Like gardening, or gold mining, at one time

 

Six men are gathered on the front deck of the The Crusher, the first newspaper in Fremont (Cripple Creek, Teller County), Colorado. Oakley Spell, a young boy, holds a bundle of newspapers under his arm; a sign on the log building reads: "The Crusher." The Crusher was the Teller County ancestor of the following three papers I managed at the time: Ute Pass Courier in Woodland Park, the Gold Rush in Cripple Creek and the Extra in Teller County, all ASP Westward LP weeklies in Colorado.
 Date: 1891 W. H. Jackson sample album. Colorado Book IV. no. 33
Creator: Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942. 

Watching your garden,
and newspaper, grow

From September 2006 editon of Newspapers & Technology
By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com 

Managing newspapers is like managing a garden.
You really can’t make things grow; you can only try to establish and maintain conditions that help the various plants take off and hopefully produce.
You need to watch where you position specific varieties in your pre-planning or the pumpkins will cross with the squash, and the corn will block the sun that the beans need.
Likewise, with a newspaper, you don’t want your TMC shopper choking the main news product to death.
Not too long ago, a publisher could simply scratch a shallow hole in the dirt, drop some seed money into it, make sure it received plenty of water and maybe spread a little manure over it now and then.

With a little hard work and luck, that same publisher would be able to reap a substantial harvest. Today, with all the new fertilizers and other technology flying around, making the right choices to grow a newspaper is that much more complicated.

Free versus paid
Take, for example, the “free versus paid” discussion, which is somewhat akin to “volunteer” seeding versus planting.
Because of churn ratios and other factors relating to the cost of circulation sales, some metro dailies are now paying more to maintain paid circulation than it would cost them to give everyone in a market a free paper. And they are losing the war as paid circulation continues to lose ground.
At the same time, readers, and more importantly, advertisers, are becoming less impressed with paid circulation, especially when some of the best things in life now are free.
In the words of Craig McMullin, executive director for the Association of Free Community Papers, “Give people something they need free and create an audience and the advertisers will pay the freight.”
But that is not the complete answer for newspapers.
Our competitors have also figured that out. The business models of Craigslist, Google and to some extent, eBay, all are based on the same principle.

Redefining roles
Additionally, even as newspapers redefine their marketing, the role of journalism itself is being recrafted.
Dan Gillmor’s recent book, “We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People,” explores that possibility.
“Technology has given us the communications toolkit that allows anyone to become a journalist at little cost... Nothing like this has ever been remotely possible before.” Gillmor wrote.
To Gillmor, news is no longer a lecture in which the media tells you what the news is. Instead, it’s a conversation, with blurred lines between producers and consumers of that news.

Embracing change
Gillmor’s suggestion: Media needs to embrace those changes by encouraging readers to become a big part of the process. Facilitate event blogs that let readers contribute and become a part of the coverage, he says. Ask for and post readers’ information, pictures and audio so they become extensions of limited staffs and resources.
Today, a person with a cell phone or other digital device might be able to produce the photos or audio clips nearly as easy as the major players in the news business.
The bright spot? The news industry’s traditional weeding function will help it survive.
After all, with all the citizen reporting and info gathering taking place in the democratization of the news, it’s more necessary than ever for a good editor to take the hoe to those pesky mistakes, misinformation, hoaxes, spin doctoring and other weeds that can render the garden plot useless.

At the time of this writing, Rob Carrigan specialized in prepress systems for weekly newspapers. He was the publisher of the Ute Pass Courier in Woodland Park, the Gold Rush in Cripple Creek and the Extra in Teller County, all ASP Westward LP weeklies in Colorado. He can be reached by e-mail at robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Love paper business so much, couldn't make the change

Newspapers in the information business?

This post first appeared in Newspapers & Technology in January, 2007.

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

I don’t know how many times in the last year I’ve heard someone with their feet mired in the traditional ink-on-paper newspaper business try to argue that he is really in the information business.

Some of those characters even believe it. But the cement around their ankles and thought processes keeps them slogging away with the old models and methods while the world changes quickly around them.

