North-south railroad tracks were laid through the county by The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad in 1881, and in 1908 the Belen Cut-Off from Amarillo, Texas, through Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Needles, California was completed. Within a year, the Cut-Off became the prime east-west freight line across the continent and made Belen the transportation hub of New Mexico. Increased commercial traffic also brought more passenger travel, leading to construction of the Harvey House in 1910. Fred Harvey, an English entrepreneur, had opened his first restaurant on the Santa Fe line in Topeka, Kansas in 1876 and built a system of restaurants throughout the Southwest staffed by young women recruited from the eastern United States. These women signed one-year contracts, and later six-month agreements, in exchange for room, board, and a small wage; at the end of their contracts they were entitled to a free ride home, though many remained and settled in the West. The Belen Harvey House closed in the late 1930's, and the Valencia County Historical Society later agreed with the Harvey House Civic Center to use the building as a permanent museum, which opened to the public on April 7, 1985.