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The Piute Lumber Company
© John R. Crandall 2000
PLCo #7 on the Rip Track
The Piute Lumber Company was started in the early
1870's by an eccentric young man named Deforester Kelly. He grew up in
Missouri and it seems young Deforester was helping his father clear some
land one day, when he was hit on the head by a falling tree and knocked
unconscious. After that he had this strange notion that he was some sort
of Paul Bunyon type of character with a deep seated hatred for trees of
all kinds. He headed out West to Colorado Territory to cut down trees since
there were few left East of the Mississippi. Why he didn't go to the Pacific
Northwest is anybody's guess, but after the accident, it was said that
he was, "a little touched in the haid".
After an arduous journey, with few trees to slake
his thirst for sap, he reached Denver. Finding few trees, except for a
few sickly Cottonwoods, Kelly spied the Front Range. These were mountains
covered with the hated trees. He left for Golden and followed Clear Creek
up to the point where Silver Plume would soon be built. Climbing over the
ridge, to the South, he headed uphill till he reached an area surrounded
by mountains. This is where Kelly decided to stop and set up his logging
operations. Kelly, mistakenly thinking, this to be indian territory, decided
to build a fort. This fort he called Dorf, for reasons unknown to this
day. Upon completion, he looked on his "Walled Dorf" and started calling
it just that. In later years this would be shortened to Waldorf.
After setting up his operation, he needed a name
for it and thought that by naming it for the indians of the area, he could
soothe some hurt feelings for taking their land and cutting their trees
and, also, to defray any attacks by the Nobel Red Man. He decided to call
his logging operation the Piute Lumber Company. He didn't think about the
fact that the Piute Indians where miles away in Arizona or that there hadn't
been an indian attack in many years.
Kelly had soon depleted the entire valley of trees and had a huge stack of timber,
that he needed to find a use for. Earlier, on one of his many trips down Clear
Creek for supplies, he had noticed a great building boom as Gold and Silver
was discovered. It was at this time he figured out that he could use his
passion for cutting down trees with his need for money. Now he needed a
way to get his large supply of timber to those who would pay for it. He
had heard of a railroad, the Big Yawn and Overbite, working it's way up
Clear Creek and decided to build a railway of his own to meet it. He thought
if he could grade it and lay the ties, he would be able to meet the BYOB
in Overbite, later to be renamed Silver Plume, to get rail, cars, and locomotives
for his new railway.
When the BYOB finally reached Overbite, March
10, 1884, Kelly made a deal with them to trade lumber for rail and cars
built in the BYOB shops, in Denver. He used money, from selling timber
to the many mines in the area, to purchase locomotives.
The Piute Lumber Company was now a full logging
and railway operation.
Slim & Stumpy visit the PLCo
PLCo #3 near Overbite Switch
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