Here is a account of a trip from Durango to Alamosa in January of 1881. Railroad is only operating to Chama so far. It's also before cameras were common, so no photos, but he guy is pretty good with words. First Two Days in this post, others to follow.
Alamosa, February, 3, 1881
Dear News:- Sic Transit Gloria Mundi and so also has the sublimity and grandeur of the mountains departed and here I am in the dirty, dusty withal busy metropolis of the San Luis valley. One can scarcely
realize that such a change has been made in less than one hundred miles. Last night at 8 O’clock we left the Pinos-Chama summit, 9906 feet above the sea level with the snow twenty feet deep on a level, and cold enough to freeze our friend Pluto in a wink, if he should have the temerity to put in an appearance at that point. This morning at 3 o’clock we arrived here, and I am writing in the office of the hotel, with all the doors and windows open and no fire. We made a comparatively speedy trip from Durango to Chama—end of track, distance 110 miles—in one of J. L. Sandersons & Co’s new and elegant Concord coaches, with which this route is now duly equipped. The first day leaving Durango at 6:30 A.M., we rode to Pagosa Springs, distance 65 miles, by 8:30 P.M., and stopped for the night. Pagosa looks dilapidated and forlorn since the removal of the military post; and as we left it next morning, 6:30 A.M., it was completely shrouded in a dense fog that hid everything, even our leaders in a four horse team; and cold? well, some.
I mentioned the fact to the driver, thinking he had perhaps forgotten or overlooked the matter, but my word froze before reaching his ears, which were probably frozen also, so I failed to be benefited by any comments he might otherwise have made. He afterwards used some very warm words in regard to the same subject, but I noticed no particular improvement in the temperature.
We crossed the Continental Divide-ten miles from Chama-just at sunset and saw some beautiful effects of the sun on the snowy peaks that everywhere surrounded us, but our Jehu, being of phlegmatic turn of mind, didn’t propose to stop to enjoy the thing, but with the philosophic remark that there would be plenty more like it, whipped up and away we went, spinning down the mountains at a breakneck pace, making the crisp snow ring like a bell. We reached Chama at 7:30 that evening with an appetite like a wolf, and visions of fried oysters in our minds, but alas, bacon and black coffee were too good for us. Chama has quite a number of restaurants and saloons and two dance halls in full blast. Everything is carried on in tents, the depot being the only substantial building in town. The population is a present composed of Mormons and night is made hideous by dance hall music(?) and pistol shots. Burns and Co. are putting up a large and solid building opposite the depot to accommodate an already large and constantly increasing forwarding and commission business. Ainslee-he of railroad “pasteboard” fame-is going into the same line of business and his building is also under way. Chama undoubtedly will be a “lively” place this spring and the D&RG will have their hands full of traffic.
