Three Little Lines / Silverton Railroad; Silverton, Gladstone and Northerly; Silverton Northern

By Josie Moore Crum
SILVERTON RAILROAD SILVERTON, GLADSTONE & NORTHERLY SILVERTON NORTHERN
The originals of these articles appeared in Bulletin 74 of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society in October 1948. A second edition was published by Bert Baker in the fall of 1956. The present volume contains additional information and pictures gathered since the appearance of the earlier publications. J.M.C.
Copyright 1960 by Josie Moore Crum
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publishers.
Reprint Rights L.A. “Johnny” Johnson Box 348 Ouray, Colorado 81427
Published by DURANGO HERALD-NEWS Durango, Colorado
The Southwest has had a most romantic history. It is the oldest portion, both in the way of interior exploration and in the way of settlement, in the United States.
The Coronado Expedition of several hundred Spaniards left Mexico in 1540 and journeyed up into what is now central New Mexico. The convoy consisted of soldier aristocrats on their caparisoned horses and in their picturesque regalia, and of common soldiers, fortune seekers and servants. Accompanying the train were hundreds of horses packed with supplies and hundreds of cattle, sheep and hogs for food purposes.
They established themselves at Tiguex, New Mexico and spent two years, 1540-42, conquering the Indians and searching for treasure. One party went west and discovered the Grand Canon and another went east as far as Kansas. They found no riches but explored, mapped and named the country and took possession of it for Spain.
New Mexico was settled in 1595, permanently, except for a short period when the populace fled because of an Indian uprising. The first capital was San Juan though it was soon moved to nearby Santa Fe. It should be noticed that this settlement preceded colonization on our eastern coast.
No one knows when the Spanish first entered Colorado but the country seemed well-known and named when Juan Rivera made his first trip into it in 1765. He led a party across the southwestern part of the state to the Utah border and back to the Gunnison River near Hotchkiss. Within the next ten years he made three more trips of the same kind.