My wonderful friend, KC Bonnell, sold me the perpetual digital license to this photo:
I want to thank KC for this. KC is a talented New Mexico photographer and artist, with a deep love for the Sacramento mountains. I highly recommend his photography and digital art. You can look at his cool art and photography and shop for original apparel at https://www.kcbonnell.art/.
Pinto, NM
There’s two very interesting stories behind this photo that KC took, which inspired him to photograph this place. The first is the history of Pinto, NM, and the abandoned train depot that is the building pictured. Pinto is nestled in Salado Canyon in the Sacramento Mountains, which stand above Alamogordo and Tularosa. It is now a few stone foundations and old wood walls, a testament to its bustling past. It’s hard to imagine that back in the very late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was actually a thriving little mountain oasis at the end of the Alamogordo-Sacramento Mountain Railway coming up from the desert basin below.
Back before air conditioning was commonplace in residences, going up to the mountains was a luxury for people living in the simmering Tularosa Basin below (the location of Alamogordo, Holloman Airforce Base, La Luz, and Tularosa). The high mountain elevation change of about 4300 feet offers a twenty-degree temperature drop from the Tularosa Basin. This explains why the Salado Canyon became a popular destination. Most people would ride this short rail line to go to Bridal Veil Falls and neighboring Fresnal Canyon for a day of fun in the cool mountain air and the cold streams and waterfalls spilling down the moutainside.
This rail line was a spur built off the El Paso and Northeastern Railway. It was built to offer passenger, freight, and mail access to the small settlements centered around agriculture and logging that thrived in the Sacramento Mountains at the time. It also carried logs back down the mountain for processing in Alamogordo. The line ran from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft, making a horseshoe shape from Salado Canyon to High Rolls and then snaking across various switchbacks and trestles through winding canyons on its way up to Cloudcroft. In 1903, it was expanded to Russia, NM, a ghost town abandoned shortly before World War II.
This rail line was actually very impressive, with numerous trestles and switchbacks and steepness grades of up to 6.4%. It took about 2 hours and 50 minutes for the trains to climb all the way from Alamogordo and Cloudcroft; the journey back down was 25 minutes shorter. It ran five times a day from El Paso and Alamogordo in summer, and once or twice in winter. As of 1903, tickets cost $3.00.
The Mexican Canyon Trestle and Salado Canyon Trestle are the only two trestles still standing from this line. Some of the crazy switchbacks near Cloudcroft have been made into a hiking trail called the “Switchback Trail,” which is a very fun hike with sweeping views of the surrounding mountains, the Tularosa Basin, the distant San Andres Mountains, and White Sands National Park. It is amazing how just less than a century has wiped out most signs of this prestigious railroad that so many people worked so hard to build. In Cloudcroft, many businesses have pictures up of the old railroad and the workers building it.
The Mexican Canyon Trestle is near and dear to my heart. I love going up here because it is stunningly beautiful, as well as a pleasant respite from the summer heat. My grandmother Dot felt the same way and willed for her ashes to be scattered there when she passed away in 1999. I was little then, but I do remember my uncle Tom dropping the bag containing her ashes down the cliffside. He had to clamber down to get it and the hike back up was quite arduous for him. We all shared some dark laughter at that moment, as we imagined Gramma Dot calling him an idiot from Above.
While the rail line was dismantled in 1948, you can still easily access the mountains by US Hwy 82 and various forest service access roads and hiking trails. Fresnal Canyon is the easiest to reach now. It can be entered via a steep, rocky trail off of the Tunnel Vista Viewing Area parking lot on US Hwy 82. This a narrow parking area just before the tunnel between High Rolls and Alamogordo. You will find a pretty treacherous trail going sharply down, perfect for avid hikers looking for a challenge. Rock climbers love the towering cliffs on either side of the canyon. The trail down eventually levels out and becomes gentler as it follows a stream at the bottom of the canyon.
