I first investigated the area south of Mormon Lake back in 2006. My son and I walked and mapped a couple miles of line. I believe that we walked along a section of the original Arizona Mineral Belt (AMB).
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| Arizona Mineral Belt grade south of Mormon Lake |
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I've not updated this blog for several years for a variety of reasons that have prevented me from being able to get out in the woods. I'm looking to resume my research on the lines in the Flagstaff area. In particular, I want to finally determine the complete route of the original AMB line.
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I spent a few hours last week walking along a portion of the AMB grade. It had been a number of years since I've been down there. I've been going over some notes, emails from individuals familiar with the route and various maps. There are discrepancies as to the route in the Mormon Lake area that I'd like to get nailed down.
Here are a few photos.
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This is a spur that took off to the NW from the main line. I wasn't able to follow it because of the heavy runoff (visible to the left) from recent rains.
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12-29-2016
I headed out to the area south of Mormon Lake to locate and walk sections of line further to the south of where I've previously been. There was 8-12" of snow on the ground but I was still able to find the grade because many of the ties are still in place and were obvious even when covered with snow. I was only able to map a quarter mile or so before it became too difficult to get through the snow. I'm looking forward to spring so I can head back down and complete walking and mapping the line. A fork in the line was found in the short section I walked. The western fork is was likely constructed by the Flagstaff Lumber Company based on the direction it appears to be headed and also that a spike found was not the "hollow-back" type used on the AMB, Further investigation this coming year will hopefully determine the origin of this section of line. I believe that the use of these spikes on the AMB was described by Stein (1993).
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Ties are visible under the snow.
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While the pictures here are of the Arizona Mineral Belt (AMBRR) route, they are not the grade. The Flagstaff Lumber and Manufacturing (FLM) Co. built on top of the AMBRR up Fulton Canyon. My friend Ken and I have traced the entire AMBRR within about 10 feet over most of the length, and within 100 feet at the worst spot. We used the Profile Map from Cline Library Special Collections, which Denis Riordan had made in 1890 after he bought the AMBRR on the tax sale. We also used the location of hollowback spikes to verify most of it on the ground.
ReplyDeleteThe Profile Map unfortunately does not plot latitude vs longitude, but rather elevation above sea level (1/16” represents one foot) vs distance from downtown Flagstaff (one foot covers about a mile). There are two lines, a red one which is the railroad, and a black one which is the local terrain. This allows us to discern a cut or a fill.
One thing you need to be aware of – if you didn't use a metal detector, you didn't find the AMBRR. There are a few ties left, but very few. There are some fills and cuts that look railroad, but it isn't obviously AMBRR, due to the many later lumber railroads in the area. If it is obvious railroad, it is not the Mineral Belt (though that could be underneath a more recent one).
The Mineral Belt route can be divided into five sections:
1. to MP16 at Upper Lake Mary Dam was used by the Central Arizona Ry until about 1904
2. MP16.2 to 24.5 is pristine Mineral Belt, but partly under Upper Lake Mary and Pine Grove CG road
3. MP24.5 to 27.6 has the FLM on top of it
4. MP28 to 33 is pristine AMBRR from Dairy Spring to the bottom of Fulton Canyon
5. MP33 to 35.3 up Fulton Canyon to the end in Bear Park has the FLM on top again
I'll try to post more about this, but I am having some trouble getting my comments approved.
The route can be divided into five sections. The first 16 miles were later used by the Central Arizona Railway, and are fairly obvious, since this was maintained up until the removal of the rail in about 1904. Milepost (MP) 16 is just below the upper Lake Mary dam; there were two mills in this area, Mill #2 (1888-1894) below the dam, and the later Greenlaw Mill above the dam (1898-1904).
ReplyDeleteSection 2, from MP 16.2 to 24.5, is mostly pristine AMBRR grade, but there are some stretches with things on top. From MP 16.2 to 21.5, it has Upper Lake Mary on top of it, at least at times. At low lake level, one can explore some of this. But from MP 18.7 to 20.2, the FLM was on top of the AMBRR – this is from the Narrows Boat Landing to where the FLM turns due south out of the lake. When the lake is low, one can find hollowback spikes, and at the very south end of the lake, there is pristine grade with nothing having been on top of it.
The pristine grade at MP 21.5 has several cuts and fills, and hollowback spikes on it. It reaches Pine Grove Campground (PGCG) Road at MP 22.7, which is roughly on top of it until MP 22.9. If one drives in PGCG Road, one finds a gentle curve to the left and a bridge, then a sweeping curve to the right – it is at the end of this curve that the road goes on top of the AMBRR grade for about 0.2 miles. In the middle of the curve, there is a parking area to the left, and above this (to the west) is a very high fill of the AMBRR – perhaps 15 feet high.
