The National Archives

The College Park, Maryland Branch of the National Archives holds a large quantity of DSP&P material as part of Record Group 134. This material was gathered during the Interstate Commerce Commission valuation of the Colorado & Southern, successor to the DSP&P.

To access this material effectively, it is necessary to know the "valuation section" for the portion of the line on which information is desired. The following table of valuation sections will permit easy retrieval of both map and textual records.

Route	Valuation Section
Sheridan Jct. to Garos to Alma	14
Morrison Branch	14A
Hilltop Branch	14B
Garos to Macune	14C
Macune to Hancock	15
Hancock to Quartz	15A
Quartz to Parlin	16
Parlin to Gunnison	16A
Gunnison to Baldwin	17
Como to Leadville	18
Dillon to Keystone	18A

C&S fans will notice these valuation sections cover the entire original South Park, but that the dividing lines correspond to portions out of service or operated by the D&RG at the time of the valuation.

The surviving records for these lines fall into several categories: the engineering field notes, the valuation maps, and the field engineering report.

Engineering Field Notes

A variety of valuation teams actually traveled the entire route of each railroad during the valuation period, measuring distances, describing bridges, buildings and right-of-way, and taking a variety of inventories. The results were captured in pencil in notebooks with a standard format and organization. A significant volume of this material has survived for the South Park.

The surviving engineering field notes are at the College Park Archives in location 58A434, boxes 154-156. Organization of this material is haphazard. Box 154 contains the bulk of the material for the line west of Buena Vista. Box 155 covers the Platte Canon District from Como to Sheridan Junction. Box 156 has the Como-to-Leadville notes.

The various boxes include chaining notes, building descriptions, and inventories for the valuation sections listed above. In general, the notes include very detailed descriptions of trackage and buildings. For example, a typical building entry gives overall dimensions, dimensions of doors and windows, and information on construction materials. Sketch floor plans are included for the more important buildings. A few badly-deteriorated photos are in bound into the notebooks for buildings at Como and Jefferson. All material is high in modeling value. The primary historical value comes from scattered notes on the dates for the construction of various industrial loading spurs.

To access this material, it is necessary first to see the responsible archivist, David Pfeiffer (301-713-7230) in Room 2600 of the 2nd Floor Textual Records Department. He will assist in completing the necessary forms. Materials are brought from the storage stacks only four times a day, so plan to start the process early in the day. Portable computers are allowed in the research room, and self-service xeroxing is available at 10 cents a page.

Field Engineering Report

The Field Engineering Report produced by the valuation process is a summary compiled from the work of the field parties. This report for the South Park portion of the C&S is believed to still exist but has not been examined by this researcher. This material can be retrieved with the help of David Pfeiffer. It is also reported that copies of this material can be ordered over the phone. (The valuation section identifications given above will be necessary to specify the appropriate portions of the full C&S document for a phone order.) In general, based on an examination of the equivalent report for a number of railroads, this report will be low in modeling value but high in roster and historic value.

Valuation Maps

A full set of valuation maps appears to exist for the South Park. (All valuation sections except 18 and 18A have been examined by this researcher, and the two remaining sections are listed in the Archives' indexes.)

This material is maintained by the Architectural and Cartographic Records Department on the 3rd Floor of the College Park Archives. Personnel in this department are not uniformly familiar with the valuation maps, so when requesting this material it helps to project an air of sublime confidence! ("I know all about valuation maps. This is going to be easy.") The retrieval process is as follows: 1. Request the Record Group 134 finding aid (a notebook shelved in the reading room). 2. Use the railroad name and valuation section to identify in the finding aid the "bundle number" in which the desired material is stored. 3. Submit a request for those bundles. Again, material is pulled only a few times a day, so start as early in the day as possible.

The valuation maps contain detailed information on the right-of-way, railroad buildings and bridges, adjacent private structures, and the like. They are drawn at a variety of scales (100, 200 or 400 feet to the inch) and are excellent for layout-planning purposes. The valuation maps also provide some historical data, mainly due to the land ownership information included on each sheet.

There is no self-service copying of these maps. Up to ten maps a day will be xeroxed by the reading room personnel for each researcher. The cost for valuation maps is $12.50 per sheet per 25"x58" sheet. The original blueprint maps copy very clearly. Maps may also be ordered through the mail. In this case, it is necessary to give the railroad, valuation section, and sheet desired (see the table below). Copying is done by a private contractor, Reprographic Products Group (1-800-655-1964), and a sheet will cost about $21, not including shipping. Contact RPG directly to initiate a copying order.

The biggest problem in dealing with the valuation maps is their sheer volume. Given the cost, a complete set of maps is a possibility only to the most fanatical of South Park fans. For those modeling particular locations, however, a few maps can be an excellent investment. As an example, this researcher, whose interest is the Kenosha-to-Baldwin section, felt he had made a major leap forward in modeling information with a fairly affordable investment of only eight sheets. With the latter premise in mind, here is this researcher's rating of the modeling interest of the various maps on the South Park. (The High Line maps have not yet been examined.) While such a rating is very subjective, in general, the areas rated as higher interest have more trackage, lineside buildings and modelable scenes.

In the following table, the sheets are identified as valuation section-sheet number. Scale is given in feet to the inch.

Valuation Section- Sheet No.	Principal Features	Scale	Interest
14-1	Sheridan Jct.	400	medium
14-2	MacRose	400	low
14-3	Chatfield	400	low
14-4	open country	200	low
14-5	Castter, Waterton	200	medium
14-6	Intake, two Platte River Bridges	200	medium
14-7	curves	200	low
14-8	curves	200	low
14-9	Deansbury	200	medium
14-10	South Platte	200	medium
14-11	Dome Rock	200	medium
14-12	curves	200	low
14-13	Dawson's, Stone Spur, Foxton	200	low
14-14	Argyle, Ferndale	200	low
14-15	Cloudcrest, Riverview, Buffalo	200	medium
14-16	curves	200	low
14-17	Pine Grove, Crystal lake	200	medium
14-18	Haviland	200	low
14-19	Cliff, Crossons	200	low
14-20	Crosson	200	low
14-21	curves	200	low
14-22	Estabrook	200	low
14-23	Insmont. Fairview, Bailey	200	low
14-24	Bailey, Glenisle	200	low
14-25	Grousemont, Maddox	200	medium
14-26	Altruria, Shawnee	200	medium
14-27	Riceville, Long Meadow	200	low
14-28	Singleton, Llangollen, Weller	200	low
14-29	Cassells, Grant	200	medium
14-30	Grant	200	low
14-31	Webster	200	medium
14-32	dramatic curves	200	medium
14-33	Hoosier	200	low
14-34	Hosier	200	low
14-35	Kenosha	200	medium
14-36	Case Spur	200	low
14-37	Tie Siding, Jefferson	200	medium
14-38	open country	200	low
14-39	Michigan, Fox Spur	200	low
14-40	open country	200	low
14-41	Como	200	high
14-S41	Como	100	high
14-42	open country	200	low
14-43	open country	200	low
14-44	Red Hill	200	low
14-45	open country	200	low
14-46	Hay Ranch	200	low
14-47	Hay Ranch	200	low
14-48	Burrows Spur	200	low
14-49	Arthurs	200	low
14-50	Garos, two Platte River bridges	200	medium
14-51	Garos, Platte ranch	400	low
14-51a	Cohens Spur	400	low
14-52	open country	400	low
14-53	Hilltop Jct., Fairplay	400	low
14-S53	Fairplay	100	medium
14-54	Snowstorm, Alma	400	medium
14A-1	Sheridan Jct., Ft. Logan	200	low
14A-2	Lakeland	200	low
14A-3	Junglewood, Bedford	200	low
14A-4	Lee, Cowan	200	low
14A-5	open country	200	low
14A-6	Strouseville, Morrison	200	high
14A-S6	Strouseville, Morrison	100	high
14A-6A	long spur from Morrison	200	low
14B-1	Hilltop Jct.	400	low
14B-2	curves	400	low
14B-3	Horseshoe, Mudsill, Leavick	400	low
14C-1	Cohen's Spur	400	low
14C-2	Platte River	400	low
14C-3	curves	400	low
14C-4	Bath	400	medium
14C-5	Hess, Newett	400	low
14C-6	curves	400	low
14C-7	wye to Buena Vista	400	low
15-1	Buena Vista	200	low
15-S1	Buena Vista	100	high
15-2	Macune wye, Arkansas bridge	200	low
15-3	Schwanders	200	low
15-4	Arkansas bridge	200	low
15-5	Nathrop	200	low
15-6	open country	200	low
15-7	open country	200	low
15-8	Chalk Creek bridges, Mt. Princeton	200	low
15-9	Chalk Creek bridge	200	low
15-10	Glencliff [sic]	200	low
15-11	Fisher, Glen Cliff [sic]	200	low
15-12	Fisher	200	low
15-13	curves	200	low
15-14	St. Elmo	200	medium
15-15	Golf Mill and Romley	200	medium
15-16	Hancock	200	medium
15A-1	Alpine Tunnel	400	medium
15A-2	Palisades, Sherrod, Woodstock	400	high
15A-3	curves	400	low
15A-4	Quartz	400	low
16-1	Parlins	400	medium
16-2	open country	400	low
16-3	Ohio City	400	low
16-S3	Ohio City	100	high
16-4	open country	400	low
16-5	Pitkin, Quartz	400	low
16-S5	Pitkin	100	high
16A-1	Parlins	400	low
16A-2	open country	400	low
16A-3	Biebels, east Gunnison	400	low
17-1	Gunnison	400	medium
17-S1A	Gunnison yard	100	high
17-S1B	Gunnison yard	100	high
17-2	Wylie	400	low
17-3	Teachout, Lehman & Miller	400	low
17-4	Hinkles	200	low
17-5	Castleton	200	high
17-S5A	Castleton	100	medium
17-S-L.5b	Castleton (off-line real estate only)	100	low

