These were associated with the long-abandoned Silverton RR, one of the Otto Mears lines out of Silverton.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_1357416,00.html
ryarger@rypn.org

http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/news020829_2.htm
ryarger@rypn.org

"Baumgartner told The Denver Post that he demolished the structures out of liability concerns because trespassing tourists run all over his land"

Has he ever heard of the concept of a fence with locked gate around the buildings? It's not a sure fire way to keep people out, but it sounds to me like he is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

With the story about instructing loggers to cutdown the trees to stumps along the San Juan Skyway, it sounds like this guy is just a malicious troublemaker who wants to extort money out of the county, forest service and local historical groups.

> "Baumgartner told The Denver Post that
> he demolished the structures out of
> liability concerns because trespassing
> tourists run all over his land"

> Has he ever heard of the concept of a fence
> with locked gate around the buildings? It's
> not a sure fire way to keep people out, but
> it sounds to me like he is throwing the baby
> out with the bathwater.

> With the story about instructing loggers to
> cutdown the trees to stumps along the San
> Juan Skyway, it sounds like this guy is just
> a malicious troublemaker who wants to extort
> money out of the county, forest service and
> local historical groups.

Where were the Tree Huggers while all this was happening?

rrfanjim@mvn.net

No Message

Unfortunately, under the situation described above, it seems that as far as the National Register of Historic Places goes, the landowner is perfectly within his rights to pull the structures down. Upkeep and liability coverage for older structures is quite expensive. From my own observation, if the locals want to save the property, their best and perhaps only bet will be to bite the bullet and cough up the money to purchase the properties.

awalker2002@comcast.net

Since now he has destroyed the historical significance to the property maybe now is the time to sick the Enviormental Protection Agency on him. Historical value is a major reason many of the Colorado mining sites have not been reclaimed to their pristene original, before being mined, condition. Since the historical value is now gone it could cost him billions to reclaim the land and mitigate any enviormental problems.

The EPA has taken over many non historic abandon mining operations and charged their current owners bigtime for the cleanup. Many other mining claims have been given back to the government due to the huge liability their former owners could experience.
Roger Mitchell
Master Mechanic
Fort Collins Municipal Railway



n0mcr@netzero.net