From PGCG Road south to MP 24.5 the grade starts out as Arizona Trail, which is on top of the AMBRR. There are a few ties left in this stretch, but badly rotted, and many hollowback spikes. This might be a good time to point out that these are antiquities, and protected by USFS – if you find anything, please put it back. You can photograph it and mark the location with GPS, but leave it for others to understand this important part of history.
Section 3, from MP 24.5 to MP 27.6, the FLM grade is on top of the AMBRR, as is the Arizona Trail. Walking south, the Trail follows the AMBRR and then crosses over a meadow to the FLM. On the 7.5' quadrangle, there is a spur to the east of the FLM grade for a few hundred feet – this is the AMBRR, never the FLM. Eventually both railroads pass Pine Grove Hill through a saddle.
At MP 27.6 the FLM and AMBRR drop into Mormon Lake, beginning Section 4. The former is on the east side of the drainage, and quite obvious, with much fill, cut, and trestle. The Profile Map shows NONE of this for the AMBRR, so we have assumed it is under the Mormon Lake Road. It is here we could be 100 feet off from the correct route.
From MP 28 to MP 33, the AMBRR has never had anything on top of it. It passed Mormon Dairy below the road (the FLM is under the current road here), though it has been washed out along here. When the road turns west around the 'bay', the FLM is obvious, with rails sticking out of the grade. But the AMBRR is further out into the lake, though also following the contour a bit. We have found hollowback spikes and other railroad materials along this arc.
The AMBRR crossed a point of land at the south end of the 'bay' – this cut is on the Profile Map at MP 30. South of the 'bay', the AMBRR passed on the southwest of an 'island' with pine trees on it. This land belongs to John Dobrinski, and you should ask permission to go there. He is very nice and accommodating, but he may get tired of being asked. He told us that he remembered as a child seeing their horses stand on a 'ridge' out by the island, to keep out of the water; this is almost certainly the AMBRR grade, but it has eroded away since then.
ReplyDeleteThe AMBRR passed through what is now the rodeo corrals at Mormon Lake Lodge and passed a point with houses, finally crossing the road near the fire station. NOTE that NONE of this is visible on the ground. Without a metal detector, one would never suspect there was a railroad there. And with one, one needs to be within a few feet of the correct location to have any hope of finding anything. One word of caution – the county built a road on Mr. Dobrinski's property without his permission. He demanded they remove it, and they bulldozed it out past the island. So one can find railroad metal on the east side of the island, but there was never a railroad there.
After crossing Mormon Lake Road west of the fire station, the AMBRR crossed a meadow with a few trees in it, and at MP 33, the FLM again comes on top of it, starting section 5. This is the area shown in the pictures in this blog. The obvious ties and fills are FLM; the AMBRR is underneath, never to see the light of day again. At MP 34.3, the AMBRR (with a branch of the FLM on top) follow a side canyon up to Bear Park, where the end of track is at MP 35.3. Bear Park is private property; we are fortunate to have friends with a cabin there, so have explored it thoroughly.
The track ended (according to the Profile Map) after entering Bear Park and making a 90 degree curve to the left. Since then, two tanks have been bulldozed up, completely destroying the grade and burying any railroad metal. Still, based on several features on the Profile Map, and several comments in the survey books (also in Cline Special Collections), there is no doubt about where the rail ended.
The newspaper claimed that grading was complete for ten more miles, but the first thing on the Profile is a fill over 1000 ft long and up to 15 ft high, which is just not there. However, Tie Park, next to the southeast, is almost certainly named for ties that the AMBRR had stored there for future track work. None are left at this time. Without any railroad metal on potential grade, there is no way of knowing just what more had been done. The Profile shows a deep cut in the saddle between Bear and Tie Parks, which is definitely not on the ground.
I have made a GoogleEarth route, with locations of artifacts we have found, and have put it on Dropbox – it can be downloaded by going to the URL below.
ReplyDeleteSPOILER ALERT! If you want to find the route yourself, then don't look at this! But if you want to know where to look, download it to your disk, install GE (if you haven't), and just double-click on the file, which will open GE and display the route. When you close, you will be given an option to save the information. It's useful to set GE to not tilt the view, and to orient North up always. You can bring up a slider bar to look at older photos, that sometimes reveal more than the most recent one. Sometimes the very old b/w aerials show the route as two parallel dark lines.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/62cfn210m7awly5/AMBRR.kmz?dl=0