Saving the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad has operated for more than three decades as a tourist ride over the breathtaking Cumbres Pass, ten thousand feet above sea level in the Rocky Mountains. The sixty-four miles of the former San Juan Extension of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway were saved twice by volunteers from the railroad graveyard. In 1970, the States of Colorado and New Mexico bought the railroad, which runs from Chama, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, to Antonito, Conejos County, Colorado. New Mexico historian and C&TSRR commissioner and spokesman Spencer Wilson offers an insider's account of this triumphant tale of historical preservationists succeeding on an impressive scale.

Spencer Wilson has been a board member of both the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad and the former Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad Commission. He has also been a board member of the Historical Society of New Mexico, New Mexico Architectural Foundation, New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities and New Mexico Book League, among many other involvements. He taught at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology for more than two decades. He twice served as president of the Historical Society of New Mexico and also served as president of the Socorro County Historical Society.

Wes Pfarner is the photography archivist of the Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad.