Keith Hayes - Brother Derrell should start building more box cars!
West of Buffalo at MP 58.3, are a number of large, very flat meadows. This was the site of Maddox and
Alturia. A pair of rather long sidings that almost lapped one another. The
meadows, one of which today is the site of the Platte Canyon High School football
field, were once used to make ice for harvest.
At this location was the Maddox Ice Company, and there were several large sheds along the line to
hold the ice prior to shipping. Tom Klinger published a number of
images of ice loading in the Platte Canyon book. In one image, there are over
30 box cars on the siding in the process of being loaded!
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| Haviland, Colorado. Denver Public Library. |
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| These will be hung in a few homes along Hemlock Street! |
Keith Hayes
Leadville in Sn3
Now there's a detail that should be on every layout across the country which depicts this time period. Thanks for the tip Keith!
ReplyDeleteOkay...
ReplyDelete...Bro Keith. Let's set aside that I have been building boxcars right along side "Reefer Madness" since the early 1980; where was Maddox Ice Company located? You live in the Denver Metro - where is that location today?
I'll have a go... Alcott Street (approximately northwest corner of 6th Ave. and I-25 on west side of the river)?
DeleteIt is currently the site of Robinson Dairy. I can throw a stone from my office and hit the place.
Did I win??
You win a gold star, D. That is exactly where it was.
ReplyDeleteWanna go for Zangs Brewery and make it a double - speaking (or not speaking) of reefer madness? Anybody? Where did Zangs get their ice after the late 1870s? Where did the South Park typically load their Reefers with Ice?
Forget reefer madness?... the very idea, brother Keith. You should repent to ALLL the Beer Drinkers in Colorado. Past and present!
Thanks. As for Zangs, I can only guess that is somewhere near where the aquarium is today?
DeleteHelp us out on the icing question. I haven't a clue.
Essentially you are correct. In fact the main Brewery sat in the parking lot to the S.W. of the Aquarium and the Aquarium itself is located where the Brewery Stables were (later a Furniture store). The Powerhouse was located down the hill close to the river. The C&S Westside line ran between the Powerhouse and the River. Just to the northeast of the Brewery a bridge from the 7th Street Yards crossed the River into the Westside Line. Today the 7th Street Facilities is the location of 6 Flags Elitches. Immediately to the S.W. of all of this is Investco Field.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't ask about where the South Park iced its reefers; As near as I can tell sometime in the mid to late 1880s the Colorado Ice and Cold Storage Company began at the corner of Grand (14th Ave) and Shoshone altho at the time that Street appears to have been named something else. I believe this area is west of Sante Fe under the Interstate more or less. Even tho the C&S built its own (1 1/2 car length) icing platform somewhere in the 15th Street Yards (between 15th and 17th Streets ??) the C.I.&C.S.Co. continued to do business well into the 20th Century and undoubtedly continued to supply the RR with ice. Both Standard and Narrow Gauge cars had access. Tyhere were at least two spurs into the Ice company's facilities which raises the question; did the Rr supply the Ice co with ice? (This would have been a SG operation, most likely.)
I recall a sprawling large building with attic vents a a long sign labeling it as the Colorado Ice Company on a lot south of the Colfax viaduct. It was always on my to-do list to get some images, and it just never got done. It was a large structure. Was it where the Auraria sports fields are now slated to go?
ReplyDeleteKeith Hayes
Leadville in Sn3