Rio Grande Southern

The Rio Grande Southern Railroad (RGS) was a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railroad which ran from Durango to Ridgway in the western part of the US state of Colorado.

The RGS was founded in 1889 by Otto Mears, and construction began in 1890 from Ridgway (north of Ouray) and Durango (south of Silverton) to go around the most rugged part of the San Juan Mountains and also reach the mining towns of Rico and Telluride. The line was completed only a little time before the Silver Panic of 1893 which resulted in most of the mines closing overnight and the railroad losing most of its traffic. The railroad struggled to survive through the Great Depression, and on March 21, 1953, the last train ran on the RGS.

Montezuma Lumber Co. / Mc Phee

Orginally beginning as New Mexico Lumber, the Montezuma Lumber Company took over operations in the late 1930's. Center of the operations was the the town of McPhee with a big sawmill, connected by track with Dolores. In addition, the company was running some lumber spurs on the RGS like the one in Matterhorn.

A fire in 1948 which totally destroyed the mill (the mill burned down and was built up before several times) was the end of the Line and McPhee.