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| display next to the Eagle River in Minturn |
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| a Rio Grande train in Minturn yard, December 1981 (Chris Nuthall) |
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| the Minturn yard today (Geoff Churchman) |
For most of the 20th century, Minturn, with a present-day population of a bit over 1,000, in the Colorado Rockies was a railway town, established in 1904 and was on the Denver and Rio Grande Western's Tennessee Pass route. With the purchase of the DRGW by Union Pacific in 1996, the line ceased to be of much use, being the highest mountain pass route in the US and involving a devious trajectory for UP west of Denver. The last train ran in August 1997.
However, with the recent general growth in rail freight traffic and the main Moffat Route having capacity problems, it could well return to use. The rails are still in place and UP runs occasional maintenance trains.
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| Minturn now includes the abandoned mining town of Gilman, at an elevation of 9,000 ft/2,750 metres.
Founded in 1886 during the Colorado Silver Boom, the town later became a centre of lead and zinc mining in Colorado, around the now-flooded Eagle Mine. It was abandoned in 1984 by order of the Environmental Protection Agency because of toxic pollutants, including contamination of the ground water. There are plans to develop it as a resort. (Geoff Churchman) |
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