Organisation Root

Sheriff, coroner investigate two deaths Saturday in Montezuma County

Woman found dead off Road 29; man found off Road L

By Jim Mimiaga, Journal staff writer

LATEST CORONAVIRUS CASES

As of 4 p.m. Monday, Dec. 7

In Colorado

264,618 cases, (up 4,037 from yesterday)
14,904 hospitalized, (up 36 from yesterday)
1,873,788 people tested (up 15,447 from yesterday)
2,776 deaths from COVID (up 52 from yesterday)
2,403 Outbreaks at residential and non-hospital health care facilities

In the region

La Plata County: 1,800 cases (up 24 from yesterday), 7 deaths
Montezuma County: 869 cases, 6 deaths
Archuleta County: 338 cases (up 14 from yesterday)
Dolores County: 35 cases, (up 5 from yesterday)
San Juan County (CO): 20 cases (up 1 from yesterday)
San Juan County (NM): 6,906 cases (up 119 from yesterday), 250 deaths,
San Miguel County: 268 cases, (up 1 from yesterday)

Videos & Photos

Hop aboard for a ride on the snowplowing ‘flanger’ trainDurango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad runs a special trip to clear tracks after heavy snowfall

The temperature hovers above zero as the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad crew tasked with clearing snow away from the tracks readies for departure. A blue enameled coffeepot heats atop the coal-fired caboose stove, where crew members pause to warm themselves in its glow as they move in and out of the caboose – the fog of their breath illuminated by their battery-powered lanterns.The scent of cowboy coffee and coal-fire mingle with grease and the varnish of history as the air warms inside the caboose – built in 1881 and rebuilt to add length in Alamosa in 1930. Outside, unshakable icicles hang from the car’s roof and drip from the window awnings like frozen frosting.

With a tug from his gloved hand, engineer Nick Breeden releases a few short blasts from locomotive 481’s steam whistle before engaging the drivers of the iron horse built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia in 1925. Six a.m. – time to go – destination Cascade Canyon.The crew is working ahead of the morning passenger train, referred to by the railroaders as a “revenue train,” to push snow from the recent storm away from the tracks. It’s a small work crew with one key piece of machinery, a flanger car designed for just such a task. The couplers between cars clap tight as the locomotive pulls out the slack and the steel wheels begin to roll. The crew in the caboose settle into silence. Conductor Sean Frederick sits at a small desk where the only nod to modernity is the CB radio affixed to the paneled wall. Brakeman Sam Burbey and Trainmaster Joe Daily ease back on the padded side-facing bench seats. The two flanger (snowplow) operators, Daniel Frauenhoff and Christopher Tucson, are perched on opposite sides of the car’s elevated cupola, with its 360-degree view.

Only the bellow of the steam whistle and the crossing bells at intersections shatter the predawn peace as the abbreviated train – locomotive and tender, flanger car with its hydraulic snow-pushing wings, and the caboose – rumble through downtown Durango and across the trestle bridge that spans the Animas River, where the commotion causes deer to bolt from their riverside browse.A fingernail of a moon pinned above the mesa glows brighter with the first hint of light in the cloudless sky. The train climbs just enough to reveal an ephemeral fog nestled in the hardwoods beside the serpentine twists of the Animus before it drops into the flats of the upper valley.“It’s shaping up to be a good day,” Daily says. It is mid-February and the second call-to-duty for the flanger car to “widen the path” after a heavy snow this winter. Another train without a flanger pushed the snow off the track the day before. The first trip of the season for the flanger was “epic” with 3 feet of snow on the tracks, Daily says.Old technology that still worksThe first flanger in the West was developed in 1885, according to History Colorado, and was a “leap forward for snow removal” but it still depends on a locomotive snowplow to clear the bulk of the snow in front of the train. The flanger being used by the D&SNG was also built in 1885, then rebuilt in Alamosa in 1930, and finally had air cylinders added in 1985 so it could be controlled by operators in the caboose, Daily says. The flanger operators move the “wings” in and out while the locomotive engineer controls the vertical positioning to account for gradient, switches and crossings.

