{"id":64585,"date":"2019-10-26T19:29:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T01:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/last-train-to-silverton-for-the-season\/"},"modified":"2019-10-27T01:29:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T01:29:00","slug":"last-train-to-silverton-for-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/last-train-to-silverton-for-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Last train to Silverton for the season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The last Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad engine on Saturday pulls cars filled with the final tourists to visit the old mountain town by rail for 2019. Businesses are hopeful for a snow-filled winter and the people it brings come December. But a month of solitude will be nice, one resident said.<\/span>Courtesy of Mark Esper, Silverton Standard<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Last winter\u2019s deep snow may have stalled Silverton\u2019s summer, but as the last train from Durango rolled into the old mining town Saturday, it was easy for many to say 2019 has been first-rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we had a banging year. It was busy, but not too busy,\u201d said Natalie Horne, an employee at Avalanche Brewing. \u201cThis year compared to last was way more consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for many, last-year\u2019s benchmark wasn\u2019t much of one to beat. The 416 Fire ravaged 54,000 acres of the San Juan National Forest in June 2018<\/a> \u2013 a disaster that drove tourists who part support Silverton\u2019s businesses away for at least a month. At least one business owner estimated revenues were down 40%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Myste French, a manager at the Grand Imperial Hotel, said many guests told her they had canceled plans in 2018 and rescheduled for this year. But a deep-snow year left much of the back country \u2013 including the Alpine Loop \u2013 inaccessible for months.<\/p>\n

The closures have forced visitors into new areas around Silverton, Horne said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, generally, people might have been upset that it took so long for Alpine Loop to open,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople who were mad, but the next day they came back and tried a different pass. There\u2019s still so much more to see. More just, like, a switch in perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

But high moisture also led to a lush alpine environment from late summer until early fall, French said. The wildflower season this year was \u201creally good,\u201d she said, and the fall colors lasted much longer into October than they did in 2018.<\/p>\n

Al Harper, owner of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, said 2019\u2019s season is comparable with 2017, \u201cwhich was a terrific year,\u201d he said. And people are still eager to ride \u2013 people already bought about 40% of the tickets for the company\u2019s Polar Express train this winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economy has been good, general public attitude good, we\u2019re feeling good about things,\u201d Harper said. \u201cWe\u2019re in a positive time, now.\u201d<\/p>\n

But after Saturday, business in Silverton all but comes to a halt. Flocks of tourists no longer walk the streets \u2013 it\u2019s mostly locals.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelieve me when I tell you, we\u2019re a town of 600 service-industry workers, and by the time the train stops, we all need a break,\u201d Horne said. \u201cWe kind of get our community back.\u201d<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Businesses, locals prepare for tourist exodus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,170,13,327],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-durango-and-silverton-narrow-gauge-railroad-co","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-silverton"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64585","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=64585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64585"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}