Clifton House near Raton, New Mexico.
The Clifton House, an important overnight stop on the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail, sat on the Canadian River about six miles South of Raton, New Mexico.
Rancher Tom Stockton built it in 1867 using materials and furnishings brought overland from Dodge City, Kansas. Also called the Red River Station and Red River Hotel, the two-story adobe building had a raised half-story basement. A veranda supported by Doric posts along the building’s front and sides created a promenade balcony on the second floor. Interior features included a large parlor, sleeping rooms with fireplaces, and a high-ceilinged dining room.
The site first served as headquarters for cattle roundups and gained a post office in 1869. In the 1870s, the building was leased for a Barlow-Sanderson Stage Line station, which added a blacksmith shop and stables. Cooks and waiters were hired to care for the guests when it served as a stage stop. At some point, they added a trading post and saloon. The area around the hotel grew into a small settlement known as Clifton.
For a brief period, Clifton House was the headquarters of the English company that purchased the Maxwell Land Grant from Lucien B. Maxwell in 1870.
Allison shoots Chunk Colbert.
On January 6, 1874, the Clifton House was the site of a gunfight between two gunfighters, Clay Allison and Chunk Colbert, in which Colbert was killed. Previously, the local sheriff accidentally killed a waiter at the hotel while trying to apprehend Colbert.
When the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad arrived in Otero, two miles North, in March 1879, stage service on the Santa Fe Trail ended. That same year, the post office closed, and soon the Clifton House was abandoned. An arsonist destroyed it in 1885.
Today, all that remains of this once-busy stop is an adobe wall and scattered foundation stones. It is on private ranch land adjacent to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad tracks.
The site is at mile marker 344 of U.S. Route 64, just off exit 446 on Interstate 25.
©Kathy Alexand/Legends of America, updated September 2026.
Clifton House site in Colfax County, New Mexico, courtesy of Wikipedia.
Also See:
Santa Fe Trail – Highway To the Southwest
“Uncle Dick” Wooton – American Frontiersman
Sources: See Santa Fe Trail Site Map & Writing Credits