“I love the railroad and all the equipment we run, but as far as the flanger – just how old the technology and how well it still works,” Daily says.Twenty-nine-year-old flanger operator Frauenhoff, who hails from just south of Littleton, summed up operating the “wing valve” that moves the turn-of-the-last-century wings, in modern terms.“It kind of feels like an old video game, pulling those handles,” he said.His flanger-operating partner, 35-year-old Durango native Tucson, said if they get anymore big storms this year they’re not going to have anywhere to put the snow. Tucson described the challenges and limits of operating the flanger.“You just have to really pay attention to what’s ahead of you and know when you bring your wings in they’re going to react slow sometimes,” he said. “And the wings actually, when you push them all the way out, will lock, but in all those rocks you want to have it bent and then if it hits anything, the wing will come in automatically.“And there is a lot of close clearance, especially on the highline,” Tucson said. “If you have your window too far open, you can catch a tree branch and break a window.”Flanger operators spend most their time with heads out the windows, which open outward to create a wind screen as they watch the position of their wing in relation to approaching obstacles.Breeden gives the locomotive a full head of steam across the flat valley, where it reaches its top speed along the route of 20 mph, before the climb into the cliffside cut that winds into the Rockies steep-and-deep San Juan Mountains. Fifteen mph is the overall average speed the train travels but there are places where it slows to 5 mph, Daily says.The flanger train is clearing the tracks only as far as Cascade Canyon, a 26½-mile, two-hour round-trip with no stops, to allow for the passage of a winter “revenue” passenger train. But the summer run from Durango to Silverton is a 45.4-mile trip with an elevation gain of 2,796 feet. The grade along the route undulates a lot, Daily says, with the steepest section reaching a 4% gradient about 8 miles south of Silverton.

The railroad no longer uses a coal-powered train for the run to Silverton, but when it did, it burned 4 to 5 tons of coal for a round-trip. And it used the better part of its 5,000-gallon-capacity tank of water, which shares space on the tender with the coal, by the time it reached Tank Creek just shy of Cascade Canyon.D&SNG started the process to transition from coal-powered locomotives to oil-burning late in 2018 or early 2019, Daily said, and the first oil-burning locomotive came out in January 2020. The railroad has been slowly converting the fleet since. The locomotive leading the way today is the last of the railroad’s coal-burners. The oil-burners go through 800 to 1,000 gallons of crankcase (basically used motor oil) on a run to Silverton and back.Keeping the tracks clear of snow before it builds up is a timely affair, Daily says.“If you have a lot of snow – if you have a big storm – you want to start before it’s over,” Daily says. “Or at least as soon as it’s over.If a passenger train attempted to push through track covered in deeper snow, the weight of the train vs the resistance of the snow would be too much for the locomotive and there would be the danger of not knowing what was hidden beneath the snow.“Another challenge, if there’s a lot of snow on the tracks, is rocks,” Daily says. “We get a lot of rocks that come down and it would be a big problem if the train hit them. You have to be really careful about that,” he says.Part of the reason the railroad does not operate all the way to Silverton in winter is because the track passes under several dangerous avalanche chutes. But between Durango and Cascade Canyon there is only one small slide the tracks go under and it is not significant enough to cause real danger.The locomotive slows as it wends its way up and up until the tracks wedge themselves between a towering cliff on one side and a sheer drop to the Animas River far below on the other. This is where the flanger operators earn their keep, as they jockey the wings in-and-out to avoid hitting rock outcroppings, trees, all but invisible boulders under the blanket of snow beside the tracks, and narrow rock-walled cuts that the fully retracted wings miss by inches. The little train steams on to Rockwood and a brief stop, where 19-year-old brakeman Burbey collects another bucket of coal for the caboose stove, before continuing on to stop at Tank Creek. Fireman Russell Heerdt, 24, who has been in the locomotive shoveling coal into the firebox during the trip to give Breeden, 27, the steam he needs, climbs atop the tender and lowers the spout from the trackside water tank to refill the tender.

