The population peaked at about 125, a decade after WWII but had shrunk to less than 70 by the late 70s and Salt Flats lost its post office. It was even rumored that Amelia Earhart landed nearby a few times in the 1930s. A salt mining operation kept it busy for years, and a Greyhound bus stop was established there as well (it still stops if you wave it down). Over the decades, the little community grew and shrank with the times. Within a couple years he added a diner, and a motor court for weary travelers. Hammock decided a gas station/store would be needed along that long hot stretch of road, and in 1929, he opened for business. He was part of a family ranching operation near Van Horn, Texas when word spread about the big road project. The cafe’s origins go back to a man named Edwin Hammock. The new highway would pass through some of the most desolate (and magnificent) scenery in the American Southwest. Photo by Jim Stiles Jim Stiles writes… In the late 1920s, work was started on a new road that would connect Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, with El Paso, Texas, a distance of almost 175 miles.
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