Re: Durango " Horse Gulch Short Line" spur to City Mine?
| January 01, 2017 07:44PM |
Ah, the railroad in Horse Gulch. Story Time! (Indulge me please!)
The eventual findings after decades of “on a whim” exploration.
The first time I saw a reference about this spur was on a 1907 USGS map. Shortly after moving to Durango, I bought this map at the Durango Magazine store that was on Main Ave. between 11th and 12th streets one day in early 1971 during lunch period. (I spent a lot of lunch money in that place. Maps, models…) Being 15 years old at the time, I was fascinated and the rest of the school day was pretty much unproductive as I was checking out the map! I had been intrigued with all of the spurs in and around Durango and I had discovered, on this (new to me) map, another one I was unaware of… I just had to check it out…
I had seen an old Durango city map that had showed something that looked like a road coming off the south yards (no track was indicated) and the wide section of this ‘road” ROW was obvious and stood out to me. Here is an excerpt from a RR valuation map that shows what I had seen on the city map only with the track in place.
On a weekend hike I started up this road and the first thing that I became aware of was that this road up Horse Gulch was very steep and had very sharp curves. I didn’t understand how a railroad could have gone up there. At the time, and until the late 1980s / early 1990s, the Horse Gulch road was a very rough road (for the first half mile) that went all the way up, over and through to the Florida River. But I had a map that showed railroad grade! At least so I thought…
It then occurred to me that the railroad on the map was not going into the canyon but up the side of the mountain! And there was a “building” at the base of this climb! Was this all a misprint? It must have been because, after all, the coal mine WAS IN Horse Gulch. It took several years and talking to several old timers before it all started coming together. I then found out that the building at the base was the loading tipple and that the railroad going up the hill was actually a tram that brought the coal to the tipple for loading. Maps can be deceiving...
This was known as the Gold King Mine as well as referred to as the City Mine. I had heard of both mines referred to and for a time I didn't realize that they were one and the same. Each old timer referred to them differently. Ah, there were so many things to explore around Durango and so little time...
So how did the product get to the loading tipple from the mine? The tram,of course. Viewing the satellite image it is easy to see. I have attached several images for comparison… The notes that I made are in reference to photos I have taken that are coming up in the final part…
3D satellite image may be helpful.
To be continued...
The eventual findings after decades of “on a whim” exploration.
The first time I saw a reference about this spur was on a 1907 USGS map. Shortly after moving to Durango, I bought this map at the Durango Magazine store that was on Main Ave. between 11th and 12th streets one day in early 1971 during lunch period. (I spent a lot of lunch money in that place. Maps, models…) Being 15 years old at the time, I was fascinated and the rest of the school day was pretty much unproductive as I was checking out the map! I had been intrigued with all of the spurs in and around Durango and I had discovered, on this (new to me) map, another one I was unaware of… I just had to check it out…
I had seen an old Durango city map that had showed something that looked like a road coming off the south yards (no track was indicated) and the wide section of this ‘road” ROW was obvious and stood out to me. Here is an excerpt from a RR valuation map that shows what I had seen on the city map only with the track in place.
On a weekend hike I started up this road and the first thing that I became aware of was that this road up Horse Gulch was very steep and had very sharp curves. I didn’t understand how a railroad could have gone up there. At the time, and until the late 1980s / early 1990s, the Horse Gulch road was a very rough road (for the first half mile) that went all the way up, over and through to the Florida River. But I had a map that showed railroad grade! At least so I thought…
It then occurred to me that the railroad on the map was not going into the canyon but up the side of the mountain! And there was a “building” at the base of this climb! Was this all a misprint? It must have been because, after all, the coal mine WAS IN Horse Gulch. It took several years and talking to several old timers before it all started coming together. I then found out that the building at the base was the loading tipple and that the railroad going up the hill was actually a tram that brought the coal to the tipple for loading. Maps can be deceiving...
This was known as the Gold King Mine as well as referred to as the City Mine. I had heard of both mines referred to and for a time I didn't realize that they were one and the same. Each old timer referred to them differently. Ah, there were so many things to explore around Durango and so little time...
So how did the product get to the loading tipple from the mine? The tram,of course. Viewing the satellite image it is easy to see. I have attached several images for comparison… The notes that I made are in reference to photos I have taken that are coming up in the final part…
3D satellite image may be helpful.
To be continued...
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.