Dear Action Line: While waiting in line at the new car wash south of town, Cascade Xpress, I glanced down into the gully on my right and saw the structure in the attached photo. It looks to me like an old railroad trestle that now goes nowhere. It’s a monument to how they were so strongly built! Any idea of its history? Can it be moved and used for a trail bridge somewhere? How about on U.S. Highway 550 at Hermosa Creek where bikes dart between waves of cars through a narrow opening? Just wondering. – Peggy
Dear Peggy: Some people reading Action Line have been over this bridge on a train. We talk a lot about the history of the Durango-to-Silverton train, but up until 1968 you could take a Denver & Rio Grande Western train to Farmington or to Alamosa and beyond.
This particular line went from Durango (actually Carbon Junction) to Farmington, and this wooden bridge, or trestle, crosses Wilson Gulch. Unlike the highway overpass not far away that was dubbed the “bridge to nowhere” but now goes somewhere, this one really does go nowhere.
Let’s dig into the whys and hows, with a huge assist from Robert McDaniel, Durango native, historian and former director of the Animas Museum.
The D&RG (D&RGW after 1921) built the Farmington branch in 1905. Coal companies, other mining interests, farmers and ranchers – all needed a train to haul their goods for sale.
“The Farmington Branch was an anachronism in an otherwise narrow-gauge realm as it was built standard gauge (4 feet, 8.5 inches between the rails instead of 3 feet for narrow gauge),” McDaniel said. The original intent was to connect this line with the Santa Fe railroad, also standard gauge. Since this branch never went beyond Farmington, the differing gauges caused nothing but problems.
“You can imagine the difficulties caused by having to transfer everything from standard gauge to narrow gauge rolling stock (and vice versa), and everything from Carbon Junction (where the Farmington branch and mainline to Alamosa split) to the Durango yards having to be ‘three-railed’ to accommodate both gauges.”
So, the Farmington branch was converted to narrow gauge in 1917, according to William H. Wigglesworth, in “Pioneers of the San Juan Country.” William’s father, Thomas Wigglesworth, was the guy who surveyed the Durango-to-Silverton route, as well as many other rail routes. This conversion was somehow done in one weekend by 300 men, who moved one track to narrow the gap to 3 feet wide.
Said McDaniel, “Apparently, they were motivated to get the job done quickly to avoid trouble with the New Mexico Public Utilities Commission, which had not approved the conversion!”
The lines from Durango to Alamosa (actually to Antonito) and to Farmington were officially abandoned by the D&RGW at the end of 1969. Not without difficulty, the Durango-to-Silverton and Antonito-to-Chama lines were continued for tourism.
“I’m sure the wooden trestle across Wilson Gulch was probably built in 1905 when the branch was originally constructed, and the fact that it has stood the test of time attests to the engineering and construction skills of the men who built that rail line,” McDaniel said.
Peggy added in another email that her mother was born in Tiffany, a stop on the D&RGW line southeast of Ignacio.
“When the train stopped, the town disappeared,” she said.
So, as of 1969 there were a couple hundred miles of mostly unwanted rail line. The D&RGW originally deeded the Colorado portions of the old right-of-way to the Colorado Department of Transportation, said Jim Davis, La Plata County’s long-tenured director of public works.
Then in 1981, “CDOT quitclaim deeded the right-of-way to the county, and I believe to the tribe where it is over tribal lands,” Davis said. The county paid the state $1.
Over the years, the state and then the county sold off sections of right-of-way to various entities, usually surrounding landowners. This little chunk of right-of-way with the trestle – 100 feet wide, 3.556 acres in total – remained in the county’s hands. It is surrounded by private land, accessed by Trestle Lane, which county spokesman Ted Holteen confirmed is a private road in the county – so it’s not a good idea to go exploring it.
The county at one point looked into creating a “rails-to-trails” recreational trail by using the rights-of-way, but by that time, 2009, there were way too many gaps.
Moving the bridge somewhere else? A nice idea, but you can quote Action Line here: “It ain’t gonna happen.”
Dear Action Line: Why was Juneteenth not a holiday for the city of Durango parking meters? Especially irritating since the alley and parking lot behind the Durango Arts Center (which I have a pass for) was blocked off because of the gas line project. – Hal Day-Arnatt
Dear Hal: Juneteenth, or June 19, was made a federal holiday in 2021, and state holiday in 2022. You won’t see a postman/woman, and you won’t get into a federal office without a key or the proper crowbar. But for the city of Durango and county of La Plata, June 19 goes on pretty much as it did before 2021.
That means you’d better not forget to take your trash/recycling out to the curb, and if it snows, the plows will be right on time. It also means that yes, you have to feed the meters, or take your chances and not feed the meters, which is a bet you may regret.
The holidays you don’t have to plug the meters are listed in the city code, Sec. 24-63, pointed out Wade Moore, the city’s parking operations manager. The city has “ongoing discussions” about adding Juneteenth and others to the list, “but nothing has been finalized,” said city spokesman Tom Sluis.
Action Line noticed that his neighbor who toils at Fort Lewis College was home celebrating Juneteenth, and a quick check shows that FLC makes Juneteenth a holiday. FLC follows the state, which made Juneteenth National Independence Day a state holiday in May 2022.
June 19, 1865, was the day that Union troops floated into Galveston Bay, Texas, and announced the Civil War had ended a couple months back and that every Black person was free and everything was equal now. Yeah, it wasn’t, but maybe we’re slowly getting there.
Email questions and suggestions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. Jeff Johnson, general manager of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, wrote about the Durango-to-Farmington line and much more in the annual, May 2023, edition of “History La Plata.”
