Dam: I HaveThat All Washed Out Feeling.

[Chris Walker]

Where Buffalo Creek empties in to the North Fork of the South Platte R., someone had the idea to build a Dam for the harvesting of Ice.



http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/78053/rv/singleitem/rec/6


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/78083/rv/singleitem

[Robert McFarland]

DPL photos CHS.J3802 and CHS.5119 show what appears to be a dam and pond near the water tank at Pitkin.Could this have been to help provide water for the tank?Hettinger N.D. on the Milwaukee Road dug a small lake to provide for their engines.
There is an entire chapter in the DSP&P Pictorial showing damage to South Park track in Platte Canyon because of the failure of the Cheeseman Dam.

[Robert McFarland]

My mistake.That was actually the Goose Creek Dam.

[Derrell Poole]

You hit the nail on the head, Chris. That was what the 98 car (iirc ) siding at Riverview was for - loading ice. I found that out writing the ice articles. Was going to further that series someday. There was also a dam at Buffalo for the same reason. I don't know where it was located but the lay of the land and other hints suggest it was at or near the horse bridge to the south of town. And it may have been you that suggested the heavy tower structure seen in the photos was an ice house. All sorta makes sense. Ice was very, very big in the Platte Canyon.

[Rick Steele]

... and of course you forgot Maddox, Crossons and Crystal Lake....

<sigh>

Rick

[Robert McFarland]

It may not have had a dam,but there was some ice harvesting done on Como Lake.

[Robert McFarland]

Of course the topic of this thread is aimed at ice harvesting,but the failure of Goose Creek Dam washed out more than four miles of track in Platte Canyon disrupting operations for about 24 days-no through trains but they operated around it by routing traffic by way of the Colorado Midland.One C&S coal car caught in the flood area was never accounted for.

[Derrell Poole]

I think those operations are pretty well known, Rick. These Buffalo operation aren't. They were more pre and TOC with principles who gained involvement as early as the late '60s and early '70s - before the RR made it feasible to harvest ice from the Platte canyon.

[Jim Courtney]

And don't forget Haviland, just west of Pine Grove.

[Chris Walker]

Good job I just don't know when to quit...

Derrell,
How's this for a beauty?   Taken from about the location of the washout just west of the Riverview Tank by the looks of it.


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/72080/rec/82

[Jim Courtney]

Chris, I'm always amazed at the wonderful photos you come up with.

[Keith Hayes]

Nice ice houses.