line considering it a defunct and abandoned branch. The Las Vegas Power Co. was no longer offering trolley service due to the arrival of the automobile, focusing their efforts purely on the grid and delivering clean water before the end of their 50 year service agreement with the County Commission. The line began the slow tear out from the valley in 1937 with the last sections of track being removed as late as the 90's from bridge st.. Many families today still remember having to go down to their "ice box" to pickup fresh blocked ice after the company moved to truck deliveries.​ While the Trolley tracks have either been buried or removed, major streets such as 6th show remnant cracks in the pavement the exact distance of standard gauge track. A small but mighty display of power from the grades beneath poking through, almost as if attempting to release itself from its grave.