The Goose in Telluride is owned by the Telluride Volunteer Fire Department. They maintain it as a civic responsibility. It sits on the grounds of the county courthouse. The county is looking at that site for possible underground expansion of the courthouse. A space and utilization study of the courthouse is presently underway. Phase I of a restoration of the courthouse is about to start, as soon as I have a contract to sign.
There are several discussions taking place on what may happen to the Goose, but it is not leaving San Miguel county as far as I know. There is a new county historical group that has formed, and their first area of concern has been the stabilization of the San Bernardo mill building, South of Ophir, with the hope of acquiring that structure. With that site is a fair chunck of RGS main line, adjacent to the highway. I picture ties, rails, and an operating Goose at that location. Presently, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has contracted with us to do initial structural stabilization of that structure, and we are about half way complete on that work.
The Telluride station is not in its original location. It was moved somewhat to the South when it was rebuilt into a restaurant. Telluride has a very strong and restrictive historic preservation ordinance as otherwise that structure would have been razed. Several warehouse structures further East of the station are still there, one being home to the Daily Planet newspaper, and the other is Smugglers restaurant. Further East is the Idarado mill complex, still standing, and armed with a Sundance book, the place comes alive, and it is a spectacular location, under the Bridal Veil hydro plant, still in operation producing electricty. Pacific Avenue in Telluride is the former right-of-way into town, from there, it goes through the valley floor where the right-of-way has been used to carry Telluride's main sewer line to the sewer plant at Society Turn. This line was the subject of a hot lawsuit 2 or 3 years ago between the town and the owners of the valley floor, with the town claiming ownership, but they lost.
Any of our towns hold much more to discover than what I generally see posted here. We often get dismissed as being a "ski" town or just another "tourist" town. Sometimes we just don't want to share all our little known places, structures, etc with you flatlanders. Also, at the Ophir turnoff, to take the dirt valley road to Illium and Vance Junction, is the Ames Station powerplant--well worth a visit. All of that structure's power generating equipment (Pelton waterwheel and generator) came in on the RGS and was lowered down to that site from the railroad above. Pictures of all that are in the L.L. Nunn collection at Cornell University, including construction photos of the stone building housing the still operating equipment. This is the site of the first commercially generated AC electricty in the world. Waste water from Ames was taken by flume down valley to the Illium plant, where a second generating station was located. That plant was destroyed (and later rebuilt)in the 1909 (?) flood that occurred when one of the dams on the upper two reservoirs above Trout Lake gave way, took out the Trout Lake dam, and caused havoc all down the San Miguel valley, including taking out large portions of the RGS line. Again, there is a whole series of pictures of this at Cornell, and I don't think any of them have been published. I spent 3 1/2 days going through a small portion of the Nunn collection last June--it was an eye opener of an experience. We are also restoring Nunn's office building in Telluride. Something else to see if you know what you're looking at.