The Library of Congress

The Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress contains an additional quantity of valuable South Park material. The Map Division is located in the Madison Building (across the street from the main building) in downtown Washington, DC. The material in the Map Division falls into three categories: panoramic maps, insurance maps, and other maps.

Panoramic Maps

Panoramic maps show a geographical area (typically a town) as if viewed from above at an oblique angle. The library has a collection of over 1700 of these maps. Those of interest for South Park fans include:

• Buena Vista, 1882 - G4314 .B87A3 1882 .S7
• Denver, 1881 - G4314 .D4A3 1881 .F6
• Denver, 1887 - G4314 .D4A3 1887 .R6
• Denver. 1889 - G4314 .D4A3 1889 .W4
• Gunnison 1882 - G4314 .G9A3 1882 .S7
• Leadville 1882 - G4314 .L5A3 1882 .W4

The Map Division is currently in the process of putting these maps on-line. The URL for this collection is:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/p mhtml/panhome.html
When complete, this will be an great way to preview the maps, which provide excellent modeling and historical data.

The Map Division has recently tightened controls on self-service xeroxing to better preserve its collection. You will need to check the current rules when you visit. Photographic reproductions of the maps may be purchased by mail using the information supplied above. Contact the Photoduplication Service, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540 for details.

Insurance Maps

The Map Division also maintains an extensive collection of Sanborn Fire Insurance maps. These are a building-by-building mapping, updated every few years, of those parts of important towns which were covered by fire insurance policies. For buildings shown on the maps, these are the ultimate source of modeling and historic data. Beware, though! Some towns are not covered at all, and in others, large areas were never mapped in the absence of insurance coverage.

South Park towns covered in the collection include Denver, Leadville, Fairplay, Buena Vista, Pitkin and Gunnison. The front desk of the Map Division reading room has finding aids listing the cities covered and the years for which maps are available.

The Map Division formerly allowed self-service xeroxing of the Sanborn maps, but now apparently offers only reproduction from microfilm copies.

Other Maps

The Map Division maintains a large collection of other miscellaneous maps of interest to South Park researchers. Among those examined by this researcher are mining district maps, an early survey map from a prospectus of the railroad, and others. These maps are not indexed in public catalogs, and are accessed by describing the area of interest to a reference librarian. A talk with one of the Map Division's reference librarian about the area, time frame, and subjects of interest in your research will identify a variety of DSP&P-related material.