Re: Does anyone have information on the D&RG tracks at Crested Butte?

mhutson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here's a few shots of how the museum layout came
> out.
> [attachment 93043 IMG_3595.jpg]
> [attachment 93044 IMG_3596.jpg]
> [attachment 93045 IMG_3597.jpg]
>
> Cheers,
> Matt

Is that some sort of fire engine in front of the 1818 Town Hall and Fire Station? I cannot tell from looking at the photo, I only know that in June, 1971, the only fire suppression equipment in the so-called Crested Butte Fire Department were two hand-drawn hose carts and one hand-drawn ladder cart, a situation that led me, over a twenty-seven month period, to organize the Crested Butte Fire Protection District to replace the Town of Crested Butte Fire Department, which I equipped, trained, and led as its first volunteer fire chief and subsequently its first career fire chief.

The early town records were kept in Serbo-Croation, and a son of one of the retired minors kindly looked in those records to see if he could find any information about the purchase of the carts. Based on that, I have assumed that they were provided by Colorado Iron and Steel, when it created the town and among other of their buildings was the Town Hall and Fire Station.

As a personal aside, my finding the carts at the scene of a shed fire led me to a totally unanticipated change my life, becoming quite involved in the fire service, starting two departments and starting and leading a ten-year-long project to adapt and introduce to the structural fire service a new technology of fire suppression, one developed by the US Federal Wildland Fire Community. I wrote articles at length, one book, one training manual, taught seminars on various fire subjects, etc. Quite a change from where I started after graduating from college, teaching and coaching at college preparatory schools.

Finally, back to the narrow gauge, I rode the first-ever public trip on the C&T Scenic. Some of you may remember John Pritchard, one of the group that fought to save what is now the Route of the CATS. In one of life's odd twists, I met John a number of years after than wonderful train trip, and I eventually appointed him as my Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) training officer for my second fire department, El Dorado Fire & Rescue Service, Santa Fe County, New Mexico. John was a specialist in industrial respiratory safety; all I had to do was to train him in fire department use of SCBA before he joined the fire department and relieved me of one of my training responsibilities.