The town of Belen was founded in 1740 by Captain Don Diego Torres and Antonio Salazar, Torres' brother-in-law. They named it Belen, Spanish for Bethlehem. It began as an agricultural based community and expanded into sheep herding. The arrival of the railroad in 1880 eventually brought shops, a roundhouse, ice plant, and yards containing miles of track and a depot. Best Western Belen New Mexico.