Tim McGuire, editor and senior vice president of the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune, is quoted on the subject in “The Art of Leadership in News Organizations” by Shelby Coffey III.

“Many people have heard the old story about railroads and how they should have realized they were in the transportation business in the same way newspapers ought to realize they are in the information business,” according to McGuire. “I heard someone else say a few years ago that in fact the railroad people knew they needed to be in the transportation business. They just loved the railroads so much they couldn’t make the change. There is a lot of that in our business.” Indeed there is.

Under attack

From adapted news cycles, changing views in objective journalism, and generally trying to come up with new ways of paying the bills, traditional newspapers quite correctly feel like the business is under attack.

And what is the natural reaction when under attack? Usually, hunker down in a hole and keep your head down. But if it doesn’t look like that is going to work, maybe it is time to try a counter-attack, or, alternatively, come out of the hole with all guns blazing.

In a world of instant feedback and precise, automated ad targeting — a lot of us waited far too long before coming out of that hole with guns blazing.

It is a bit like the scene in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” where the whole Bolivian army is waiting.

“The losers are likely to be those companies that try to make money by pouring old-media wine into the new Web bottles,” notes Business 2.0 magazine in its March edition. “The winners will be the players that invent new ways to tap into what the Web brings to the party; instant feedback, instant analysis, and the collective wisdom of a billion users.”

Advertisers and the agencies that represent them have become much more savvy in finding out what works and what doesn’t — in a very short amount of time — and they vote with their wallets.

We have gone way past the days when someone could say, “Half of my advertising works like a charm and half does me absolutely no good, but the trouble is, I’m not sure which half is which.”

For example, ad agency Ogilvy & Mather now uses a software optimizer that runs 5,000 to 10,000 calculations every time it evaluates how well an ad campaign is working.

Dynamic results

With that data, the agency is able to pull non-performing ads right away or adapt the campaigns on the fly. And some advertising vendors on the Web have gone to a pay-for-performance program in which publishers only get paid for advertising if it sells product or creates verifiable results in the form of leads or an order.

Imagine if newspapers went to such a system.

The unfortunate truth of the matter is that newspapers, with a few exceptions, don’t even do a very good job of keeping track of their own vast stores of information, much less data tracking readers and how they use the information provided.

For that reason, I think a lot of the rhetoric about being in the information business is perhaps just wishful thinking.

###

Who is a journalist?

Type from the Hell Box in lockup.

“The liberty of the press is most generally approved when it takes liberties with the other fellow, and leaves us alone.” — Edgar Watson Howe, 1911.

Just because you can type, 

it doesn't mean you are journalist

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

This article first appeared in the May 2007 edition of "Newspapers & Technology." Having spent nearly 40 years in the 'legitimate press,' I currently blog at https://coloradopresslessnative.blogspot.com and http://coloradorestlessnative.blogspot.com.

We are all "the Press," and always have been.

 Who qualifies as “press”? The proliferation of blogs and other new technology is forcing journalists and professional associations to hammer out new ways of defining who’s eligible for press credentials. Consider what’s happened in Washington, D.C., where the Capitol Correspondent’s Association recently rewrote its rules governing who can sit in congressional press galleries.

The rules are strict, requiring applicants to prove that they are a full-time, paid correspondent who requires “on-site access to congressional members and staff.”

In addition, applicants must be employed by a periodical that can qualify under General Publication mailing privileges under U.S. Postal Service rules and publishes daily, or employed by an organization that disseminates original news and opinion and has been publishing continuously for at least 18 months.

Leaves us out, but …

 That sort of leaves out us poor, pitiful weekly newspaper folk, but, hey, who wants to listen to Congress all day anyway.
The organization goes on to exclude anybody who does not live in the Washington area and firmly disallows any lobbying, paid advocacy, advertising, publicity or promotion work.

Yet the advent of blogging and digital punditry has transformed the business. Anybody with a computer and access to a Web site can call himself a member of the press. But merely evoking the term, much like wishing for a winning lottery ticket, doesn’t necessarily make it so.

