Obar, New Mexico: Land of "Tropical Luxuriance"

Obar, New Mexico once sat along the Rock Island Railroad tracks, between Logan and Nara Visa, but nothing remains today. And I mean nothing, it's the most absent town I've found in these parts. Kenna, after being burned over a few years back, still has a few dwellings, along with a few inhabitants. Even Norton has a foundation or two to show for itself, but nothing remains of Obar proper.
This is all the more remarkable because Obar was heavily promoted by the New Mexico Land and Immigration Company, a fly-by-night developer based in Topeka, Kansas.
The NML&IC promised a land of milk and honey, and also to pave the roads and build a hotel. The land, of course, was as hardscrabble as the rest of the region, and the roads and hotel never materialized.
Obar made a go of it for a few years, attracting a couple of hundred settlers, all of whom moved on to better things, a little poorer and, one hopes, wiser for their trouble.
Sometime later, a little monument was erected by some thoughtful people to commemorate Obar, which you can see today, at the intersection of U.S. 54 and Quay Road K.


Obar

For the definitive history of Obar go to The Link Family Chronicles.