Re: Silverton depot bombing

The damage to the Silverton Depot was extensive. I was a bit surprised that the building was repaired and not demolished, as is too often the case. There are several pictures of the damage. I would check the Silverton Standard or Durango Herald archives if all else failed.
I was the Silverton Train conductor the day the depot was bombed. I do not know the date right off the top of my head. It was fortunate that we had been delayed at Elk Park for about 10 minutes because of an extra heavy loading of back packers. When we arrived at Silverton, several passengers saw the damage as we went by the depot and of course had many questions about how the damage occurred and how long ago the depot was damaged. My first thought was I didn't know anything was wrong with the depot so as soon as the passengers unloaded in town I run down to the depot and Wow, the depot had just been blown-up by a "terrorist" or vandals or whatever. When I called the management at Durango (Jack Rentfrow) they had not heard the news yet, Jack went into shock. Mr. Rentrow's worst fear was that someone would sabotage the train someday in a serious way. As the impact of what had just happened started to hit home, I and the other members of the train crew, the staff in Durango and the management in Denver became very concerned and fearful about what else could occur. We considered taking everyone back to Durango on buses for the sake of safety but finally decided to return the passengers to Durango by rail. I did make sure the train was off schedule for fear that someone would try to time our arrival at one of the bridges or at another structure on the line.
There was never an arrest made in connection with the bombing that I know of however I have been told law enforcement knew who did the nasty deed. Indeed the bomb went off when the train would normally have arrived at Silverton, thank goodness we were late that day.
Woody W