Spring-has-sprung rest day
Plus the Ouray-Ironton Electric Railway
I am exhausted from trying to keep up with all the BS emanating from the White House these days, and besides, it’s the first day of spring, so I’m going to use this as a catchup day for me and for all of you. Next week the Land Desk will be back to analyze as many of the happenings as I can stomach (metaphorically), and hopefully I’ll also have time for some totally non-Trump-related content.
In the meantime, I’m going to leave you with this cool map that Richard Crabtree posted on one of the local history pages on Facebook not long ago.
Apparently someone proposed building an electric railway from Ouray, Colorado, to Ironton back in the early 1890s. At the time, the Silverton Northern Railroad came from Silverton, over Red Mountain Pass, to the mining town of Ironton. And the Denver and Rio Grande Western RR came up from Ridgway to Ouray. But there was a missing link through the Uncompahgre River Gorge, where the only transport was via Otto Mears’ toll road.
So someone thought it would make sense to fill the missing link by building an electric railway through the gorge. I’m guessing it would have to be electric, because a coal locomotive couldn’t make it up the steep grades (Railroad folks, please correct me if I’m wrong). I couldn’t find much more information out about it (if you know anything, don’t be shy!). The craziest part might be how they planned on climbing out of Ouray, seen in this section:
After that it appears to more or less follow the toll road. Anyway, it never got built, unfortunately. Though if it had, it probably would have been blocked by avalanches quite frequently.
Believe me, you are not the only one who is stressed out! Have a great break!
Thank you for "trying to keep up with all the BS emanating from the White House" ... it's so important.