Re: When Chama burned! A second time in 1899-Gold Dredging

Thank you for note on enjoying the Chama's incident.

The dredging in the Chama River began around 1890 and became a giant operation with many big operators, one of the biggest being the Denver & Rio Grande Western RR (the Utah company), developing into using many “gold saving machines” dredge barges, steam fired. The first came via Espanola, but the second set of machines came into Chama costing $55,000, and wagoned down to the operation about a dozen miles upriver from Albiquiu. This is along the right of way of the San Juan Railway owned by the D&RG. Note the map of this SJRy in the front of book “Rio Grande….to the Pacific”.

I am still reading into this interesting story as it affected Chama in a big way and at the time of 1899 the notes are finally coming in that the gold field might be one of the best in the west. Through much of it development, the newspapers could never get detailed money results from the companies which kept the findings secret but it kept expanding in people and machinery until –don’t know yet.

I may assemble all the articles on this story and dump them here if I feel there is an interest in this story which is slightly to the side of the narrow gauge railroad. They never built track up the San Juan Ry but the D. & R.G. kept ownership of that grade, as it looks now in what I read, because of the gold bearing soil it sat over. And there was continual remarks in the newspaper to build it and abandoned the line over the hill (meaning Cumbres Pass) whenever it was blocked by snow.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2009 08:47AM by John E. Bull.