I write about this because of my role on the board of the Colorado Press Association, which has been asked to consider issuing stricter guidelines about who can obtain press credentials.

Main concern

 The main fear many have, I believe, is that by somehow posing as “legitimate press,” bloggers could further damage our already shaky reputations. But maybe some of the MSM’s reluctance is that it wants to remain exclusive and thus not admit any new members. After all, what we do is so important it forced the nation’s forefathers to make the first make-good to nothing less than the U.S. Constitution.

Bloggers, of course, have an association of their own (at least one) and they continue to flex their collective muscles as well.

Most recently, the Media Bloggers Association, a 1,000-member organization working to extend powers of the press to bloggers, was able to secure access for two blogger seats in the 100 seats reserved for media in the “Scooter” Libby trial.

 Blogging status

 Additionally, another blogger, Garrett M. Graff, became the first blogger to be granted a daily White House pass for the specific purpose of writing a Web log in early 2005, according to The New York Times.
In Graff’s case, his quest for White House press credentials was actually helped by members of the White House Correspondents Association.
In ensuring the invitation to Graff, the WHCA wanted to make sure it alone was responsible for redrafting the rules defining a legitimate journalist, according to The Times.

I think that point is well taken. It is up to journalists to define for themselves what is proper and correct in the context of associations and organizations offering professional credentials. But it is probably up to the public to determine whether those credentials mean anything in the future.

###

Mountain-based newspapers face unique challenges

 Former Colorado Governor Ralph Carr and internationally-known newsman Lowell Thomas started their careers at mountain newspapers in Teller County.

Hillbilly newspapering tricks from the high country

From March 2001 edition of Newspapers & Technology, a nationally-distributed trade journal. At the time, I specialized in pre-press systems for weekly newspapers and was the publisher of the Ute Pass Courier in Woodland Park, the Gold Rush in Cripple Creek, and the Pikes Peak Journal in Manitou Springs, all Westward Communications Inc. weeklies in Colorado.

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com 

In an effort to put information together on the technology challenges of operating in the mountains, I went through my e-mail contacts and asked for tips, tricks and any interesting stories about the subject. Following are some of the more colorful responses I received.

“All the time we owned newspapers in Alaska, not once did we have to use sled dogs to get copy to the printer. Hard to believe, isn’t it?” wrote Mike Lindsey of Media Consultants Inc. Lindsey is my former employer and one-time owner of papers in Wyoming, Alaska, Idaho and Arizona. “We had one of the most modern newspapers in the state — all state-of-the-art, Macintosh-driven, Photoshop, etc. We even had the capability to modem our paper to the printer.

“Alaska is an extremely progressive state, and we found our employees very capable and willing to learn new technology. Several of our longtime employees were natives and our best workers. Our biggest problem was with employees — people from the lower 48 (states) who wanted an Alaska experience, but headed home after the first cold and dark winter. 

"Some employees were late in the winter because frequently a moose would be in their driveway, and they couldn’t get to their car. And in the summer and during hunting season, we had a high degree of absenteeism — when the salmon are running, workers want to fish, and during the fall, workers want to hunt. It made for a very flexible staff,” Lindsey said. “Sorry, I can’t help you with the equipment. We did send our photographers out on float planes, dogsleds and snow machines to get stories. Advertising reps hit the streets pretty much as all reps do.” 

Suzy Meyer, the editor and general manager at the Cortez (Colo.) Journal, had this warning for me:
“Our hillbilly tip is to never discard old technology, because one never knows when the new technology will fail. We still have Linotypes stashed away. Yes, we’d have to pull a page proof, shoot it and go to plate, but hey, we could get words on a page,” she said. 

Also responding from the other end of the Centennial state was Robin Kepple, editor of the Bailey and Fairplay Flume. 

