South Fork

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Creede
Wagon Wheel Gap
South Fork
Del Norte
Monte Vista

Additional Images

South Fork water tank 2000

Town view 1930

Related Information

South Fork, CO
Elevation 8,188 feet.
Denver 298.2 miles.

A fork in the Rio Grande leads to this town's name. 15 miles west of Del Norte you can either head northwest to Creede or southwest for Wolf Creek Pass. Either way, you are headed out of the San Luis Valley flatland and into the high mountains.

When the railroad arrived in 1881, things were booming in the area, and South Fork was becoming a large shipping point. Raw materials flowed out of the mountains to the east and finished goods took the return trip back into the mountains. Large lumber trucks carried the big logs from the forests to the mills around South Fork. Even today hopper cars carry loads of wood chips off to processing plants.

A railroad passenger depot was never built at South Fork. Instead there was a raised platform next to the tracks where the riders could collect. There was a water tank and section house. In fact the water tank still stands today and is the last standing standard gauge tank left on the railroad.

STEEL THROUGH TRUSS NEAR SOUTH FORK

Truss bridge across the Rio Grande 2000