Rio Grande Southern Album

Book excerpt: Rio Grande Southern Album is a fond look back at a railroad that threaded its way through the towering peaks of Colorado's silver district, defying both time & Nature to survive into the era of color photography. Built during the silver boom of 1891, its prosperity was short-lived. The Depression brought bankruptcy. Government support came during World War II, as the RGS hauled uranium ore for the first atomic bomb. Philip A. Ronfor was a New York artist whose work appeared in Argosy, True, & Colliers magazines. Rio Grande Southern Album is as much about the RGS as it is about the vision of an artist. The RGS was an anachronism, a living museum, & Ronfor used the new technology to preserve a slice of the nineteenth century. Rio Grande Southern Album is the 28th book produced by Ed Crist & the late John Krause, but our first all-color effort. While breaking new ground with color, it continues the fine black-&-white tradition that has brought readers the historical scope & diversity of America's railroads.