Re: Silverton Railway Sign Question

The SN office building was donated by the owners of Root & Norton to the San Juan County Historical Society. The 2 city lots it sits on was donated by the D&RGW at the same time to the society. This was the late 1970s when Root & Norton had its $20 a month lease cancelled by the railroad and they started to demolish the former ticket and office building. I got a call from Dell McCoy at Sundance Publications that I had to do something to save the structure. I got the both the railroad and the Root & Norton people to agree to the donation. The society then leased the building to Bill Jones who ran an assay office there which he called Root & Norton, after the old company. He later moved the assay office to another location, but continued to use the SN building. Bill then purchased the building from the society, and he still owns it. He uses it now as a residence for himself and also uses it for some of his employees who work for the Old 100 mine tour, which he started when he shut down the assay business. The model shows the concrete addition which housed the vault the SN built and which Jones tore down. This link shows the deed to the building being handed to me by Jack Rentfrow, the D&RGW's trainmaster in Durango. Jack retired the day Charlie Bradshaw assumed ownership of the Silverton branch.

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