Re: End of an era - Grizzly Flats scrapped

I had the great pleasure to know Ward for almost 15 years. We had a great deal in common as back in the 1930s the locomotive that he first tried to acquire was Eureka when it was up at Hobart Estate near Lake Tahoe. When he saw Eureka fully restored to operation and in its late 1870s configuration at Railfest 91 he was greatly pleased. As I recall, the TODAY show did an interview of him in front of Eureka.
Ward invited me to visit with him at his home well before he donated the Nevada Central #2 to the Orange Empire Museum. I could not believe how much he had collected and done. On top of that in his whimsical fashion, he had "Steam Man" in the back of his engine house overseeing all.
Of those of us backyard amateurs that have been nuts enough to restore a locomotive at our homes, I have always admired what Ward did. He was the first that I know of to to it and in so doing preserved a wonderful piece of American Rail History for posterity. It is sad to see the Grizzly Flats go into the sunset and disappear to where the sound of the whistle and the rush of steam from the engine will only be a fond memory.