“A dowdy country cousin, the battered red freight car stuck out on the D & RGW Silverton like a sore thumb on the few occasions it was part of the teeming passenger train. But no more. When it is in the train this year (1964), it will match the Rio Grande gold on the passenger cars thanks to the efforts of the Durango roundhouse crew who cleaned up the inside, replaced sliding and repainted the car, even down to a bright red coupling on the air hose. With their handiwork are left to right, Bernie Candelaria, Arvid Alexander, Leonard Winckel and Ed Kettle.”

Herald file photo

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“A dowdy country cousin, the battered red freight car stuck out on the D & RGW Silverton like a sore thumb on the few occasions it was part of the teeming passenger train. But no more. When it is in the train this year (1964), it will match the Rio Grande gold on the passenger cars thanks to the efforts of the Durango roundhouse crew who cleaned up the inside, replaced sliding and repainted the car, even down to a bright red coupling on the air hose. With their handiwork are left to right, Bernie Candelaria, Arvid Alexander, Leonard Winckel and Ed Kettle.”

Herald file photo

100 years ago: “Taken, it is thought with cramps, Ernest Olzer, 27, an Austrian employed at the Calumet mine, was drowned in 8 feet of water in the mine reservoir, Olzer had been swimming in the reservoir at the end of the mine drainage pipe with several companions.”

75 years ago: “Work on the last stretch of the new highway project on U.S. Highway 160 in southwest Durango has progressed to the point where another month will see its completion.”

50 years ago: “For the first time since publication was announced in November, copies of the Associated Press book on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are available over the counter in The Herald office. More than 3½ million copies of the book have already been sold through member newspapers, and translations into foreign languages have been prepared.”

25 years ago: “The time is ripe for the two Durango hospitals to work in friendship toward some form of win-win cooperation. And David Jacobsen, recently named chief executive officer at Mercy medical Center is the right man for the task.”

Most items in this column are taken from Herald archives, Center of Southwest Studies and Animas Museum. Their accuracy may not be verified.