Re: Jim Pearce, former D&RGW Engineer

To add to Earl's story about the movie scene for Denver and Rio Grande: When the movie company had everything set up for the big crash scene a big thunderstorm came up and by the time it was over it was too late to shoot. A call went to Durango for a night watchman for the locomotives. Jim was still on the Extra Board and had checked in the afternoon and found no work for that day so he decided to go on a date to the movies. The Rio Grande had enough pull in DGO that half way through the film it suddenly stopped, the lights came on, and a voice asked if there was a Jim Pearce in the audience. Not knowing what was going on Jim identified himself and was told to get his things and a speeder was going to take him to Elk Park where he was to be night watchman. When Jim arrived the departing watchman told him about the dynamite. Jim said he spent most of the night hiding behind trees about 100 feet from the locomotives and would run up to them every 15 minutes or so and check the fires and water levels then run away again. When dawn arrived a new watchman took his place. He was asked if he wanted to stay and watch the big event and he decided he'd had enough excitement for quite a while so he headed back to Durango.