Jeff Johnson’s connection to Durango began with a single train ride in 1973, when a family vacation turned into a lifelong calling. That trip aboard the narrow gauge to Silverton set him on a path of decades-long devotion to Colorado railroad history, from the earliest push of the Denver and Rio Grande down through Walsenburg, Alamosa, and Chama into Southwest Colorado, to the mining boom in Silverton that the rails were built to chase. In this episode, Jeff traces the routes, the resources, and above all the people — the laborers, the families, and the women who left comfort behind to build new lives in a rugged frontier. It’s a conversation about how the past never really feels that far away, and why understanding the people who came before us matters for where we’re headed.
The Power of Place Magazine is a special initiative of the Colorado 150 Southwest organizing committee, featuring 20 articles by professional historians and local writers exploring Southwest Colorado’s rich and complex heritage.
This story is sponsored by Alpine Bank, Sky Ute Casino and Strater Hotel.
Watch the full series, Voices of the Past: Southwest Colorado.
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Transcript
I first came to Durango in 1973. I was born and raised in Oklahoma and my family, we came up here for a vacation and just happened to get a ticket on a train. Back in those days, they were packed and hard to get on, on board the train to Silverton, and fortunately did. And it was, it was kind of life changing for me. It was instantly I knew where I wanted to live, what I wanted to do. And subsequently, I went home and just began as a young teenager, just start pouring myself into studying the history of the Colorado railroads. You know, I’m not alone in, in, in a chorus of individuals who really love railroading and particularly Colorado nar gauge railroading and the history of the Denver and Rio Grande and all the different railroads throughout our state. And I just always found it very fascinating and it just, to me, it just seemed kind of, kind of mystical in a certain way. And I don’t know why, but history’s always felt that way to me. I always felt like all the events that we talk about when we speak of history, well-known events, you know, the great wars or maybe certain time periods that we went through change in our societies. I’ve, I’ve always felt that they, in the grand scheme of things, especially as I get older, only happened yesterday. We sometimes forget that life really goes quickly and getting to learn a lot about people and what we did beforehand is just really important to knowing where we’re going to be going for the future. And I, that’s a trite statement in some ways, but I really believe that the article I wrote, well, essentially it just talks about the push for the railroad, that being the Denver and Rio Grande and the Rio Grande Southern Railroad, subsequently pushing toward Durango in, initially starting up out of Denver, the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, and then coming down into this region via Walsenburg, Alamosa, Chama, New Mexico. And in coming here, what kind of resources helped develop the communities around here? Obviously the reason the railroad came down here was to chase the mining that was going on since the 1870s in Silverton, but that was just a feeder line of the purpose of the railroad for so many different reasons. I hope that any individual reading it will, number one, be inspired to learn more. Just let that be a little thumbnail sketch with something they’d like to dig into, read and look for resources to learn. But I think being willing to dig in and learn and understand all of the individuals that came before us, and I don’t mean just the, the leaders who built the railroad, but everyone that worked and toiled all the families that came out of here, all of the ladies that had the guts to come out here and be drug out west from the comfortable place with their husbands coming out here and adventuring into mining back in that era. Just to think how brave and how incredible people were to come out here and be a part of all this. Settling in a family environment, not just from some entrepreneurial spirit is just amazing to me. And I think, I hope everyone would like to learn more about all the individuals who really toiled to, to bring us to where we are today. To read this story, visit Colorado one 50 southwest.org. Alpine Bank, committed to Colorado, and you.
