In 1939, as the United States continued to struggle to fully recover from the decade-long Great Depression, places like Westcliffe were still far from experiencing any real economic change. The 38-year-old spur of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad made its last railroad run in 1939, and the tracks were quickly pulled to be sold as scrap to meet the demand for armaments from the growing but distant conflict of World War II. Like a ghost from the past, a steam whistle blew for the first time in 86 years this past Saturday in the Wet Mountain Valley behind the…