{"id":41566,"date":"2022-03-20T23:13:02","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T05:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-railroad-operator-poised-to-operate-old-tucson-site\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:02:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:02:02","slug":"durango-railroad-operator-poised-to-operate-old-tucson-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-railroad-operator-poised-to-operate-old-tucson-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango railroad operator poised to operate Old Tucson site"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The remains of Old Tucson Movie Studios after a fire engulfed much of the park a day earlier in Tuscon in 1995. (Arizona Daily Star via AP file)<\/span>Arizona Daily Star file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

TUCSON, Ariz. \u2013 A company that operates historic railroads in Durango and North Carolina is poised to take over operations of Old Tucson, a western-themed attraction that served as a film set for classic movies, television productions and commercials, officials said.<\/p>\n

Pima County officials on Friday recommended that the county Board of Supervisors approve an agreement to have Durango, Colorado-based American Heritage Railways <\/a>take control of the southern Arizona landmark, local media outlets reported.<\/p>\n

Old Tucson\u2019s previous operator closed the attraction in 2020<\/a> because of financial fallout from the coronavirus. The lease for the 180-acre site in the desert on Tucson\u2019s western outskirts reverted to Pima County, the property owner.<\/p>\n

Built in 1939 as a replica of the 1860\u2019s-era Tucson by Paramount Pictures for the movie \u201cArizona,\u201d Old Tucson has served as the site for more than 400 films, television series, music videos and commercials.<\/p>\n

Fire destroyed much of the attraction in 1995.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all so excited for this opportunity to be in Tucson, to work at Old Tucson, which is such an historic site, and to really bring what we do best \u2013 which is the entertainment, the preservation, and bringing this property back to life,\u201d John Harper, American Heritage Railways\u2019 manager, told KGUN-TV.<\/a><\/p>\n

American Heritage Railways\u2019 properties include the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad<\/a> in Durango and the Great Smokey Mountains Railroad<\/a> in Bryson City, North Carolina.<\/p>\n

The county board is expected to vote April 5 on an five-year operating agreement with possible extensions, the Arizona Daily Star<\/em><\/a> and KOLD-TV <\/a>reported.<\/p>\n

The company would pay Pima County $60,000 annually to rent the property and 4% of its annual gross operating revenue, with the money going toward capital maintenance and expansion.<\/p>\n

\"Durango
Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad locomotive 482 leaves the Durango depot pulling the first train of the season to Silverton in 2019. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Western-themed attraction has served as a film set<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[950,170,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango","tag-durango-and-silverton-narrow-gauge-railroad-co","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85014,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41566\/revisions\/85014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41566"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}