The unincorporated community of Rowe, New Mexico, sits just four miles south of Pecos National Historic Park at the junction of I-25 and New Mexico Highway 63. It was established in 1876 as a railroad camp for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad.

This area was once part of the Los Trigos Land Grant, which was located between the Pecos Pueblo Indian Grant to the north and the San Miguel del Vado Land Grant to the South. About two miles East of present-day Rowe, the village of Las Ruedas once stood on the Pecos River. People originally settled this village in the early 19th Century.

When the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad came through the area, it bought most of the grant and extensively logged the land for railroad ties. A few miles up the arroyo from the village of Las Ruedas, the railroad established a camp at the base of the mesa. The camp drew labor away from nearby settlements, the majority of which came from Las Ruedas. A pipeline to provide water for steam engines was laid between Rowe and Las Ruedas.

The Santa Fe Trail was in its final days when the railroad arrived. However, stagecoaches were still running along the trail, and a stagecoach station was established at the first store in Rowe, which Andrew Kosloskie owned. He chose the location because it was near a good spring.

The railroad was completed here in 1880, and the station was first called Kingman but was later named Rowe for a railroad contractor. They built a train depot in 1881. It closed in 1961 and burned down in 1973. Passing within a mile of the Pecos Pueblo, the transcontinental line followed the Santa Fe Trail over the divide, moving thousands of cattle and hauling out tons of ore-bearing precious metals over the following decades. The railroad also brought scores of American settlers, who would change the region’s culture.

A post office was established in Rowe in 1884.

Meanwhile, the new town of Rowe caused the village of Las Ruedas to be abandoned. Today, nothing remains of the old town, which once included a church. The site is on private property and inaccessible.

In the early days of Rowe, as in many other areas of New Mexico, Gross, Kelly & Company, a pioneer wholesale and retail mercantile company, played an important role. Among the firm’s landholdings was the old Pecos Grant, which included the site of the ruined Pecos pueblo and mission church. In Rowe, the company manufactured railroad ties, mine props, and firewood made by the locals. The company operated a store in Rowe between 1910 and 1947. Afterward, the building continued to operate as a store under different ownership until the 1960s.

In 1926, Route 66 came through Rowe. The same year, rodeo producer Tex Austin established a dude and cattle ranch called the Forked Lightning Ranch on the old Los Trigos Land Grant. Later, Buddy Fogelson, who married actress Greer Garson, bought portions of the ranch. Jane Fonda and Val Kilmer later owned parts of it. Currently, the public has no access to the grant except for the northern portion, which is owned and managed by Pecos National Historical Park.

In 1937, Route 66 was realigned to be more direct from Santa Rosa to Albuquerque, bypassing Santa Fe and the villages of the Pecos River Valley.

Rowe is a sleepy little village today, but still maintains the Holy Family Catholic Church on Segrada Familia Lane and a post office.

Rowe is at the junction of I-25 and New Mexico Highway 63, six miles South of Pecos. Between these two villages, you can see portions of the Forked Lightning Ranch, the Santa Fe Trail-era Kozloski Trading Post, and the Pecos Pueblo.