Rich road snakes up the valley by the river

“Some beautiful paths can't be discovered without getting lost.”― Erol Ozan

Golden Spike ceremony on Rio Grande Southern near Rico.

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

First described as forty miles above Big Bend by wagon road, Rico was a destination in the early Silver San Juans boom. 

Rico, of course, means "rich." In 1879, when Col. J.C. Haggerty discovered extremely rich silver ore there, they called the place Carbon City, Carbonville, Lead City, Dolores City and a few other cuss words. A meeting called to settle the issue resulted in William Weston's suggestion of the Spanish word for rich and the name stuck.

"It is 90 miles from Animas City or Durango by Big Bend, the only practical wagon road whereby Rico can be reached. There is a cut off via Bear Creek hill which may be traveled late in the spring, and thus some 20 miles of distance saved. There is a charted toll road from the Animas River to the Rio Dolores, known as Pinkerton or Scotch Creek trail, which when completed, will shorten the distance for wagons," said the Denver Tribune on February 15, 1881.

Rico had been incorporated in 1879 and was a thriving mining town until the Silver Crash in 1893. After the Crash, much of the population moved on — though some mining continued. The Rio Grand Southern railroad was a part of Rico's history from its arrival in 1891 until it was discontinued in 1954.

Friday, November 30, 1951:

In a 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:

In another 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."
Despite difficult terrain, extreme weather conditions, and a trainload of financial difficulties, the Rio Grande Southern (RGS) Railroad operated 162 miles of track between Ridgway and Durango from legendary Otto Mear’s construction efforts, beginning in 1890, until they went into receivership again and started pulling up track in 1953.

The Railroad's headquarters and where the main facilities were in Ridgway, the Railroad traversed Northwest to Dallas Divide, on to the southwest heading down to Placerville. It turned south toward Telluride following the San Miguel River, to what was called Vance Junction (west of Telluride), where one of two coal topples were located. Then continued southeast, curving around up the side of Yellow Mountain to Ophir with the help of numerous, large trestle bridges then looped around to the southwest and continued up the side of Yellow Mountain to Trout lake, curving around it to the Summit of Lizard Head Pass. Then to the southeast, meeting the Dolores River and looping around into the town of Rico.

Rico was considered the center of the Railroad and had some notable engine facilities. From Rico, it followed the Dolores River west into the town of Dolores, where it then curved southeast into Lost Canyon. It followed Lost Creek, and eventually exited the canyon to make its way directly south into Mancos, it traversed east following the East Mancos Creek up Mancos Hill, and then down Cima Hill to Hesperus. Then it curved south, passing by Ute Junction, the second coal topple on the line. It then looped back around the east, near what was then Fort Lewis campus, after which it headed northeast into Wild Cat Canyon. In the canyon, it passed by the townsite of Porter and the site of the Porter Coal mine, making its way north to Franklin Junction. It then curved east and finally ended close to the San Juan Smelter in Durango, where it met up with the D&RGW's San Juan Extension.

The RGS finally threw in the towel and filed with the Interstate Commerce Comission for abandonment on April 24th, 1952, after 60 years of operation. The RGS had lost the contract to ship US mail after failing to clear snow to deliver during the winter of 1951-2. This contract was the very last profitable aspect of the RGS hence why it was the final straw after the railroad's history of financial trouble.

 

Rio Grande Southern Railroad yard at Rico (Colo.): looking south. Date/circa: 1952-05, Photographer: Chione, Alfred G. (Morton, Ill.) Notes: Mile Post 066.24. A closer view than photoprint P026119 looking down the rails toward the water tank and (on the right) the engine house

Rio Grande Southern Railroad depot and tank at Rico (Colo.): looking north, Date/circa: 1952-05

Photographer: Chione, Alfred G. (Morton, Ill.), Notes:Mile Post 066.24.

Rio Grande Southern Railroad buildings and structures at Rico (Colo.), Date/circa: 1950/1965
Photographer: Chione, Alfred G. (Morton, Ill.), Notes: Mile Post 066.24. A slightly more distant view than 

Rio Grande Southern Railroad tank and depot at Rico (Colo.): front and south 3/4, Date/circa: 1952-05
Photographer: Chione, Alfred G. (Morton, Ill.), Notes: Mile Post 066.24.

Rio Grande Southern Railroad Collection, Center for Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College

Hart Lee on the Hardware Store in the Star

The Best of Hart's Stuff from Rico

By Hart Lee,
The Dolores Star Press
copyright, 1968,
compiled, edited and published
by Lawrence and Marilyn Pleasant
MCMLXVIII
From the Files of the Dolores Star
(also known as The Splatter)

from Friday, August 16, 1963

Did you ever go into a store or someplace of business and and come out with more than you bargained for — Now for instance take Taylor's Hardware store, we have been trading there off and on for the last twenty or thirty years. Any time you go in there the first thing you see is an old beat up water bucket setting the front counter slushing over with hospitality — been setting in the same place ever since old Sy Perkins bought his wife her first two piece under ware. Then the two pouch hounds which are the trade mark of the joint are always found asleep in front of the nail rack — and should they be missen, you'll find the outfit out of gear and running on the rocks.
Sometimes you just drift in the place don't want to buy a thing, then you find a comfortable chair and watch television which is turned on as soon as the janitor shows up in the morning until its time to lock the doors, and you'll always find somebody around that's got time to shoot the bull for awhile. In fact nobody is in very much of a hurry. Take your time and live.
A lot of times you'll go in and ask for something — say a ram rod for a 10 gauge shot gun, well it might take a little while to find 'em but its a bet they have a dozen of the things when they do run them down.
And if they don't have what you want they'll grab a want book and order it for you whether it is a pound of roofing nails or a trainload of combines — Just a darn nice place to trade.

