Angell siding

Portion of the 1919 GLO map

I recently looked at the 1919 General Land Office (GLO) map for T21N, R10E. This area is just east of Winona and the Angell railroad siding is here. I was intrigued by the "Dam" shown in Young's Canyon in the NE quarter of section 22. The current USGS topo shows a weir in nearly the same spot. I went here a couple of days ago and found both the dam and the weir. The dam is in pieces but the weir, further to the west, is intact. It appears to be more recent than the dam and the maps seem to support that. What really interested me was a road/trail that had been built to access the dam. There is some impressive rock work and the trail immediately adjacent to the dam is bordered by a well-constructed rock and concrete wall. I grew up in AZ and am familiar with work done by ranchers and this is much more meticulous. Ranchers tend to build sturdy but very basic structures that are designed to not be fancy but just get the job done.

I'm guessing that this is related to the railroad and that the trail was used by the railroad to transport water from behind the dam to the water tank shown on the map. The trail goes to the east and does not seem to go further to the west (past the weir which is ~100 m past the dam) toward the Piper ranch. Perhaps there was a pipeline that followed the trail from the dam to the water tank but there isn't any evidence of it now.

Portion of current USGS 1:24,000 Angell topographic map

North end of the wye.

View of the wye, looking north.

The concrete pad the rails are on is the foundation of a past railroad building, likely the station.

This is the first portion of the trail/road that I came across. A section of the rock used to stabilize the road has collapsed.

Section of the trail/road NE of the dam. People have recently driven on this portion. 

Limestone rocks supporting the trail/road.

Just east of the dam.

Trail adjacent to the dam. There is a platform between the trail and the drainage.

This is the largest piece of the dam. It has actually moved so that it is now oriented parallel with the drainage. The large stump is a ponderosa pine. They are very uncommon this far east of town.

Remains of the dam on the south slope of the drainage.

A couple pieces of the dam just downstream.

Trail between the dam and the weir.

This weir is located roughly 100 m upstream from the dam.