It’s not long before Breeden has the locomotive rollicking up the tracks into the big mountains whose peaks are just now glowing orange with the rising sun. Heerdt moves in one easy motion as he scoops coal with a shovel then turns and steps on the pedal that opens the firebox’s furnace door and stokes what’s called the ring of fire. Breeden operates the levers that drive the train, and adjusts the elevation of the flanger wings with his left hand, while his head and right hand spend most their time out the window. “It’s muscle memory,” Breeden says as his left hand moves deftly between the brass- and silver-handled levers. “This one (his right hand) just sits over here and gets cold.” The train has a full head of steam as the locomotive “chuffs” its way toward deeper snow when word comes from the caboose to stop and turn around. Breeden, from Maryville Tennessee, who looks as bygone-era authentic as the locomotive he drives, releases an oath that leaves no doubt he’d like to keep going. “Well, we got the cool part, seeing that sun come up was pretty neat,” Heerdt says to Breeden. The trip back to the barn is uneventful if you don’t count the most majestic scenery in the West. Given a bit of free time, some of the crew share what brought them to work on what is one of the most heralded trains in the country. Brakeman Burbey, who has worked on the railroad for a year, got tired of the view from between his horse’s ears, he said. “Before this I was a horse packer,” he said. “I did that for about 10 years. This is a good job and I get to sleep in my own bed every night.” Conductor Frederick, 23, hails from Pittsburgh and went to work on the railroad more than four years ago after attending Fort Lewis College, where he competed on the school’s mountain bike team. “I love coming up the canyon, being outside and seeing this every day,” he said. Fireman Heerdt, who is also an engineer, grew up in southeast Iowa and used to visit the railroad and Durango with his grandfather. His favorite part of the job is sharing the history with people. “We maintain a way of life that no one has done regularly since the ’40s, and it’s good to share that with people.” Trainmaster Daily, 43, grew up near a railroad track in Maryland, and when he was young his dad took him to a tourist railroad that had steam locomotives and he got hooked, he said. He started working for them when he was a teenager. And then one day he got the bug that’s as old as the tale of the West. “I was 23 and I knew about this railroad and I kind of just wanted to see what was on the other side of the mountain,” he said. gjaros@durangoherald.com

Hop aboard for a ride on the snowplowing ‘flanger’ train

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad runs a special trip to clear tracks after heavy snowfall

Snowdown’s Outlaw Josie Pete's Golf Tournament

Snowdown No Tragedy Quaffing Tournament

VIDEO: Snowdown Ye Old Fry Fortress Contest

Photos: Pilots test winds during Snowdown Balloon Rally

VIDEO: Snowdown Taming of the Giant Jenga

VIDEO: Snowdown Fashion Shall and Shall Nots

VIDEO: Snowdown Big Wheel Derby, aka, Tiny Bike

Gloves come off in first debate between congressional candidates Don Coram and Lauren BoebertRepublican primary opponents offered voters a glimpse of their different approaches to legislating

IGNACIO – Sparks flew during Thursday’s debate between state Sen. Don Coram and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert as they jousted ahead of next month’s Republican primary.The two met Thursday morning at the Sky Ute Casino Resort in Ignacio in a crowded event center filled with about 150 people split down the middle, literally; Coram supporters on left and Boebert supporters on the right.It was the first of two debates scheduled for the candidates.Moderated by Dave Woodruff, general manager for El Moro Tavern and the Durango chapter president for the Colorado Restaurant Association, the two began by discussing gun control in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that left 21 people dead earlier this week before moving to more local topics such as public land management, wildfires, worker shortages and water.

In the strictly cast event with no signs and no cheering after questions, Boebert supporters broke out multiple times in applause while Coram supporters laughed at statements the congresswoman made, prompting Boebert at one point to shout “order.”The debate was relatively civil at the beginning with both candidates answering Woodruff’s questions and trading barbs, but it quickly devolved into attacks during the approximately 10 minutes of cross examination when each candidate was allowed to ask a question of the other and then respond.Boebert’s first attempt was less a question than a comment.“Don, I want you to hear this directly from me,” she said. “The information proposed about you at corruptcoram.com is absolutely facts, facts, facts. You are corrupt sir. You use your political office to pass legislation to line your own pockets.”When Woodruff interjected and asked the Rifle Republican to ask a question, she said: “Any comments?”Throughout her primary campaign, Boebert has taken to calling her opponent “Corrupt Coram,” alleging that he used his time in the Colorado Legislature to pass legislation that would benefit his hemp operation and citing the website “corruptcoram.com” and an editorial by The Gazette in Colorado Springs.Boebert’s campaign runs corruptcoram.com, and The Gazette editorial board endorsed Boebert in the 2020 election.