I just can't wait to get on the road to Rico again

Rio Grande Southern narrow gauge locomotive, engine number 20, engine type 4-6-0 CreatorRichardson, Robert W. Date1951. Three-quarter view of right side of engine, from front end, close view, with caboose 0404; smoke, snow. Photographed: between Dolores and Rico, Colorado, November 16, 1951.

“People on horses look better than they are. People in a cars look worse than they are.” __ Marya Mannes, 1958

Arrival of cars did not end hazards of traveling to Rico

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Back when I didn’t know any better, we would fly down the highway from Rico to Dolores. I think the record was about 45 minutes -- and the road has been improved since then. Such ‘flights’ and speed was not always possible. Transportation on that stretch of the upper Dolores River has always been a challenge – one that travelers of various eras have risen to accept. Improvements have come in fits and starts.
“After the current contract on the Sullivan-Gould grade on the river road is completed and about 3 miles from the West Fork bridge down is constructed, our road won’t be half bad to travel,” wrote longtime Rico columnist Hart Lee, in the Dolores Star on Jan. 21, 1949. “One will be able to pass a car or truck most any place along the line without being sideswiped or being rammed into a head-on.”
Lee was always a booster of the route and noted that, “even under present conditions, the out-of-state traffic almost doubled last year over 1947.”
If not the road itself, weather could also be factor. A week later Lee reported, “Due to the blizzard that got off to a darn good start early this morning, I don’t know of a single person trying to leave town or entering, even the mail truck hasn’t shown up.”
But at that time, they still had the train in a pinch.
“Due to the heavy snow and drifts, the mail truck Monday was forced to turn around at the Gould grade and return to Dolores, however the following day two engines with a couple of box cars managed to get thru bringing in mail, express and freight. Thanks again to the old rusty rails. We’re always mighty grateful when we see the smoke drifting up the canyon.”
The following week, Feb. 4, 1949, Lee relayed the bad news.
“The latest report out is that the famous Galloping Goose will discontinue to gallop for an indefinite period, however we are still enjoying daily mail service by truck, while freights are still taking care of the concentrates.”
It hadn’t been that long since the days of horses and wagons.
“I was born in 1923, and we moved to Rico so my dad could mine, Trouble was his life. They didn’t have cars or trucks. They only used horses and wagons. The dirt road to two had two big ruts that your wheels went in,” according longtime Rico miner Myron Jones in Colorado Mining Stories: Hazards, Heroics and Humor ( by Caroline Arlen, 2002).
“One time my dad met some other guy coming the other way in the ruts. The other guy said ‘Pull over.’ My dad said, ‘You pull over.’ So they got out the whips and started whipping each other’s teams. It was such a mess of whips and horses, it wasn’t really clear who gave in.”
Jones described to Arlen the method of transportation in Rico in his early years there.
“In Rico we got around on donkeys, horses, snowshoes and skis. Skis were different in those days. They were just a couple of boards with the ends turned up. Probably weighed about three times what skis weigh now. However you got up the hill to the mine, you packed your skis up with you and went down on them. You had to enjoy skiing a lot then.”
With the arrival of cars, that did not end hazards of traveling to Rico however.
“While enroute to home from an extended trip to California Thursday night, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Calloway encountered the most unusual experience,” wrote Hart Lee in February of 1949. “Driving up the river road near the Ross Thomas ranch they noticed the lights of an oncoming car. Figuring the road might be a little narrow, decided to stop. Well just about that time a big bull elk came galloping down the road and instead of keeping to the right as the law provides for, landed right on the hood of their car and while scrambling over the top, poked both hind hooves through the windshield. For an instant they thought sure that the fool animal would be occupying the back seat, but their steel top stood the racket. Joe decided it wouldn’t be any use to call the Courtesy Patrol so came on home and called it a day.”
Perhaps talking about the same (or at least similar) incident in Colorado Mining Stories, Aubrey “Blizzard” Lillard, who also mined in Rico in the late ‘40s, had the following account.
“She was going down the road to Cortez, one time, and a bunch of elk run near over the top of that brand new Buick she had. That was really sickening to her, but it tickled a lot of other guys,” he said according to Arlen’s book.
“Hardly anybody else had a car. Every time you would buy a new car, the dang mine would shut down, and you couldn’t make your payments. So people would drive their cars over that steep place and call it an accident. I thought about it, but I loved my car. And they’d have caught me just as sure as thunder.”
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