Durango, Rico and Northern, Plan

The Durango, Rico and Northern Railroad was conceived in the late 1800's as part of a network of rails and stagecoach lines designed to tie together the mountain rich ore towns between Durango and Rico and points North. Originally surveyed by Thomas Wigglesworth in 1881 for the Denver and Rio Grande, the route is generally believed to be the product of Otto Mears as part of the Rio Grande Southern. The line left Animas City, North Durango, ran several miles up the Las Animas River Valley, then up the North fork of Hermosa Creek and then down Scotch Creek just South of Rico.