The railroad spur that ran on Pagosa Springs timber

Pagosa Springs feels like a quiet mountain town today, but for a stretch of its early history it was a railroad town, and the railroad ran in large part on timber.

The line into town was built as the Rio Grande, Pagosa and Northern, a short railroad closely tied to the Denver and Rio Grande. It connected Pagosa Springs to the Denver and Rio Grande’s narrow-gauge San Juan Extension across southwest Colorado, and it later operated as a branch of that larger system. “Narrow gauge” means the rails sat just three feet apart, closer than standard track. That narrower spacing let lines bend through tight mountain country more cheaply, which is why so much of this region was built that way.

The reason the line came here was the forest. The mountains around Pagosa Springs held vast stands of timber, and mills turned that timber into lumber. The railroad carried it out to markets, along with other forest products, and brought goods and people back in. For a time, the rhythm of the town followed the rhythm of the cut.

The town itself is older than the rails - it grew up around the hot spring and the San Juan River - but the railroad shaped how the town grew once the line arrived. Logging and the trains that served it were a real part of the foundation, even if hot-spring visitors get the attention now. Most of those tracks are long gone, leaving old grades and route lines on the land.

For the documented history of the Denver and Rio Grande in southwest Colorado and its branches, see History Colorado.