John West Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wish I had taken more pictures of the industrial
> area along the old loop. The Graden Flour Mill is
> about where the Doubletree Hotel is now located.
> This is one of the few pix I have of that area,
> probably taken in September of 1960 (unfortunately
> the B&W negs don't have date stamps on them like
> the slides processed by Kodak). Not a great pic,
> but it's history now.
>
> JBWX
____________________________________________________
John, I remember the mill very well and am very glad that you posted this photo. As I've said before, my wife and I were on our honeymoon in Durango in July 1960. I was fascinated by the railroad bridge on the left and the trackage to and from it because it was the only remnant, that I'd ever seen, of the RGS which still had rails on it and in use.
The road across the highway bridge, in 1960, is the same dirt road that shows up in Dave Grandt's 1940s overview photo. It went up into the middle of town, where a person then turned right to the depot and left to head north out of town. Main Street was the highway.
We were back in Durango in July 1968 in our first 4x4, a new International Scout. It required servicing (mostly lubing) every 2,500 miles (sounds ridiculous by today's standards). Since we had come from California, the Scout was ready for servicing by the time we hit Durango. The road between the bridge over the Animas and downtown was still there, still a 2 lane paved road, only there was a service station half way along it on the south side. IIRC, it was an Arco station, probably still under that company's old name Atlantic-Richfield. So I drove into it and asked for a lube & service for the Scout. However, there was just a kid staffing the station and he knew nothing about anything in the service bay. He said that there would be no one there who knew about servicing for the rest of the day. I asked if I could do it in their service bay, he said yes, so I did. For that fairly primitive 4x4, I always carried a hand operated grease gun on board. I used their hydraulic lift, got the thing lubed & serviced, paid the kid a small sum, and we went on our way. Imagine trying to do that now!
Unfortunately, we were on a budget in 1960 and still on one 8 years later, so I didn't photograph this area at all. Instead, I concentrated on railroad subjects in Durango (such as the yards); and railroad, mining, and scenic subjects in the mountains to the north.
Again, thank you John and thank you Dave for the photos we haven't seen before!
Best regards, Hart Corbett
