Brief by Clint Driscoll
Railroad history – May 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
A part of the Denver, South Park & Pacific (DSP&P) narrow gauge railroad is rising phoenix-like from the ashes in Buena Vista. On October 18, 2002 at about 4:00 a.m. a fire occurred in the owner’s residence at the Woodland Brook Cabins, a long-established tourist resort in town. The fire began and was pretty much contained in the laundry room and the adjoining kitchen. The rest of the house was structurally intact, but heat and smoke destroyed or damaged a lot of the contents. Homeowner Riian Van Niekerk escaped unhurt; his wife Marjorie was out of town at the time.
Unbeknownst to most town residents, the Van Niekerk home was originally the Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad depot, which was constructed in 1880 at the east end of Buena Vista’s Main Street where the elementary school playground is now. At that time a DSP&P spur line ended in Buena Vista, where Leadville-bound freight and passengers transferred to the Denver & Rio Grande.
The main Denver, South Park and Pacific line came over Kenosha Pass from Denver, across South Park and over Trout Creek Pass to Nathrop. From there the line went up Chalk Creek to St. Elmo, Romley, Hancock and finally through the famous Alpine Tunnel to Pitkin and Gunnison. The Pacific in the railroad’s name was a dream that never came true.
When the line quit coming into Buena Vista, the depot was shut down, and in 1927 it was sold and moved to its present site at 226 S. San Juan Street. It became a private residence for the people that started Woodland Brook. Sometime in the 1930s the laundry room and kitchen were added to the structure, the freight doors were walled over, the tall depot-style windows were partially boarded over, and the entire building was stuccoed.
After the October fire, the Van Niekerks decided to build a new home on the site, but the thought of demolishing such an historic structure went against their values. They contacted the Buena Vista Heritage Society and offered to give the building to the group if the group could move it. Suzy Kelly and Melanie Milam Roth, both local historians and preservationists, jumped at the opportunity and with the assistance of members of the DSP&P Historical Society and interested local citizens, have managed to begin the moving process.
Moving the structure will cost about $11,000. The Van Niekerks have contributed $5,500 and the Chaffee County Commissioners approved $2,750 from the county conservation trust fund. That donation is contingent on Buena Vista raising a matching $2,750 which looks likely. On April 8, the town trustees went on record as approving $1,700 from the town conservation trust fund. A resolution approving the appropriation should be on the agenda of the next meeting on April 22. Kelly is positive she can raise the remaining $1,000 from local donations.
Before the depot can be moved the stucco had to be stripped to lighten the whole structure. Volunteers and BV Correctional Facility crews spent two Saturdays removing the stucco and knocking out the interior walls. County commissioners authorized six tandem dump truck loads of debris to be deposited at the county landfill free of charge. The newly exposed exterior wooden walls, window frames and basic structural members are in remarkably good condition.
Buena Vista has also been in negotiations with the Union Pacific Railroad, present owners of the unused D&RG tracks and right-of-way running through town, to set a long-term lease on the right-of-way where the depot can be set up as a museum/visitor’s center. Lease payments require a ten-year up- front charge of $2,500 plus $250 per year for the next ten-year portion. Whether costs of the lease would be recouped by subleasing to the historical society or in some other manner has not yet been determined.
–Clint Driscoll