Re: Fred Jukes: Photographer; Jukes Tree - NOT!!

Mr. Bane et al -

The copy of the CRRM's Colorado Rail Annual that I have is the hardcover original, published in 1971 and sold for $6.95.  This issue is so popular that it has been re-published in soft cover at least once – with some added material, IIRC – resulting in a difference of page numbers in the two (or more) editions.

While reviewing the article, I looked closely at the following photo "taken by Fred Jukes in the summer of 1908 . . . the large pine in the background is famed to this day as 'the Jukes Tree'.":


Compare the above to my photo at the purported "Jukes Tree" taken on August 17, 2010:


In the 1908 photo the track is straight, there is an embankment visible immediately adjacent to the pilot on the engineer's side, there is a milepost - probably #342 but maybe #343 - directly across the track from the tree, and there is no bridge in the background.  In the 2010 photo - taken at about mile 343.5 - the track is curved, there's no embankment immediately adjacent to the roadbed, and the bridge is only eight to ten car lengths behind the locomotive – close enough that it should show in the 1908 photo IF it were of the same tree – which, IM(ns)HO,* it is NOT!!

BTW, here is the photo of Fred Jukes in 1960 that appears on page 98:


- Roosso

p.s. Wasn't there a spur later near m.p. 343, about where Ed Baudette's house now stands?  And wasn't it to a lumber mill??   I'll bet that "the Jukes Tree" still exists - as the 2x4 framing of the house that Richard Braden & friends used to own!!    
pps. It's not clear from the Jukes photo what color #417's jacket was in those days ...    

*   "IMnsHO" = In My not so Humble Opinion.   (We Curmudgeons actually are seldom humble, and generally yield our arrogant opinions only to irrefutable facts.)



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2021 05:15PM by Russo Loco.