“We serve all of Park County, which is difficult because the county is quite large,” Kepple said. “It is about 90 miles from my office to the town of Guffey, Colo. Fortunately, I have a good correspondent in that town. Our county seat, where many of our stories take place, is 40 miles away in Fairplay. I keep a reporter there full time.

“Digital cameras, laptop computers and e-mail have been a godsend for us with such a long distance between towns. However, we only have a 56k modem and no high-speed Internet access. It sometimes takes 30 minutes to download digital images from e-mail, but that is still faster than driving to other towns, picking up film, driving back and processing film,” he stated.

“The slow Internet speed also causes frustration when we are trying to send our pages to the print shop in Salida, Colo., about 100 miles away. We send the files as PDFs in order to work with their new imagesetter. Occasionally, we have technical problems that cause us a lot of grief; however, as any good newspaper staff should, we persevere and still manage to get the paper out.”
Robert Gibson, interactive media manager at billingsgazette.com, the Web site for the Billings (Mont.) Gazette, noted the following phenomenon: “In eastern Montana, people are sparse with dozens of miles between houses and ranches. Those ranches, however, are small businesses that need accountants and [others] to operate. Ranchers, farmers and their accountants have found that keeping records on a computer is far easier than in a shoebox,” Gibson explained.

 “As a result, and contrary to conventional wisdom, farms and ranches are well-wired with nearly twice the computer penetration as in town. And once they discover computers and the Internet, they discover e-mail, real-time commodity futures, real-time weather and entertainment in places where TV cable does not exist.

“The telephone co-op in eastern Montana discovered the same phenomenon and made itself an Internet service provider. A call to the server is local from any place on the co-op phone network, so there is no long distance charge for dial-up Internet service, even though the nearest server may be five counties away,” Gibson said.

“Simply recognizing that unlikely agricultural demographic’s potential prompted us to do some soft marketing to them and target them with some daily breaking news copy. Today they are a significant, fast-growing part of our online audience.” 

And back in Colorado, near my boyhood stomping grounds, David Mullings, the publisher of the Ouray County Plaindealer, The Ridgway Sun, The Silverton Standard and The Miner offers the following anecdotes:
“Because of an uncooperative printer who was extraordinarily proud of his work (read: charging double), we used to print the Ridgway and Ouray newspapers in Denver — yes, 300 miles, each way, every week. We did this by flying our flats from Montrose, Colo., on a commuter flight [every Wednesday at 1 p.m.].

 “The folks at Intermountain Color picked them up at the airport, which when DIA was built, meant going halfway to Kansas. They printed Wednesday evening and shipped it on a Denver Post truck at midnight. We picked up papers in Montrose at 8 a.m. on Thursday. I got to watching the snowfall levels on Vail Pass pretty closely and had to rummage around some trucking warehouses a couple of times to find that week’s news,” he writes.
The papers are now printed at the Montrose Daily Press. Mullings also deals with problems only a few miles away, but on the other side of the world.

 “I took over the Silverton Standard and The Miner last June. It’s two mountain passes to our printer, the Durango Herald, and we take the paper on a Zip disc in digital form.

 “My idea: Send it down over the phone lines. But then how to get it back? The rails of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad run right by the Herald loading dock, and they run three trains in the summer. [My idea was to] send the paper down via a 21st century vehicle, and get it back with one from the 19th century. I never put the brainstorm into action because of slow phone lines in Silverton, and we’re switching Silverton to print in Montrose in 2001.

“The Silverton paper, right now, goes over three of the meanest (mountain) passes in America to get from our printer in Durango to our mailroom in Ouray. That stretch of Highway 550 is the most avalanche-prone in the country, and we’ll no doubt have some fun this winter. We are letting the Lake City paper be the guinea pig with the Montrose Daily Press in transmitting PDF files via phone line, but plan to ship all three that way,” Mullings said.

 ###

Some of the last RGS trains became movie stars

Rio Grande Southern narrow gauge caboose number 0409. 

Creator: Richardson, Robert W. 

Date:1951. Three-quarter, close view; re-lettered for movie "Ticket to Tomahawk." Photographed: Rico, Colorado, November 17, 1951. 

