Christian bought some vintage Santa Rosa postcards on Ebay for one of my Christmas presents. This is one of them.
Wow! The things one person can tell you from a stretch of land in New Mexico!
I have been told that this is the Santa Rosa, Route 66 Mockingbird Hill downslope pre-4-lane circa 1950. Along the post-1937 changeover of route 66 from Hidden Lake-Blue Hole Road. It was the Leonardo Trujillo ranch before Route 66 was changed over, and it split its western boundary. The center I - 40 interchange is just above that now (east). Ira 'Smitty' Smith bought the Trujillo Ranch (left south side) after Leonardo died. Smitty came to Santa Rosa from somewhere near Amarillo to run the Pecos Theatre in the late 1930s. he ended up building the Tower Motel my Aunt Rose and Uncle Pat's house and served a few terms as mayor. The earliest version of the Sun and Sand Motel is to the left, just past the El Rito Creek Bridge, and the Santa Rosa Courts were to the right. Now it's a Super 8 Motel. There's a Circle K Shell Station right above the SANTA ROSA lettering now. There were few homes on that bare hillside until the mid-late 1960s, then Benny Flores started building apartments and houses during summertime when he was on vacation from teaching. The Shamrock station 1954 was up the slope from the Santa Rosa Courts. In about 1955 the Delgados operated a Texaco station and the Skyline Drive-In Cafe up the hill from that postcard location, now the Route 66 Restaurant and La Quinta Inn.
