Cliff Town was settled in 1852 on both banks of the Bosque River. A stone mill built in 1868 on the west bank attracted other businesses, and after the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway passenger station was built on the west bank in 1880, most enterprises on the east side moved over to be close to the railroad. The Whipple Truss Bridge built in 1884 to connect the east “old Town” with the west “New Town” is still in use (ruins of the mill are just upstream). The area west of Clifton was one of the largest Norwegian settlements west of the Mississippi River. The Bosque Museum (1957; 301 S. Avenue Q) houses Norwegian artifacts and the Horn Shelter Man, the more than 11,000-year-old remains of a man and girl, discovered nearby in 1920. These Paleoamerican remains, predating later peoples, are a rare find in North America.
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