Rico movie shoot, some of 1950s last trains

Friday, November 30, 1951
dispatch from Hart Lee to Dolores Star (best of Hart's Stuff from Rico, 1968)

"Monday morning we went down to the depot to see the last train pull out for Ridgway. Old 461 hooked to the drag flanger and a couple of cabooses made up the train. The crew was J.C. Phillips, H. Walford, Jimmie Cooper and Alvin Talbert. The last train south will be sometime this week to pick up what empties that are in the yard, then after that — well the old girl died a natural death, so far as we know. The first transportation we had back 1869 was foot and horseback, then the bull teams and stage coaches. Then in 1881 we had old Puffen Jennie, not it's cars and trucks. Be a heck of a note if we finally get back to bull teams again, but it could happen."

Friday, December 7, 1951

dispatch from Hart Lee to Dolores Star (best of Hart's Stuff from Rico, 1968)

"We've been talking about the last train going to leave the old burg for the last three weeks, well it happened last Thursday when old No. 20, coupled to thirty-three empties pulled out of the the yards at 12:10 p.m. for Dolores. The crew was Geo. McLean, Lee Lynton, Mike Smith, and Go. Thomas. "

Click on photos to view slightly larger

Rio Grande Southern narrow gauge caboose number 0409
Creator(s) : Richardson, Robert W.
Summary: Three-quarter, close view; relettered for movie "Ticket to Tomahawk." Photographed: Rico, Colorado, November 17, 1951.
Notes: Title from inventory prepared by Western History Department, Denver Public Library.; R7004007818
Physical Description 1 photonegative ; 7 x 11 cm. (2 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.)
Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library.

Rio Grande Southern narrow gauge locomotive, engine number 20, engine type 4-6-0
Creator(s): Richardson, Robert W.
Summary Distant head on view, at station. Photographed: Rico, Colorado, May 23, 1951.
Notes: Title from inventory prepared by Western History Department, Denver Public Library.; R7004000109
Physical Description: 1 photonegative ; 7 x 11 cm. (2 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.)
Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library.

Rio Grande Southern narrow gauge locomotive, engine number 20, engine type 4-6-0
Creator(s): Richardson, Robert W.
Summary Left side view of engine; 2-car freight train. Photographed: between Rico and Montelores, Colorado, May 23, 1951.
Notes: Title from inventory prepared by Western History Department, Denver Public Library.; R7004001692
Physical Description 1 photonegative ; 7 x 11 cm. (2 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.)
Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library.

"A crowd draws a crowd."

Thing of the past ...

Rocky Mt. News composing room typesetting linotype machines

Title: History Colorado, Buckwalter collection ; no. 1055

Creator: Buckwalter, Harry H. 

Men work at at linotype machines in the composing room of the Rocky Mountain News newspaper building in Denver, Colorado. A supervisor looks on. Date: [between 1890 and 1910?] History Colorado

 

Crowd sourcing and journalism

Note: This article first appeared in the trade publication Newspapers and Technology in mid-2007.

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

 

A reporter working for a local newspaper asked me recently if it was Ok to quote Wikipedia as a source. It depends on context I thought, but realized that if they did, they really needed to attribute many sources. The online encyclopedia is developed by contributor input.

 James Surowiecki’s  ‘wisdom of crowds’, or as Howard Rheingold noted in “Smart Mobs: The Next Revolution,” is an emerging trend for group behavior based on new technologies like the Internet, wireless devices, PDAs and digital phones. It holds that the network-connected group behaves intelligently and/or in an efficient manner because of the network.

The new buzz in journalism, as a result, is crowd sourcing, citizen journalism and transfer of power to the blogosphere for hyper local news.

But is that happening because the bloggers are doing a better job than traditional journalist?

Tish Grier, writing to me about a recent column I wrote on who qualifies as a journalist, says people are not necessarily looking for news reports from bloggers.

