Deming was created as a city within the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, which was acquired from Mexico specifically to provide a southern route for a railroad to connect the United States with California. Deming was founded in 1881 and incorporated in 1902. The town is named after Mary Ann Deming Crocker, wife of Charles Crocker, one of the Big Four of the California railroad industry. The Silver Spike was driven here on March 8, 1881 to commemorate the meeting of the Southern Pacific with the Rio Grande, Mexico and Pacific (a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe) railroads. This was the second  transcontinental railroad to be completed in North America.

The Deming Armory - Luna Mimbres Museum is home to the on of the largest collections of Mimbres pottery in the world. The Mimbres culture is included in the broader Mogollontradition found in the mountains and plateus of the central Southwest. They were pueblo farmers and made beautiful Black-on-white pottery depicting both humans and animals between A.D. 1000 and 1130.

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