The Complete History Of The Rio Grande Southern Narrow Gauge Railroad: Colorado's BEST Railroad

(Timestamp below, use it to pick up where you left off)
PART 1- https://youtu.be/G4YZ3qw4qMU
PART 2- https://youtu.be/P1cxvl6tSig
PART 4 (The finale!!)- https://youtu.be/tfQmFkVQI3E
Full series playlist- https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6UZ-1RfOYOk-fBWiwhrMV5ulgTGWJU2t&si=0eJDJuiBSm-GpHZF

Welcome to part 3 of my series about the Rio Grande Southern Narrow Gauge Railroad, which over a 160 mile long route, traversed the incredible San Juan Mountains, which is some of the most beautiful territory in the West. In this video, you get to learn an awesome amount of history, as well as see hundreds of pictures of the line from the 1800s to present day. I spent over a hundred hours making this video, make sure to leave a like and comment to boost this video in the algorithm, it would really help me and I do truly appreciate it. Thank you, and make sure to subscribe for future documentaries about the Rio Grande Southern and other railroads and ghost towns!

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0:00 Intro
1:11 The RGS's 1st events of the 1910s
1:58 The founding of Vanadium + Disasters
2:47 The Southern Pacific surveys Durango, & funny RGS story
3:49 Disaster strikes again, and the RGS is shut down
6:16 Technological improvements on the RGS, + a new railroad
6:55 Management problems
7:26 World War I begins, & new regulations come
8:29 The Cornet Creek Flood, & death of the Montezuma Lumber Company
9:06 Improvements along the Southern
10:27 America enters WWI
11:13 Shakeups along the line and it's leadership
12:07 The Great War ends
12:30 The Spanish Flu, & the RGS's response
13:49 World events of the 1920s
15:08 Beginning of the decade for the RGS, & the D&RG is reorganized
15:29 The RGS's operations in the 20s
16:32 The New Mexico Lumber Company's railroad
17:03 Oil shipments along the RGS
19:11 Calumet Fuel branch shuts down & the RGS continues to grow
19:59 Death of the Telluride mines, & more negative news
20:34 The Great Depression, & end of the decade
21:38 Retrospective on the 10s and 20s
22:45 A photoslide showing the RGS over the years, with beautiful music. This is the best part of the video
23:46 Final thoughts/outro
24:29 End credits
25:23 Updates on the final part of this series, and other documentaries

Check out my other documentaries!

The mines of La Plata Canyon, CO, near Durango, remain relatively unknown today, yet were once the site of multiple ghost towns, unique individuals, and some stellar mountains and scenery. In this video, you get a detailed history of the mines & ghost towns of the Canyon, and what remains of them today!
https://youtu.be/IchNbtN4s5E

The ghost towns along Cinnamon Pass, Colorado, were some of the most important towns in the region, producing hundreds of mines that gave thousands of people meaning in their lives. Today, they're surrounded by the best scenery in the San Juans. This is one of my all time favorite documentaries I've made because of how much I love the place.
https://youtu.be/sVr5JYNB8po

The ghost town of Chattanooga, CO, and the Silver Ledge Mine sit quietly along the Million Dollar Highway between Silverton and Ouray. They were once serviced by the Silverton Railway, and in this video you get to learn the history of all three of these things, while seeing hundreds of pictures!
https://youtu.be/ocXzWHp-wD8

The ghost towns of Alice, and Yankee Hill sit deep in the Rocky Mountains near Saint Mary's Glacier, Colorado. They were once important mining camps, and home to one of the best gunmen in the West, Willie Kennard, who was Colorado's FIRST black marshall, and lots of outlaws. The scenery in this area is awesome, Alice is one of my personal favorite ghost towns!
https://youtu.be/f0LkluptfZo

The history of the ghost town of Eureka, Colorado, & The Sunnyside Mine & Mill. This was my first documentary, and covers one of the most important towns in the San Juan Mountains, which was once Colorado's biggest producer of gold. It was connected to the world by the Silverton Northern Railroad. It is my all time favorite ghost town.
https://youtu.be/JNv-OSSWdHk

The ghost town of Ames, Colorado, was a mining town along the Rio Grande Southern R.R. and is the site of the Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant, which had a major electricity current breakthrough. Though it has been mostly forgotten, sitting in the Illium Valley near Telluride, it's still an amazing place to learn about with pictures to accompany the knowledge!
https://youtu.be/l1jNZOJ058g

Learn the story of the ghost town of Farnham Spur, CO, & the 7:40 Mine. It's my best narrated video, I sound excited, and you get to learn lots of stuff about mining, trains,
and Farnham Spur, through documents and archeological methods!
https://youtu.be/GXQzNfqakQY

Thank you so much for watching and have a great day!