Re: A few pix from the distant past

Earl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The track extended past Gradens mill to a couple
> of more industries. There was a lumber yard/mill
> down there where the Holiday Inn now sits. Just
> south of the lumber yard was a loading ramp where
> King Coal loaded drop bottom gons. This coal was
> used in the Durango and Chama coal chutes as well
> as the power plant is Alamosa.

There are a couple of aerial photos of Durango in that era here: [www.durango-thenandnow.com]



Photo above is linked from that site, and the caption says 1961.

In the linked photo, the Graden Mill is just above the bridge crossing the river. North of the Mill, the track seems to be close to the river, and I believe the lumber mill is where the very 'long' buillding is.

There is a second photo at that same site that is captioned 1956, and is a bit sharper, but missed the Graden Mill. Still, it has more details of the lumber mill. Here is an enlarged snippet:



At the north end of the 'long' building is a dark triangle that looks like a wigwam style slash burner that was often seen at lumber mills of that era. This snippet also has a better view of where the tracks to the mill are.


Also, there is an earlier thread here: [ngdiscussion.net]

... that has an earlier photo of the area (apparently pre-1940):


... image is linked from the NGDF thread.

That thread is worth reading, but note its from 2011 and at least one of the photo links is now dead.

.

- Graham



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2024 06:52PM by Rader Sidetrack.