Re: "We've pulled the ralls as far as Chamita"

DakotaRed Wrote:
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> "WE PULLED 41 miles of rails --
> for the Burma Road" explained
> Blair Shoemaker of Santa Fe yes-
> terday, as he looked tired: He rest-
> ed for a shoe shine and a smoke.
> He is with the D&RG accounting
> department; has office in an ex-
> press car, narrow gauge, on a sid-
> ing. No trains pass Mr. Shoemaker
> as he toils with pen and long col-
> ums of figures: "We've pulled the
> ralls as far as Chamita" he con-
> tinues, “with hard work since Oc-
> tober 6 th, eight days out for rains,
> Got 83 and one-half miles to go:
> job to be done by March first, next
> year—the dead line.' Mr. Shoe-
> maker says the rails are loaded on-
> to cars and sent to Denver, from
> there they are shipped to San Fran-
> clsco, en route to China. The ties
> will be used for bridges—new ones.
> The right of way will be given
> back to original owners — pueblos
> and land grants. The Denver and
> Rio Grande, narrow gauge, will
> soon be a memory — it will pass
> into history with the high wheeled
> bicycle, and the hoop-skirt; with
> the buffalo robe and the sleigh.
>
> Source: Santa Fe New Mexican, December 7th, 1941

Little did Mr. Shoemaker know that the Denver and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge would continue until 1981, when the Durango and Silverton took over the last operating D&RGW owned operations. Also that the parts of the NG that were not torn up would preserved, cherished and highly valued by many people long after the D&RGW abandoned or sold them.

I also find the date on the article very interesting. A quite significant event in US history happened on that date.