Community content by Rick Holben, East Mountain Historical Society
The Mountain Lodge was built about 1949 east of Albuquerque in the Carnuel area of Tijeras Canyon by Crawford Bissel Saunders and his wife, Marie Auer Saunders. The motel fronted what was the original two-lane alignment of U.S. Highway 66 on property purchased in late 1946 from Carl Webb, who had recently moved from the Cedar Crest Resort on North NM-10 (now NM-14), which he had founded in the early 1920s.
The land on which Saunders built the motel were Lots 1 and 2 of the Monticello Subdivision developed by Carl Webb.
Crawford, who frequently went by C.B., and his wife Marie Auer were natives of Ohio, born in 1901 and 1908, respectively. They were married in 1940 in Van Wert County, Ohio. According to their marriage license application, Crawford was working at the time as an engineer in Washington, D.C. and Marie was a nurse in Ohio. By 1942, Crawford was working in Houston, Texas for the “Auston Co.,” according to his draft registration card. Census records show the Saunders by 1950 were living in Carnuel along U.S. Highway 66, several dwellings away from both Carl Webb and Billy Mearns, whose businesses were just to the east. Webb was running a curio shop and Mearns ran the Linda Vista, a restaurant, bar and gas station that also offered rental cabins. Crawford listed his occupation as electrical engineer and wife Marie was listed as “lodge operator.”
Through the 1950s and 1960s, the Saunders were involved with East Mountain and Tijeras Canyon civic groups, including the Tijeras Canyon Community Association and the Sedillo Soil Conservation District. In 1954, the Sedillo Soil Conservation District was believed to be the first district in the state of New Mexico with two women on its board of supervisors: Marie Saunders and fellow Tijeras Canyon resident Molly Simballa, owner of Molly’s Bar in Tijeras.
In the early 1950s, shortly after U.S. 66 was widened to four lanes through Tijeras Canyon, Marie joined a delegation of other Tijeras area residents in support of an elderly woman named Nora Caverly, who had been denied compensation for land taken during the highway widening. Caverly and her husband Phillip had been in Tijeras since the 1910s, first as managers of Whitcomb Springs, and later in the 1920s with their own business in Tijeras, which included rental cabins on what was then Highway 470/366. Nora’s husband died in 1936, but she continued renting cabins into the 1950s.
It was claimed that Caverly was coerced into donating part of her land with assurances from Highway Department representatives that it would increase the value of her property. Instead, the widening cut off access to her property and “put her out of business.” A delegation of Tijeras residents hired a lawyer and were successful in gaining a financial settlement for Nora. The delegation, in addition to Marie Saunders, included J.D. and Gertrude Grenko, Oscar Walton, Theresa Bogard and Fred C. Fach. In the 1960s, Crawford Saunders, a member of the “Citizens and Landowners of Tijeras Canyon” organization, was an outspoken opponent of the proposed interstate highway project that was to replace U.S. Highway 66.
In the 1970s, the Saunders sold the Mountain Lodge to a family named Blankley, who owned and operated it until it burned down on Dec. 18, 2104. Phone directories show that the Saunders continued to live in the Carnuel/Tijeras Canyon area until the early 1980s. Crawford Saunders died in Florida in 1986 and Marie died in 2005; both are buried in their home state of Ohio.
This story is one of several in the East Mountain Historical Society’s recently published book, A History of the Highway Between Albuquerque and Santa Rosa – and How it Became U.S. Highway 66. The book contains dozens of photos, maps, postcards, advertisements and signs, many from author Rick Holben’s personal collection. The Route 66 book and the society’s new Route 66-themed 2026 Calendar are being sold by EMHS to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Route 66 this year.
For more information on retail outlets and the online store, visit eastmountainhistory.org.
