Re: Colorado Trip

Yes, that is one of the original poles. On our last trip in August, I noticed that more of the insulator is missing, probably shot at, though that's not a well travelled area by foot. The insulators were identified by our local electric man as coming from Austria (maybe Germany, I don't recall) and he said they are pretty rare, but not much is left now. Johnnie Martinez says he has located some additional poles, but apparently with no insulators. We have both the location and profile map for this line in our archives. The current line that follows the highway into Silverton came in later, and I think it came in during the late 30s and the canyon line was abandoned. Some of the local electrical history is a bit fuzzy. Silverton had its own municipal power plant, the remains of which disappeared this summer for street construction, and it had a siding to receive coal. It operated for 3 or 4 years, and then the Tacoma line came in with cheaper power and put the town plant out of operation. The brick structure stood until after WWII, and the foundations were there until this summer.