Preparing to cross Wolf Creek Pass

Photo courtesy John M. Motter
Work crews constructing Wolf Creek Pass camped near the work site. Much of the work during 1915-16 was manual with hand tools. Rock had to be loosened with dynamite, then the resulting fragments were moved.

Wolf Creek Pass officially opened Aug. 21, 1916. A Pagosa Springs resident crossed the new pass that first summer. Here, in the words of Myrtle Hersch, is the story of that first crossing.

“In February of 1916, our Chalmers car was shipped from Pagosa Springs by the Denver & Rio Grande narrow gauge railroad to Santa Fe, New Mexico, as the town was snowed in at that time of the year. There, our family, consisting of my husband David, our thirteen-year-old son Joseph, and small daughter Marguerite and I began a leisurely tour of 6,000 miles through warmer and lower altitude states. We planned our homecoming over the new pass, later in the summer, from the east side.

The full version of this story is available in the print edition and e-edition of the Pagosa Springs SUN. Subscribe today by calling (970)264-2100 or click here.