The Gold King Mining Company, under President W. Z. Kinney, promoted a
railroad for the purpose of hauling concentrates from mills along Cement
Creek to the smelters at Silverton. According to the Manual the railroad
was chartered April 6, 1899 and completed in July. James Dyson located
the route and the Rocky Mountain Construction Co., incorporated in
Maine, constructed the 7.5 miles of line and the one-half mile of
sidings from Silverton to Gladstone. Forty-five-pound rail was used.
Track left the main line of the D. & R. G. at the north end of Silverton
and there a roundhouse was built. San Juan County records show that the
property was conveyed from the construction company to the railroad
company July 21, 1899. Two figures, $247,838 and $252,979, have been
given as the cost of the job. The difference may have covered equipment.
The S. G. & N. bought Engine 32 from the Rio Grande Southern through the
D. & R. G. purchasing agent, C. M. Hobbs, for $3252. Mr. Hobbs
instructed Mr. Lee, general superintendent of the R. G. S., to letter it
properly, deliver it to W. Z. Kinney at Silverton on August 1, 1899 and
collect the money. Two very nice made-to-order coaches, that had seats
for passengers in one end and baggage compartments in the other, were
obtained. Two trains ran daily consisting, generally, of an engine, two
loads and a passenger coach. The first year of operation showed a
surplus of $35,366.21.
The company, evidently, did not have enough power and in October 1900 it
was asking the R. G. S. for another locomotive like the one it already
had, but none was available. Meanwhile, a company in Palestine, Texas
had bought R. C. S. 33 (exactly like 32) but on finding it
unsatisfactory, had shipped it back. The R. G. S. placed it in the
Burnham Shops at Denver where, in 1902, it underwent extensive repairs.
Then it was sold to the S. G. & N.
The two locomotives mentioned above were sisters to the Silverton
Railroad’s No. 101 (1), formerly R. G. S. 34. All three were of the same
make and the same class and had the same owners at the same time and in
the same order—the D. & R. G., the R. G. W. and the R. G. S. All of
these engines ended up with the S. N. (So did S. R. No. 100.) All had
five owners. The 33 had six owners if one would count the company in
Texas but, as far as is known, no money changed hands.
A new locomotive, No. 34, a Baldwin of the 100 class, was purchased in
1904. The Manual of 1905 lists three engines, two coaches, and twenty
freight cars; the one of 1909 says two locomotives, two coaches, ten box
cars and twenty-one gondolas. Engine 32 was the one out of service at
this time. Eventually its boiler went to a sawmill at Cascade. No. 33
lasted a few years longer.
Except for Mr. Kinney of Silverton, the board of ten directors elected
in 1904 were all from Maine, Massachusetts or New Brunswick and the
trustee under the mortgage was the Newtonville Trust Co. of Newtonville,
Mass. In 1905 the funded debt was $100,000 and the outstanding stock,
$121,000. In the year ending June 30, 1909, the railroad had carried
16,667 tons of freight and 3,916 passengers.
It was not uncommon for service to be discontinued for short or long
periods in any winter on account of snow blockades but the suspension in
the fall of 1911 was due to the extensive washouts on the D. & R. G. in
the Animas Canon. S. G. & N. men and equipment were sent to assist in
the reconstruction.
Excursions were often run to Gladstone for picnics or to gather
columbines either to send out of town for some special doings or for any
kind of local celebration.
According to the Official Guides of 1913, 1914 and 1915 mixed trains ran
thrice weekly—Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In 1913 trains left
Silverton at 1:00 P.M. and arrived at Gladstone at 1:45 P.M.; left
Gladstone at 2:15 P.M. and arrived at Silverton at 3:00 P.M. This was a
considerable decline from the original two trains per day.
About the first of January 1910, Mears, Slattery and Pitcher leased the
Gold King mine. On January 15 of the same year the Silverton Northern
Railroad leased the S. G. & N. and five years later, on June 10, 1915,
bought it at auction. San Juan County records show that the deed was
made July 23. Mears then owned all three railroads. Only one S. G. & N.
engine, the 34, was in service. The partners gave up the lease on the
mine in 1917 and Mears, then 77 years old, left for California, never to
return.
Mrs. Percy Airy has a little story to tell of this period. In 1911 her
husband was working at the Gold King mill at Gladstone and they were
living in a little cabin with almost no furniture and conveniences. One
morning while she was washing, Percy came rushing in, saying he was
bringing his uncle Jack Slattery, Otto Mears, James Pitcher and Louis
Quarnstrom in for dinner. Flustered and dismayed were no words for it!
At such a camp no fresh stuff was available but she managed a dinner of
ham, scalloped potatoes, a canned vegetable, biscuits with butter and
jam, fresh canned mountain raspberries, cake and coffee. She had only
two stool chairs and one of them was occupied by the washtub which Mears
urged her not to move. She put one man on the other stool chair, two on
the bed and two in rockers. Being very young, only nineteen, she was so
embarrassed she wouldn’t sit down at the table. Everybody praised her
dinner and she felt better. When Mears left he presented her with a very
rich piece of gold ore, about the size of a large orange, and told here
if she’d always keep that she’d never be poor. Later she engaged a
jeweler to make a watch charm from it for her husband. A small cracked
charm and two small pieces of ore were all that was returned to her. The
fellow claimed he had had to break the big chunk all to pieces to get
the charm and had thrown the scraps away. Of course every small grain of
that ore was valuable.
Business kept dwindling until only an occasional train was run. The
following table indicates that the track was still lying in 1923.
SILVERTON, GLADSTONE & NORTHERLY
Official Roster 1923
0 Silverton 9,300
3.2 Yukon Mills
5.0 Porcupine Gulch
7.0 Fishers Mill
7.5 Gladstone 10,600
No exact date can be found for the tearing up of the rails but it
probably was in 1926, the same year the S. R. was dismantled. All
equipment went to the S. N. as it already belonged to it anyway.
The government, during our war with Japan, established military posts in
Alaska. The railroad up there, the White Pass and Yukon, needed more
locomotives and in 1942 it purchased all that were left on the S.N.—the
3, 4 and 34. (The S. N. had ceased operation three years previously.)
The 34, as should be remembered, had belonged to the S. G. & N. When the
Alaskan railroad received the 34 it numbered it “24”. After Diesel power
was obtained there the 24 (nee 34), then about forty years old, was
retired to the boneyard.
One of the original S. G. & N. coaches was bought from the S. N., moved
to Durango and set up on Main Avenue as the “Pioneer Diner”. Later,
after changes and additions, it became the “Chief Diner”. It is still
operating and may be seen in Durango.