American RV Resort

Saturday is National Go RVing Day! 🚐 Are you RVing this weekend? Share in the comments. 👇

Our pool and hot tub are open for the season! 💦Hello Summer ☀️

Albuquerque’s Downtown exists because a train skipped Old Town in April 1880.

When the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway reached Albuquerque, it deliberately bypassed the 1706 Spanish plaza settlement (Old Town) by about a mile—choosing flatter ground for the tracks. That one decision sparked a brand-new “New Town” along the rail line, laid out on a modern grid that became today’s Downtown.

Almost overnight, hotels, saloons, warehouses, and shops clustered around the depot to serve travelers and railroad workers. The city boomed from roughly 2,000 residents around 1880 to well over 10,000 by the early 1900s—powered by rail jobs, new businesses, and people arriving from across the country.

The railroad made Albuquerque a division point and service hub (think yards and repair work), linking the city east toward Kansas and the Midwest and west toward Arizona and California—pulling Albuquerque into national markets and changing its future.

Want a “then vs. now” moment? Look for the contrast between Old Town’s plaza layout and Downtown’s railroad-era street grid. And if you’ve heard of the Alvarado Hotel (built in 1902, demolished in 1970), today’s Alvarado Transportation Center stands on that historic rail-gateway site.

Staying at American RV Resort soon? What would you explore first: Old Town’s plaza or the Downtown rail corridor?