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LAS CRUCES - On the morning of Oct. 16, 1909, President William Howard Taft stopped for about 15 minutes at the Las Cruces Depot, becoming the first sitting president to visit Las Cruces, and the last until Bill Clinton in 1996.
The newly elected president came through Las Cruces by train on his way to a meeting in El Paso with Mexican President Porfirio Diaz. Last month, the city of El Paso dedicated a new plaque, presented by the Mexican Consulate, on the plaza commemorating the historic meeting.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that Taft was "carrying to the people the message that he will do what he can to carry out the Republican platform promises of statehood."
At a banquet in Albuquerque, Albert Fall, the controversial territorial judge and future Secretary of the Interior who began his career in Las Cruces, took Taft to task for not pushing through New Mexico statehood.
After the verbal beat down, Taft reportedly told the crowd, "Mr. Fall, I am for your cause in spite of it."
Taft's train left Albuquerque that night and arrived at the Las Cruces Depot early in the morning.
"At Las Cruces, President Taft made the strongest statehood speech of all and also spoke five minutes on the subject of reclamation, announcing himself as an advocate," the Santa Fe New Mexican reported, in reference to the policy that led to the construction of the Elephant Butte Dam.
Just three years after his Las Cruces visit, Taft made good on his words when he signed the
Visit by 'The Big Stick'
Theodore Roosevelt was no longer president when he stopped at the Las Cruces Depot on March 15, 1911.
But he did want his old job back, and was touring the Southwest in an attempt to win the Republican Party nomination back from his former friend, Taft.
Roosevelt's visit created even more of a stir than Taft's two years earlier.
Many of Las Cruces' prominent residents, including Fall and Maj. William Llewellyn, were members of the New Mexico Volunteers, and served in 1898 under Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War. New Mexico's service won over Roosevelt, who from then on became an advocate for New Mexico statehood.
Some of the veterans, including Llewellyn and former Gov. George Curry, were with him when his train arrived from El Paso to a crowd of thousands.
The college's newspaper reported that class was canceled that day so that students could "go to Las Cruces to greet the notorious Colonel Theodore Roosevelt."
"Not only the students, but everyone in the vicinity and all the citizens of Las Cruces turned out to get a glimpse of 'The Big Stick.' It was a hearty welcome given to him."
Roosevelt spoke to the crowd for about 15 minutes from the back of his train.
Before he spoke, Llewellyn's young son, Teddy Roosevelt Llewellyn, gave Roosevelt a large bouquet of flowers, which the former president clutched throughout his speech.
A visit from Camelot
It took more than 50 years, and the start of the Race for Space, before the next U.S. president would visit the area, this time White Sands Missile Range.
On the morning of June 5, 1963, John F. Kennedy flew into Holloman Air Force Base, and took a 30-minute helicopter tour of WSMR. He saw Trinity Site and a gypsum bed WSMR officials and state leaders had proposed as a landing or take-off site for the Apollo moon mission.
Joining Kennedy was Vice President Lyndon Johnson, a key supporter of the space program.
Recalling the visit in a 2009 Missile Range Museum newsletter, retired Col. Dan Duggan said WSMR was given 90 days to prepare for the visit. But two days before, the stairs leading to the podium were torn out and replaced, due to Kennedy's lingering back problems.
The president watched a quick series of missile firings, and received a top secret briefing on the status of WSMR's missile development program, as well as an update on the construction of a new NASA facility located east of Las Cruces that would test engines for the Apollo program.
Just as quickly as he came - his visit was less than two hours - Kennedy boarded the presidential helicopter and departed.
Kennedy stayed the night in El Paso. While there, El Paso papers reported that a young boy got past security and handed a rosary to Kennedy. Just four months later, Kennedy was assassinated while traveling in his motorcade in the streets of Dallas.
Campaign stop
Bill Clinton became the first president since Kennedy to stop in Las Cruces.
Clinton visited NMSU in November 1996 in the last days of a crucial re-election swing of the Southwest, and gave an afternoon speech at the Horseshoe before an estimated crowd of 10,000 people. He would go on to win Do-a Ana County and New Mexico.
The visit seemed to mark Las Cruces as an important political stop for presidential candidates seeking to woo the growing Hispanic vote.
Since then, most presidential contenders have spoken in Las Cruces, from George W. Bush and John Kerry to Dennis Kucinich and Barack Obama, as well as vice presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney.
George W. Bush came here in 2004 during his successful bid for re-election, flying into Las Cruces International Airport and speaking before a packed Pan American Center. That year, Bush won New Mexico, but not Do-a Ana County.
Bush's visit left its mark in more ways than one.
One of the large planes in the fleet, possibly Air Force One, caused deep ruts in one of the runways at the airport, leading to the city filing a claim for damages. The city did receive federal funds and has since fixed the runway.
Christopher Schurtz is a freelance writer and historian and can be reached at cschurtz@zianet.com
