Letter from Matt Hutson
Marmots – August 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Ed,
As is my sick custom, this evening I am reading the July issue (received today) from cover to cover. The story you remember about Otto Mears hiring marmot killers is related in The Rainbow Route, page 167. It’s during the construction of the extension of the Silverton Northern from Eureka to Animas Forks. Your recollection varies somewhat from this version.
I think it’s in Jose Moore Crum’s Three Little Lines too, but I can’t seem to find my copy just now.
Cheers,
Matt Hutson
Crested Butte
Colorado Central thanks Matt for his fine memory. Here’s what he found in The Rainbow Route: An Illustrated History by Robert E. Sloan & Carl A. Skowronski.
“On the sixth of August, 1903, Anderson wrote to [Otto] Mears in Denver advising him that Wigglesworth estimated grading on the extension would be completed by the fifteenth. To speed the work, the road hired about 125 Navajo Indians as construction laborers and paid their fares to Silverton via the Denver and Rio Grande. This gang, supplemented by the large force of local men, was put to work on the big fill extending north half-a-mile from the Sunnyside mill at the edge of Eureka.
“The Indians were not very diligent laborers, much preferring to drop everything to enjoy the fun and excitement of chasing the numerous marmots playing along the grade. Mears, who had returned to the scene upon receiving Anderson’s letter, reacted explosively to such carefree joy and wasted effort; hiring some local lads, he gave them each a .22 caliber rifle and instructed them to get rid of the pesky little varmints….
“On August 14, Anderson advised in yet another letter to Mears that the Indians had been discharged at noon that day; it cost $778.50 to pay them for the 3½ days they had been on the job, including the time they spent chasing marmots.”
