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Osier, CO Near the headwaters of the Los Pinos basin a small railroad town that was eventually called Osier began to sprout. The Rio de Los Pinos starts carving through the old volcanic rock in the area. A massive canyon quickly develops just west of Osier and leads into the monumental Toltec Gorge a few miles downstream. In 1884 the Osier hillside was known as Jenkins Gardens. Enterprising Jenkins had a homestead here, operated the toll road, acted as postmaster and owned a restaurant and saloon. At one time there were several hundred residents living in Osier.
THE RAIL YARD Early railroad buildings
at Osier included a Depot, Section House, Bunk house, Water Tank and
Coaling Platform. Most of the railroad structures are still there, but the rest of
the town
has disappeared. A covered turntable operated
at one time. It was similar to the one at Cumbres Pass. The turntables were covered to keep them operational in
the snowy winters. The turntable at Osier was constructed around 1888 and was
a 50' diameter Keystone. There were a series of structures attached to
the turntable near the Depot. At times helper
engines were stored there.
DEPOT The Osier Depot is very small, about 16x24. This station had fine wood beaded interior boards. The south view shows evidence of remodeling that included restrooms and drinking fountains. The original wood floor was removed, the foundation back filled and a concrete floor installed.
This
Section House has the same basic shape as the one at Cumbres Pass. There were two additions to the
Osier Section House. One was an
addition on the southeast that contained two more full size rooms. The other addition included the
kitchen and what
was probably one extra room. A large front porch was added on the track side.
The original water tank at Osier was constructed in 1880. Old photos show that the existing tank was constructed west of the original in about 1918. This water tank is fed by a spring that supplied the water to the whole site for some time.
One
inexpensive way to store coal was to use a flat elevated platform. The platform
was raised up on heavy timbers to avoid shoveling coal from ground level into the high locomotive
tenders. When an engine or other equipment needed coal it was pulled up to the
platform and the back breaking chore of shoveling the coal from the platform to
the equipment began. The
platform at appears to have been built in 1880 along with the log
bunk house.
OSIER TODAY New
additions to the Osier site include the Main Dining Hall built in 1979.
The dining hall is a two-story structure with serving area, eating area and
restrooms at the track level. The lower level holds the main kitchen, gift shop,
additional eating areas and food storage facilities. The new structure has
been a welcome addition during unpleasant and cold weather. You can order
lunch from the dining facility or bring your own. There are picnic
tables outside for sun worshipers. The
Osier loop was recently completed in 1994. It is another major addition
to the site. The loop allows the engine to turn around on trains such as the
moon-light special. Without the loop the engineer had to back a single train to
Cumbres for a return trip to Chama. Under normal operations a single engine
travels one direction from Chama to Antonito.
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