Showing posts with label Pacific Railroad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pacific Railroad. Show all posts

Sunday, January 18, 2009

QUARTERMASTER'S DEPOT

The Quartermaster's Depot sits on the banks of the Colorado River and was a Western Outpost for the military. The grounds, buildings and artifacts are now part of a State Park. The museum holds many, many wonderful old pictures and the most complete set of drawings of Civil War Uniforms known. The drawings were commissioned at a time when few leaders really thought it was important to record the various changes in uniforms over the years. Luckily for us, a very valuable history was preserved.
The depot was located near a shipping company on the banks of the Colorado River. The company brought paddle wheelers upriver to deliver goods as far up as Utah for $40 a ton. When a competitor went into business, the price dropped to $20 a ton. That is the devil in private enterprise and the savior is competition. It all came to a halt when dams impeded river traffic and the Pacific Railroad became the new "savior".

Travel is nothing if not educational and I will soon have to forget something to make room for all this new stuff I'm learning. At the museum, docents worked at weaving. This woman has a special loom called a shawl loom. Others made lace and turned cotton balls into weaveable threads.
Hasta La Vista