Summer 1999	Volume 6, Number 3

Famous "Cool" Clines Corners worth stopping for! By Susie McComb Cline's little "Corner of the World" circa early 1940s

Farming and WPA work in Arkansas didn't seem to suit Roy Cline. He had already tried pinto bean farming, operating a hotel and leasing a cafe in Moriarty, New Mexico. He had ventured to the little railroad community of Lucy, on Highway 60 in southern Torrance County, and built a service station and hamburger joint. But nothing seemed to pan out for Roy Cline, a man with wanderlust, an aversion to physical labor, and seven mouths to feed. About 1934, Roy wrote a letter to his son in New Mexico asking him to contact the state land commissioner about leasing land between US 285 and NM Highway 6 (later to become Route 66, now Interstate 40.) His son and namesake dutifully contacted the commissioner and lent his dad $75.00 to lease the land. Back to New Mexico came the Tribe Cline for another of Dad's schemes It was getting late in the year as Roy got a wildcat bean hauler to bring lumber out to the site. He convinced his son, Roy Jr., to take time out from his job of driving a dump truck and erect a small filling station. "It got so cold," recalls Roy Jr. "that nails would stick to my hands." Sometime during that winter, Clines Corners was born. The year of '37 was a busy one for Roy, his roadside establishment, and the state highway department. The road that was becoming known as the Santa Rosa cutoff was shifted slightly north, which meant that the little gas hamlet had to be moved also. "Clines Corners is a busy place these days, and Mr. Cline will have a big job moving his improvements,? wrote the local Estancia paper. Roy Jr. went back to driving a truck, and with the help of a benevolent son-in-law supplying the physical labor, Roy Sr. built onto his filling station and added a new cafe. Work continued that year on the Santa Rosa cutoff along the endless stretch of the Basin and Range Plateau. Long-time resident Lewis O'Neal remembers "crawling cats" (caterpillar tractors) that ran on tracks instead of wheels. The cats pulled six-foot blades used to grade the road. Highway crews used caliche from local rock piles as base course. Eventually the road would get paved to Moriarty, which then linked travelers to Albuquerque on the new and straightened portion of Route 66. Roy Jr. remembers his dad as being the drone of the beehive at Clines Corners. "Dad loved the railroad, Wild West magazines and Prince Albert cigars. When a car drove up to the Clines Corners service station,

Dad would yell out to his daughters: 'Esther, Ollie, go out and wait on that car!'" Roy sold Clines Corners in 1939, but continued to own and operate other establishments such as the Flying C service station on Route 66. Alfred Larranaga, a forty-one year employee veteran of Clines Corners, worked in maintenance and management beginning in 1956. Mr. Larranaga, who was born and raised twelve miles south of Clines, was hired by owner S.L. "Smitty" Smith to work in maintenance and later management. "Mr. Smith was a real hard worker," says Mr. Larranaga "and he put a lot into remodeling the buildings at Clines." Alfred helped Smitty build a dining room and add to the gift shop in the early '60s. He particularly recalls the big snowstorm of '59 and '60. In response to that snowstorm, according to Mr. Larranaga, the highway department bought their first snowblower. Only Caterpillar tractors could be used to open State Road 285 between Vaughn and Clines Corners. Some vehicles remained buried in the snow banks for two weeks. Mammoth snow drifts reached up to the Standard Gas sign. Water, as well as weather, has always been a concern at Clines Corners. Old-timers in the area laugh that Roy Cline sold gasoline for ten cents a gallon and water for one dollar a gallon! When Mr. Smith bought the property, he hauled water from the Estancia Valley at night and worked in the service station by day. When a well was drilled to the depth of 1301 feet in the 1950s, it only pumped out a paltry ten gallons per minute. After Smitty died in 1961, the present owners piped in water from White Lakes, sixteen miles away. Since Clines Corners is in the middle of nowhere and on the road to everywhere, employee concerns had to be addressed. A post office was added in 1964. Homes were built for employees; these structures still provide residence for Clines employees. There are about sixty people working at Clines Corners at present. Today, the staff at Clines Corners continues in the fine tradition of its former owners Roy Cline and Smitty. Flat tires are still repaired, tanks are filled, biscuits and gravy are served for breakfast and postcards are mailed from this traveler's mecca. Located fifty-nine miles east of Albuquerque on Interstate 40 (also Historic Route 66) it still evokes the "cool" experience of traveling the Mother Road. Thanks to Roy Cline Jr., Alfred Larranaga, Lewis O'Neal and Marshall Hill for their help in preparing this article.