Tottering Railroad Remnants

This remarkable surviving remnant from days long ago is a water tank on a branch of the Denver and Rio Grand Railroad that connected Durango and Farmington, New Mexico. Initially known as the "Red Apple Flyer" for the delicious cargo it carried, the line acutally survived into the 1950s because it carried pipe and supplies for the burgeoning gas fields in the San Juan Basin. The current owner is trying hard to find resources to preserve it and has nominated the property to Colorado's Endangered Places list in hopes of raising awareness and assistance. More power to him!

Summer Fun With Ravens and Arborglyphs

Sometimes it's the little things. This hungry raven joined our camp on the San Juan River one evening, keeping a close watch on our food.  

Meanwhile, up among the columbines near Lime Creek, I happened on some script carved into this aspen in 1938.  The  cut stump next to it is intriguing.  Somebody was marking the way along this historic route.  Tree carvings are called arborglyphs--in case you didn't know. They are everywhere but you have to train yourself to look for them.

Lingering in the Lupines

June in the San Juan Mountains brings the lupines.  My friend and I took a tour through fields of these beautiful flowers.  Our walk included some beautiful public land that will soon be lost to private development, thanks to the San Juan National Forest decision to swap this land for other properties. We better get out and enjoy it while we are still allowed to access it.

New Southern Ute Museum in Ignacio

The Southern Utes opened their new museum in Ignacio this weekend with a two-day open house. We made the drive from Durango through the farms and ranches of La Plata County and arrived to be spell bound for hours by the new building and the collections it houses. This is a very sophisticated museum that still relates to you, the visitor, on a very personal level. Lovely. The exhibits tell many stories about the multi-faceted Ute culture. I liked that both the past and the present are included in the exhibits. It gives a strong message about how knowing where you come from strenghtens you on your journey to the future.

Sustainable History

On Mother's Day we ventured with some friends on a spring time hike to the Tacoma Hydropower Plant. Built in 1906, the plant has steadily provided electricity to the area since 1906!!  This is one power plant you can not drive to.  It sits along the route of the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad at the bottom of the Animas Canyon.  All of the plant's construction materials and supplies arrived by train, as they do today. Although it is perched on the edge of the Animas River, the plant actually receives water from Cascade Creek which is stored high above the Canyon in Electra Lake. Water pours through a pipe down the steep cliff, gathering the necessary force to turn the turbines.
Of course, the return trip is an uphill grunt, but it was worth it.

Canyon of the Ancients

Want to see a living museum?  My favorite travelling partner and I took a great one-day adventure into the past at the Canyon of the Ancients National Monument. One of the monument's most striking archaeological sites is the Painted Hand Pueblo, named for  handprints left in an alcove on the site. What a spectacular place. These Ancestral Puebloans had some great views.

You feel such a sense of discovery if you navigate the boulders and narrow passages along the sporadically marked route to this site.  And that's the way it should be.  When you work a little harder to get somewhere, that place is all the more special. 

What about the photo?

I've gotten a few questions about this photo of the Santa Fe Depot. Yes, that is the depot in Santa Fe, New Mexico on the old Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe line.   The venerable city of Santa Fe had seen centuries of trade before the fledgling Atchison and Topeka Railroad Company formed in Kansas in 1859 to follow a route roughly parallel to the Santa Fe Trail.  The railroad company's promoters added the Santa Fe name in 1863 to imply a broader range for the rail route.  Ironically, the Atcheson and Topeka's main line never went through Santa Fe. The city was served by a branch line that stopped at this depot.

Santa Fe has recently revived its historic rail yard. The center piece is a commuter train between Santa Fe and the Bernalillo-Albuquerque-Belen corridor.  Appropriately named the Rail Runner, the train transports commuters through classic western scenery along what is mostly the historic rail route. Excursion trains on historic diesel powered equipment also depart from the railyard, providing a nice blend of the city's past and future.
 
Santa Feans are good at integrating their past into the future.  Shoppers in the rail yard at the local farmers market and in the trendy stores and art galleries hear the train whistles and see these iron horses as part of their daily lives in a modern interpretation of how people of Santa Fe lived and shopped a hundred years ago. I think that's a great way to go.

The Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad eventually became part of the present day BNSF Railway. They have put together an interesting corporate history at http://www.bnsf.com/about-bnsf/our-railroad/company-history/pdf/hist_overview.pdf

Thinking for the ages

I make my living preserving the historic places that shape our communities and our lives. Although you might think that archaeologists and historians live in the past, we are actually constantly thinking for the ages---looking to the future and working to identify what legacies are important to leave for our children.

Our inquiry into the past is really a light to the future.

I got to see this theory in action while working with Fort Lewis College on documenting their historical beginnings. Here is a picture of one of the old Fort buildings that was later remodeled into a dairy. While the college is now a modern establishment in Durango, Colorado, it actually started out in 1880 as a military fort that was turned into an Indian School and then remodeled into a vocational school. The college had barely evolved from a junior college into a four year institution when it left the original fort site along the banks of the La Plata River and moved to Durango in 1956.

Only a few of the original fort buildings remain on the site, but they give us a clear understanding of the days when the buffalo soldiers and other companies were encamped there. The Indian School buildings also left a legacy.

I was hired to document that legacy through a  historic building survey of 21 surviving historic structures. The College used this information along with other data to develop a plan to revive the old quadrangle.

The old fort has a great website at http://oldfort.fortlewis.edu/index.htm  The Fort Lewis Center of Southwest Studies has just opened a new exhibit celebrating the 100 years since the property was turned over to the State of Colorado. Stop by and see it if you are in the Durango.