Another thing I noticed is that the overlay does not seem to line up with the streets and property on the Bing image of the town. The overlay seems shifted to the north. This is particularly noticeable when map view is selected rather than the satellite view. I've been trying to figure out how to measure points on the various maps and satellite views, but I'm not there yet. I am able to measure things easily in Google Earth. It's the rest I am weak on. Although I'd like to think the mystery circle on the ground is the turntable pit, I'm willing to believe that it is not. However, I would still like to know what it is. For instance, my recollection of the area from the 1970s is that it was quite marshy. I could see a big puddle leaving a lasting impression on today's vegetation even though it seems to be well drained today and was probably drained in RGS days.
I'm a glutton for punishment, so I wasted a lot of time today trying to figure things out. Using the map of Ridgway on page 72 of the RGS Story, Vol. 1 (it has a scale) and the Google Earth image of modern Ridgway, I came up with the following:
From the center of Sherman Street to what I guess is the center of the mystery circle is about 408 ft. on Google Earth.
From the center of Sherman Street to the center of the turntable on the map is about in RGS Story 380 ft.
If I measured the RGS Story map correctly and it was scaled correctly, adding another 25 ft. (radius of turntable) would put the outer edge of the turntable at about where I think the center of the mystery circle is located at least for its position north and south.
From the center of Lena Street to what I guess is the center of the mystery circle is about 295 ft.
From the center of Lena Street to the center of the turntable on the map in RGS Story is about 260 ft.
If I measured the RGS Story map correctly and it was scaled correctly, that would put the turntable as drawn about 15 ft. closer to Lena Street than the mystery circle. That is the wrong way!
From the gravel road I believe to be the D&RGW main line to the center of the mystery circle measured about 170 ft.
From the D&RGW main drawn on the map in the RGS Story to the center of the turntable measured about 210 ft. Once again that put the turntable on the map closer to Lena than is the mystery circle with a difference of 20 ft. Considering my crude measuring, that is close enough to 15 ft.
To check myself, I measured from the gravel road I believe to be the D&RGW mainline to the center of Lena Street with the line going due east through about the center of the mystery circle. I measured about 466 ft.
Then I measured from the center of Lena Street to the D&RGW main through the center of the turntable as drawn on the RGS Story map and I got about 465 ft. That indicated that the map and Google Earth were not significantly off.
As a double check, I added the distances from Lena to the center of the turntable and from the center of the turntable to the D&RGW main on the RGS Story map and got 470 ft. I did the same with the Google Earth measurements and got 465 ft. Close enough for me.
I'm not sure what all this proves since neither one agreed with the overlay map, which I have yet to figure out how to measure. I'd like to get a good copy of that map with an accurate scale.
Regardless, I see another trip to Ridgway in my future.