“I don't know where folks in the press get the impression that bloggers are reporting the news--or that bloggers ‘want’ to report the news.  Actually, I think this is something that's been hyped by folks like Jeff Jarvis and other insider/media pundit types.  It's the same way that there's a boatload of hype that ‘people’ are ‘clamoring’ for citizen journalism (not really, they'd just like their local papers to do a better job, but if somebody else gives them a better product, they'll take it).”

Grier blogs for Constant Observer and Assignment Zero. Assignment Zero is an attempt to bring journalists and the public together in the fashion of the open-source movement of software development. NewAssignment.Net, Wired and other participants are collaborating on the project.

“Seriously, when it comes down to it, it's really insiders in journalism who are trying to upset journalism's applecart--not ‘bloggers’ or ‘people’ or ‘citizen journalists.’  When most bloggers get press creds, we're simply writing our impressions of a scene, not doing hard and fast reporting. We know that, our readers know that--the only people who don't know that are the press. If most of us wanted to be reporters, we'd become journalists (however that's accomplished--there seems to be conflicting schools of thought on that one.)”

Jay Rosen, who is executive editor of Assignment Zero, says we should take advantage of the possibilities provided for us by the new technology.

“An outstanding fact of the Net era is that costs for people to find each other, share information, and work together are falling rapidly. This should have consequences for reporting big, moving stories where the truth is distributed around. By pooling their intelligence and dividing up the work, a network of journalists and volunteer users should be able to find out things that the larger public needs to know,” he wrote in a letter to participants of Assignment Zero.

Grier, however, holds that it is really two different things.

“It will never cease to amaze me how the press can't seem to get with the concept that most blogs--and most bloggers--are having conversations, not reporting.  We put stuff out there to get people to talk ‘to’ us or ‘about’ what we said.  It's not about reporting at all.  And maybe if we get credentialed to go into the hallowed halls of Congress--well, maybe it's to provide a little bit of fly-on-the-wall observation and transparency to the whole process.”

Yes, and maybe the whole process can stand to be more open and subject to the give and take of what news consumers want. I think we are likely to find that out.

###

 

Burns Canyon slide (near the end of RGS)

Thing of the past ...

Denver & Rio Grande Western train (Narrow Gauge), engine number 464, engine type 2-8-2

Creator: Perry, Otto, 1894-1970

Date:1945

Freight, southbound, Burns Canyon, on the Rio Grande Southern; 27 cars. Photographed: near Rico, Colo., June 26, 1945.

Physical Description: 1 photonegative ; 9 x 14 cm; 1 photo print (postcard) : silver gelatin, black and white ; 8 x 13 cm

Born-Digital or Analog: Analog

Subject: Locomotives Railroads--Trains--Pictorial works--1945 Narrow gauge railroads Railroad locomotives--Colorado--Rico Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway Company Railroads, Narrow-gauge 

Related Material: Image File: ZZR700008123

Type of Material: Film photo negatives Photographic postcards Silver gelatin photoprints 

Original Material Found in Collection: Otto C. Perry memorial collection of railroad photographs

Notes: Title from catalog prepared by Western History Department, Denver Public Library. R7000081234

Denver Public Library Special Collection

 

 Slide just above Rico hastens the end of RGS

 

 By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

 

I always had a lot of respect for slides after seeing a little one in Burns Canyon (also near Rico) run one time, and witnessing the damage that a slide was capable in several locations on the Upper Dolores.
But avalanche caution was sort of institutionalized in San Juans. It definitely helped hasten the end of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad.

 

Burns Canyon, located just north of Rico, Colorado, was a narrow, steep, and treacherous section of the Rio Grande Southern (RGS) railroad, roughly near milepost 63-64. It featured rocky cliffs, a tight S-curve along the Dolores River, and shared a precarious ledge with the highway. It was known as a significant snow slide area for operations.

Click on photos to view larger.

#1) Rio Grande Southern Railroad track removal near Burns Canyon
(above Dolores, Colo.
Date:1952
Notes:Near Mile Post 63. A crew apparently is working on removing the first section of track at the lowest washout of track above Dolores when the Rio Grande Southern was being abandoned and scrapped.