Coram, a Montrose Republican, returned the jab, noting the Federal Election Commission’s investigation into Boebert’s personal use of campaign funds and her failure to disclose her husband’s income from the energy industry.“You are absolutely false, and if you want to talk about corruption, let’s talk about you,” he said.During the debate, Coram positioned himself as a moderate who could work across the aisle. He relied heavily on his track record as a state representative and a senator in arguing for voters’ support.Boebert also touted her work in the U.S. House over the last year and a half, often answering Woodruff’s question by highlighting legislation she has introduced.

Coram finished his opening statement by challenging Boebert’s work, comparing her time in Congress to a football player who throws many passes but completes few.“You are introducing, introducing, introducing, but passing is the word,” he said.Both candidates hit on conservative policies, including border security, stopping fentanyl, reining in spending and a limited role for the federal government. However, Boebert attacked Coram’s Republican credentials throughout the debate.

She questioned Coram’s 2017 vote to fund the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, a voluntary and anonymous survey that asks middle and high schoolers about topics including sexual activity, drug and alcohol use, and suicide.Coram was one of two Republicans who voted to renew funding for the survey, which in recent years has become a target of conservatives.Boebert also targeted Coram’s vote for a 2019 bill that made less than 4 grams of fentanyl a misdemeanor, a vote Coram said he regretted.“I certainly stand by my votes and don’t regret them because I read the bills and understand them,” Boebert said.Though the candidates’ differed in their approaches to the debate – Boebert fiery and charismatic and Coram calm and reasoned – the starkest difference between the two was in their responses to Woodruff’s question about election integrity.Toeing the line of former President Donald Trump’s false election claims, Boebert said hundreds of thousands of votes were cast illegally and that the “Fauci-funded China virus” (coronavirus) interfered with the 2020 election, a statement that was met with guffaws from Coram’s supporters.Coram did not reject that voter fraud may have occurred during the last election, but he said there was no evidence to support Boebert’s claims, later telling reporters that every election has some degree of voter fraud but that it does not make a difference in the outcome.

“I’ve heard all these talks about all this evidence, but I’ve never seen it in a court of law,” Coram said during the debate.The responses from both candidates oscillated between addressing local and national issues as they sought to appeal to the Republican and unaffiliated voters in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District who will decide the June 28 Republican primary.The 3rd Congressional District covers the Western Slope of Colorado and extends to Pueblo County in the southern half of the state.Boebert often approached her responses through a national lens, assailing federal policies for Colorado’s workforce shortages and depicting immigration into a local issue.“Every state is a border state when you have 3 million illegal aliens invading our country,” she said.When asked by Woodruff after she discussed her vocal opposition to pandemic shutdowns why she voted no on the Restaurant Revitalization Fund Replenishment Act, which would put $42 billion toward supporting restaurants and small businesses affected by the pandemic, Boebert put her platform succinctly.“I would have to look at that bill specifically, but I’m sure that there was something with too much spending, not the proper role of government or not going through the proper order,” she said.Coram reiterated his background in agriculture and his time representing the Western Slope throughout the debate. He attempted to keep his answers focused on local issues relevant to the voters of the 3rd Congressional District, portraying Boebert as out of touch with the issues voters in the district face.

