Re: Tall Timber...end of an era--swimming pool

John West mentioned the pool at Tall Timbers. Here is some more information about it. This comes from a visit I had with Denny Beggrow.

The final, and current, pool did come in on the train. But, that is the fourth pool that headed up there.
The first pool was built in Albuquerque and trucked to Rockwood. It was a lightweight affair. A helicopter hooked on there. While flying the pool to Tall Timber, the straps came loose and the pool fell, landing right on the railroad tracks.
That pool was 1800 pounds. The helicopter pilot suggested that he could take a more substantial and heavier pool. So, a second was built in Albu and trucked to Rockwood. The pilot hooked on. He tried to lift it, but it was too heavy. He suggested that some of the bystanders give it a boost to get it off the ground. That did not work. The pilot said, "How heavy was that pool?" It was heavier than the first, by 2000 pounds.
"My God."
That pool was sold to a private individual in the vicinity.
A third pool was built. Again in Albq. This time the helicopter was bigger and the Colorado Highway Patrol shut down HY 550 so that an attempt could be made to lift the pool up from on the highway. This also did not work. It too was sold locally.
Finally, Beggrow asked about having a pool made which could be leaned up sideways on flatcars. Measurements were made and the pool made the trip without incident. I did not ask Denny whether the pool was loaded in Durango or at Rockwood. There may have been power lines or other reasons to still load at Rockwood.
If interested, I'll explain why Denny decided to have his son go into the Zipline and phase other business out.