# 2) Rio Grande Southern Railroad tracks covered by snow near Burns Canyon Date/circa: 1950/1951Photographer:Chione, Alfred G. (Morton, Ill.)Subjects:Rio Grande Southern Railroad
Burns Canyon (Colo.)Notes: Near Mile Post 63. Probably south/lower end of Burns Canyon, near Rico. "That slide was notorious for closing the railroad there. Since it was not plowed, I'd figure it was in 1950 or 1951 since by this time they [had] lost the ability to fight the deep snows." [Source of quote: Robert Herrone, email 3/27/07.]

#3) "Appears to be Burns Canyon near Coke Ovens above Rico." [Source of quote: Robert Herrone, email 3/27/07.] A man is standing at the end of the visible track.

 

Rio Grande Southern Railroad track removal near Burns Canyon: (above Dolores, Rico, Colo.)

Near Mile Post 63: A crew apparently is working on removing the first section of track at the lowest

washout of track above Dolores when the Rio Grande Southern was being abandoned and scrapped. The location apparently is Burns Canyon, a narrow rocky area just south of bridge 64-A, which both the track and the Dolores River twisted through on an S curve. According to Robert Herronen (analyst, UNCG MIS department; builder, Rio Grande Southern R.R. of N.C.; and alumnus, Fort Lewis College, 1993), who supplied this info via emails on 3/26 and 3/28/2007, "The RGS received word from the courts that it could be abandoned April 24, 1952. The RGS began to dismantle the trackage starting in May of 1952, it appears.

 

"Scrapping was done June 17, 1953." He believes this view is"around milepost 70. Below MP. 70, there are photos of Goose 7 scrapping the tracks. So it was a section that they could not use the steam train to scrap the railroad. That would explain why they were scrapping up the side of Lizard Head pass by October. They had Rico to scrap (at MP 66.2) and by October two outfit cars had run away and were left where they ran off the tracks at Coke Ovens (at MP 60.49)."

 

He explained, "The other sections between the washouts were removed using the Galloping Geese engines with their box bodies removed. [That way, the work crews] could truck them around the washouts and tear up the track between the washed out tracks.

They used the K-27 class locomotive #461 with a winch mounted on the tender to pull the rails up onto the flat car as they went along (the winch was not installed by the time the time these photos were taken.) "

 

Rio Grande Southern Railroad track removal near Burns Canyon
(above Dolores, Colo. (actually Rico)
Date/circa: 1952/1953

Photographer Notes: Near Mile Post 63. A crew apparently is working on removing the first section of track at the lowest washout of track above Dolores when the Rio Grande Southern was being abandoned and scrapped. The location apparently is Burns Canyon, a narrow rocky area just south of bridge 64-A, which both the track and the Dolores River twisted through on an S curve. According to Robert Herronen (analyst, UNCG MIS department; builder, Rio Grande Southern R.R. of N.C.; and alumnus, Fort Lewis College, 1993), who supplied this info via emails on 3/26 and 3/28/2007, "The RGS received word from the courts that it could be abandoned April 24th, 1952. The RGS began to dismantle the trackage starting in May of 1952 it appears. Scrapping was done June 17, 1953." He believes this view is "around milepost 70. Below MP. 70, there are photos of Goose 7 scrapping the tracks. So it was a section that they could not use the steam train to scrap the railroad. That would explain why they were scrapping up the side of Lizard Head pass by October. They had Rico to scrap (at MP 66.2) and by October two outfit cars had run away and were left where they ran off the tracks at Coke Ovens (at MP 60.49)."

He explained, "The other sections between the washouts were removed using the Galloping Geese engines with their box bodies removed. [That way, the work crews] could truck them around the washouts and tear up the track between the washed out tracks. They used the K-27 class locomotive #461 with a winch mounted on the tender to pull the rails up onto the flat car as they went along (the winch was not installed by the time the time these photos were taken.)"

___ Center of Southwest Studies,Fort Lewis College.