The stream forms a series of waterfalls, tumbling into increasingly deep pools as you trek down the canyon. At the very bottom, it joins with the stream flowing from Bridal Veil Falls. The water is lovingly shaded by ash trees and cottonwoods and framed by large limestone builders covered in slick moss, algae, and the occasional jarring bit of graffiti. You can see lots of aquatic fossils in the limestone; please don’t chisel them out, just appreciate them and leave them for others to appreciate too. People still like to come here to swim, camp, fish for trout, and drink beers, evidenced by the large amount of beer cans scattered around. If you do visit Fresnal Canyon, please pick up after yourself. Respect the little bit of Nature we still have left.
From Fresnal Canyon you can hike over to Salado Canyon and Bridal Veil Falls, or you can reach Bridal Veil Falls a different way that I outline below. Salado Canyon is just one canyon over from Fresnal Canyon. In Salado, you will find the abandoned Pinto train depot in the picture, and another series of waterfalls gushing down the mountainside. The trail that leads to the falls also crosses the Salado Train Trestle. This trestle has been reconstructed so that you can walk on it, though it is not as well-known as the Mexican Canyon Trestle, visible from US Hwy 82 west of Cloudcroft. Unlike the Salado Train Trestle, Mexican Canyon Trestle is off-limits to walk on. The whole of Bridal Veils trail is beautiful and interesting from a historical perspective.
To get to Bridal Veil Falls, per the Forest Service:
“Take US 82 to High Rolls, NM. Turn north onto FS Road 162C (turn at Post Office sign). Continue winding your way through High Rolls 2.7 miles until on your right you’ll see a small parking area (where the powerline crosses the road).
Park and hike down about .1 miles to the trail. To the left you can visit and cross the reconstructed Salado Canyon Trestle (a railroad bridge) and to the right you can hike to the Bridal Veil Falls trail where a small waterfall descends next to the trail.”
The train stopped running from El Paso in 1930, and then it stopped carrying mail in 1938 and freight in 1947. Only a few remnants of this impressive engineering feat are left to tell the story of what this place once was. The depot once marked the beginning of fun days for many families. I can imagine it filled with the laughter of parents carrying picnic baskets and towels and the excited squeals of children in swim garb, eager to make a day of splashing in the cold water and lounging on the rocks. I imagine on especially quiet days, you might hear the soft echoes of this long-past joy.
Joseph Glen Pruitt and Lawrence Tarbert
Now we come to the second story, a much darker one. When I asked KC to take a spooky photo to create atmosphere for my blog, he immediately thought of this place because of a murder that happened in the vicinity of the abandoned depot. The victim was a man named Joseph Pruitt and he was 25, just starting life. His dreams and goals were cruelly robbed from him by a man named Lawrence Tarbert and his wife, Jessica Tarbert, who later assisted in the investigation. Pruitt was shot and left in Fresnal Canyon to die in June, 2011.
On June 11, 2011, mountain bikers in Fresnal Canyon found Pruitt’s body. He had been shot in the back of the head, one of the most cowardly forms of murder in my opinion. He had been dead for a few days.
Tarbert was determined to be the last person to see Pruitt alive. Pruitt had actually lived with Lawrence and Jessica since April 2011. On top of that, Tarbert had fled New Mexico and lived in Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Colorado after Pruitt’s death, which made him look very guilty. Police say his stories didn’t add up which is how he became the prime suspect and eventually the man charged with the murder in 2013.
Ultimately, Tarbert was arrested in Nebraska and the gun used in the commission of the crime was recovered in Oklahoma. After 5 hours of interrogations, both Lawrence and Jessica confessed to the murder. Tarbert was charged with first degree murder, larceny of a gun, tampering with evidence, and other charges and held in Otero County on a $1.13 million dollar bail. He represented himself in court and took a guilty plea bargain. Now he’s serving a life sentence but has the possibility of parole in 30 years. He’s currently in Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, NM.
Jessica Tarbert was arrested for tampering with evidence. It’s not clear how much time she got but she is not currently listed in the New Mexico Corrections website so she is probably not serving time, at least not in this state. Unless she changed her name, it looks like she is currently living in Utah.
