Hello everyone,
This semester I am taking a class on the history of tourism in the United States. We were able to choose our subject, I have chosen the Silverton branch. It is likely that some of the work for this paper will end up on my thesis which I am still formulating.
What I was hoping for from some of the older fellers are memories of the area and the train during the 1940s-1970s. You need not be able to remember the whole thirty years, just memories you have of the place at any point in that time period, as well as the ways you saw the train and the region promoted, etc.
Below I have listed some of the questions I will be posing in the paper.
1. Why did ridership increase so dramatically between 1940 and 1970?
2. What did the D&RGW and the communities of Durango and Silverton do, and not do to promote the tourism in the area.
3. What made this segment of the railroad more unique than other railroads in the region and nation?
4. How the D&RGW and the local communities framed the experience of a visit to the area and ride on the train for the tourist.
5. What the D&RGW and the cities of Durango and Silverton did to alter the appearance of the tourist's experience as the ride became well known.
6. What cultural experience the riders of the train were seeking, and what experiences the train and the surrounding region offered.
7. How the area and train were framed for the tourist.
If any of you have anything you think I might be missing, please feel free to let me know. My paper is due the first week of May so the sooner I can get your responses the better. Feel free to email me directly, or if you wish post it on this thread. If you do not wish to be listed as a source please let me know.
Thanks a lot.
Josh McNeal
Below are some sources I plan on using, I have found more primary sources from the NY Times and other periodicals that I did not list.
Beebe, Lucius and Clegg, Charles. Narrow Gauge in the Rockies. (San Diego, CA: Howell North Books, 1958).
Center of Southwest Studies, Nomad Private Railroad Car Scrapbook Album
Histories and Images: 1899-1957. [swcenter.fortlewis.edu]
“Steam Still Has a Day,” Business Week Magazine. August 22, 1964, 60-62.
Crouch, David (ed.) Leisure/Tourism Geographies: Practices and Geographical Knowledge. (New York: Routledge, 1999).
Crum, Josie Moore. The Rio Grande Southern Story. (Durango, CO: Railroadiana, 1957).
Dorman, Richard L. Durango: Always a Railroad Town. (Santa Fe, NM: R.D. Publications, Inc., 1987).
“Return to Yesterday,” The American Home. July 1960, 10-13, 54-55.
MacCannell, Dean. The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. (New York: Schocken Books, 1976)
“Behind Steam to Silverton,” Sunset. June 1963, 34-36.
Osterwald, Doris B. Cinders and Smoke: A Mile by Mile guide for the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. (Hugo, CO: Western Guideways Ltd., 2001).
Richardson, Robert W. Robert W. Richardson's Narrow Gauge News: June 1949-February 1958. (Golden, CO: Colorado Railroad Museum, 1994.)
Wood, Stanley. Over the Range to the Golden Gate: A Complete Tourist’s Guide to Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Puget Sound, and the Great Northwest. (Chicago: R.R. Donnelley and Sons Co., Publishers, 1908).