During the cross examination, Coram asked Boebert about her stance on water as a public trust.Public trust doctrine holds that water can never be privately controlled, a departure from Colorado’s system of prior appropriation, which essentially allows water to be possessed and sold by private individuals.Boebert dodged the question, leading Coram to ask it again.“I think that’s a great answer, but it doesn’t answer the question,” Coram said.The debate began awkwardly when Boebert met Coram on stage and Coram questioned why his opponent had notes, saying he believed the candidates’ campaigns had agreed to not allow them.Boebert, who referred to her notes throughout the debate, replied that the campaigns had agreed to allow paper.Speaking to reporters after the debate, Coram said he and his campaign felt good about the race, noting that unaffiliated voters, a growing subset of the district’s voters, will be able to cast a ballot in the primary. Boebert did not speak with reporters, instead engaging with her supporters after the event.A second debate between the two Republican candidates will be held in Pueblo ahead of the June primary, but a date and time has yet to be determined.Both candidates professed Thursday to offer voters their own approach to legislating.“I’ve been very effective in getting things done because I know how to work together and create coalitions,” Coram said. “We have a nation in D.C. that is so divided that they couldn’t agree on buying ice cream and that needs to change.”Boebert made a different pitch.“I ran as a conservative and I won as a conservative. I legislate as a conservative because I am one, and I will win this primary because I’m the only conservative in this race,” she said.ahannon@durangoherald.com

Gloves come off in first debate between congressional candidates Don Coram and Lauren Boebert

Republican primary opponents offered voters a glimpse of their different approaches to legislating

Durango tests ‘alternative’ fireworks Tuesday nightCity evaluating close-proximity pyrotechnics from perspective of safety and spectacle

Will residents of Durango finally be treated to an in-town fireworks show? The city is exploring ways to make it happen after going years without annual shows because of COVID-19 and extreme drought, said Ellen Babers, community events administrator for the city.“We’re looking for alternatives because it may be a reality that we can’t do the big fireworks anymore,” she said.The city held four fireworks tests from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at various locations around townwhich will be finalized Tuesday afternoon. But the tests, which consisted of only one 30- to 60-second burst at each site, weren’t worth planning an evening around, Babers said.The fireworks will make little noise, and the most residents might see are short bursts of light, according to a written notice from Babers.Because standard fireworks are considered too risky during severe drought, the city is trying alternative fireworks that are designed differently. Specifically, the city tested “close-proximity” fireworks that are designed to burn up completely without a trace. Whether the fireworks completely burn up remains to be seen, she said.The close-proximity fireworks shoot only 125 to 250 feet into the air and are designed so spectators can be as near as 50 to 80 feet away, although the best viewing distance is from 1,200 feet away, Babers said.

She said the close-proximity fireworks are similar to the types of fireworks used during the opening ceremonies at the Olympics and football games at Denver’s Mile High Stadium.The city is working with Zambelli Fireworks, its contracted fireworks provider, to see if the alternative fireworks might be a good fit for this year’s planned Fourth of July show, she said.The city tested both safety and impact. In other words, are the alternative fireworks safe and are they enjoyable? Babers said the Durango Fire Protection District and Fire Marshal Karola Hanks were present at the test sites to observe the fireworks in action.“They (the fireworks) are designed to have no fallout, but they need to look at it from a fire point of view nonetheless,” Babers said.To gauge how enjoyable the close-proximity fireworks are, the city stationed spectators at varying points around town who try to imagine how the fireworks might look on the night of July 4. They checked for visibility and impressiveness.“I have spotters all over the city at different locations,” Babers said.The tests were planned to be held at several locations around town.four of the following five locations, which hadn’t been finalized as of Tuesday morning Greenmount Cemetery, the Transit Center parking lot, the Transit Center roof, the 9-R Administration Building roof and La Plata County Fairgrounds Rodeo Arena floor were all possible testing grounds.

In a written notice, Babers said traffic control wouldn’t be needed although the Colorado Department of Transportation approved the placement of two message boards on Camino del Rio.She said residents who might have spotted the fireworks as they were being tested had no need to report them to the fire department. Just one test up to about a minute long was planned for each location.The city has considered other alternatives to traditional fireworks such as drone shows and laser light shows.Fourth of July festivities through the city will be spread out across Sunday, July 3, and Monday, July 4, this year, said Tim Walsworth at January’s Business Improvement District meeting.“Fireworks are hard in the age of climate change,” he said at the time.cburney@durangoherald.com

Durango tests ‘alternative’ fireworks Tuesday night

City evaluating close-proximity pyrotechnics from perspective of safety and spectacle

As of 4 p.m. Monday, Dec. 7

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