The victim’s parents, Joe and Evelyn Pruitt, attended the trial. They were happy to see Tarbert sentenced but Evelyn says it doesn’t bring her son back. She talks of how it’s been a nightmare for the family and every day something reminds them of their son who was taken from them for no reason.
You see, when you murder somebody, you don’t just hurt your victim. You hurt everyone who loves the victim, too. With one act, you destroy many lives and break many hearts. Murder is so evil because it cuts lives short and robs people of their chances to make their dreams come true, to work on their flaws, to enjoy time with loved ones, and to live and die with dignity. But the act also sends ripples through the entire community and the many layers of people of varying closeness to the victim, thus ripping so many lives apart and damaging so many psyches. Yet despite the awfulness of what he did to so many people, Lawrence Tarbert doesn’t feel empathy or sorrow for what he did. In fact, he blames the victim. He says he did it just to see what it felt like to murder someone. The flippancy behind his act makes this case so sickening.
Police say that a motive was not determined. According to Tarbert, he committed this murder “to see what it felt like to kill someone.” Here in this video, Tarbert talks about how he did it to find out what it felt like and now he is haunted by nightmares and has to take sleeping medication. He whines about how he will be on sleeping medication the rest of his life. At least he still has a life to live.
The thing I find so disturbing is how little empathy Tarbert shows for his victim or the victim’s family. He talks matter-of-factly about how he regrets letting Pruitt into his home because of what it did to his own life. He acts like he didn’t actually do anything wrong and it was all Pruitt’s fault for being murdered and landing Tarbert in prison. I can’t even imagine the thought process that Tarbert followed to reach that conclusion.
Tarbert also states that “it would be kind of fake to apologize for what I did now.” He suggests that “this could have happened to someone else” had he not taken Pruitt in, as if Pruitt was slated to be murdered by anyone no matter what and poor Tarbert would have been spared nightmares and prison had someone else committed this supposedly inevitable crime. This level of victim blaming is just unfathomable to me.
Tarbert seems to have removed himself from the crime and even justified it as something that anyone would have done. But the nightmares suggest to me that he is plagued by some semblance of guilt, which he keeps buried deep inside his subconscious. I hope the nightmares get worse with time until he finally acknowledges that he was wrong and attempts to make some sort of atonement. Though what could possibly atone for what he did, I don’t know.
I am so disgusted that he would do this, and that Pruitt had to be his random victim. What kind of lowlife ends someone’s life just to have the experience? The A&E episode suggests that Tarbert is a callous killer with serial killer tendencies. He is best in prison. The creepy way he says his skeletons should stay in the closet makes me worry that he has committed other crimes. His record only shows embezzlement, which he served time for before murdering Pruitt. But maybe there are things that he did that no one knows about; maybe there are literal skeletons in his past. I hope that New Mexico doesn’t let him out on parole early, as they are notorious for doing.
Conclusion
Despite the sadness of this murder, it doesn’t take away from the enchantment of Salado Canyon. I’m very excited to have this photo for my blog because I think it really illustrates New Mexico in all its dimensions. It shows the societal and economic changes that have littered this state with buildings, often just reduced to sun-silvered wood, crumbling adobe, and stone foundations after decades in the blistering sun. It shows the drama of storms here; the stormy days in NM possess a gloom that is welcome rather than melancholy, as they offer breaks from the relentless sunshine. Above all, it shows the interwoven stories and deep history that color every spot in this state, which was a wild frontier land not too long ago. Dark things happen here, but also bright and wonderful things. Good and evil coexist in life and nothing symbolizes that more to me than New Mexico and its history.
Sources
https://play.aetv.com/shows/the-killer-speaks/season-2/episode-3
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/197966276/joseph-glenn-pruitt
https://nebraska.tv/archive/new-mexico-murder-suspect-found-in-nuckolls-county
http://ghosttowns.com/states/nm/russia.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamogordo_and_Sacramento_Mountain_Railway
https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/7024018/fresnal-canyon-rails-to-trails