ALONG THE CRYSTAL RIVER—Scene two miles below Marble near the airport. —Photo courtesy John B. Schutte, Glenwood Spgs., Colo.

The broad (standard) gauge railroad was extended from Placita to Marble in 1906. The first train came up to Marble November 3, 1906. By this time they were using a donkey engine to bring the marble down from the quarry.

In 1908 Wm. McManus was brought in to assist Homer Harrington, general superintendent of construction, in installing a hydro-electric power house northeast of Marble. Three water pipelines were run into the plant: one from Crystal River, one from Yule Creek, and the other down Lost Trail Creek. They installed a transformer house half way up to the quarry to convert electricity from direct to alternating current. High tension lines were run to the mill and to the quarry, and all the company houses were wired for electricity. Upon the completion of all this, work was really in production.

It took the trained mind of an engineer, Commodore A. J. Mitchell, to see value in the calcium carbonate (marble) deposits that had taken eons to form and place in such a position that man could extract large blocks from their beds; it took the indominable courage and optimism of a man like Col. C. F. Meek to see the possibilities of developing an industry that would make Colorado famous; it took the foresight and energy of the promoter, the engineer, and the mechanic; it took the architect, Harry Bacon, to see the possibilities of erecting a monument of the translucent white marble from the Yule quarries to the memory of the great statesman, Abraham Lincoln.

During the years 1908-16 Marble was really a lively little city. It boasted five general stores, a drug store, a drygoods store, two hotels, two large school buildings, two barber shops, two weekly papers—The Marble City Times and The Marble Booster—picture show, Masonic Hall, two pool halls, and six saloons. I have talked to many of the really “old timers” about the probable population at that time, and the number varies from 1,500 to nearly 10,000. According to the “Company News” column printed each week in the Marble Booster newspaper the pay roll varied from 700 to 850 names. So taking into consideration the number of women and children who must have been here, the population could easily have been several thousand.

On the morning of March 20, 1912, a big snow slide came down Mill Mountain. As it occurred after the night shift had gone home and before the day shift had come to work, no lives were lost but the property damage was very heavy. The Marble Booster newspaper in writing about the slide had this to say:

“While the slide was very bad, so well had the cleaning up and repair work been done, that within three days every worker was again plying his trade.”

The Marble Booster, Sept. 14, 1912:

BAD SMASH ON TROLLEY
Four Persons Meet Death as Result of Runaway Train on the Highline

Four persons met death as a result of an accident on the trolley line here last Friday a few minutes before noon.

The dead are:

George Healy, motorman of the train. Robert P. Lytle, a brakeman. Atansio Negrete, a Mexican passenger. Mary Tonko, a Polish girl.

In some manner Healy, the motorman, lost control of a heavily loaded train at a point on the line near the old smelter, half a mile from the yard at the mill. Doubtless the airbrakes failed to work. Before the hand brakes could be set the train attained a frightful speed. W. C. Goodwin, a mill employee who was riding on the train, jumped and landed without a scratch. The others stayed on the train.

Just before reaching the bridge over the Crystal River two of the cars in the train left the track and smashed into a rock cliff at the side of the track. Lytle, the brakeman, was on one of these cars. He was thrown with terrible force into the face of the cliff and death was mercifully quick.

Healy, the motorman, stayed with the balance of the train, as did the Mexican and the little girl. The runaway cars held the track until the turn at the loading station in the yards, when everything turned over on the curve and smashed into splinters. Healy was caught beneath a huge block of marble and was crushed to death. He probably never knew what struck him. The Mexican was slammed onto the ground with such force that death was instantaneous. The little girl, eight years old, was alive when rescuers reached the scene and was hurried to the hospital. She died at six o’clock that evening.