Expand the Train Track Trail to Honor Tom Meixner

The New Mexico and Arizona Railroad was built in 1882 from Benson, through Fairbank, Huachuca City, Elgin, Sonoita, Patagonia, Calabasas and Nogales where the track connected to another rail line to the Mexican port of Guaymas, Mexico. The railway was abandoned in 1963 and the tracks were removed.

In 2006 a small group in Patagonia organized the Mountain Empire Trail Association (META) to utilize the old railroad bed as a trail. The ultimate dream was to run a trail the length of the old railroad right-of way from Benson to Nogales. Currently the TTT runs from the Town of Patagonia to Casa Blanca Canyon, approximately 5 miles northeast of town near State Route-82. The TTT connects to the Arizona Trail Casa Blanca Trailhead, as well as 4 miles of trails in Borderlands Restoration Network Wildlife Corridor Preserve. In Patagonia the trail connects to additional trails at Tucson Audubon’s Paton’s Hummingbird Center and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Sonoita Creek Preserve.

In 2022 a fiber optic cable was installed in the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) right-of-way on State Route-82, clearing a path for equipment most of the way between Sonoita and Patagonia. META is partnering with Friends of Sonoita Creek and the Cienega Watershed Partnership to petition ADOT to allow the extension of the TTT from Casa Blanca Canyon to Sonoita utilizing the path that the fiber optic cable company cleared for non-motorized traffic, i.e. hiking, bicycling and equestrian use.

This portion of the trail will be dedicated to Tom Meixner, former head and professor at the University of Arizona Hydrological and Atmospheric Sciences and director of the Cienega Watershed Partnership. Tom was committed to connecting people to nature.

This TTT extension can connect the Sonoita/Elgin community to 800 miles of the Arizona Trail and 20 miles around the community of Patagonia.

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Money raised in this fundraiser will go towards cost of materials, labor, and equipment costs.