Murder at Toltec Gorge: A Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Adventure

“Murder at Toltec Gorge,” surprisingly, is a love story. Unfortunately, love, a raw human emotion, is sometimes accompanied by violence. Such is the case here.

Set during 1927, the tale is one of historical fiction involving workers for the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. The D&RGW, initially chartered in 1870 in Denver, Colorado, was intended to reach El Paso, Texas.

As it progressed south, bringing both good and evil along, it reached Antonito, Colorado, in 1880. But with El Paso as a goal, silver had been discovered in the San Juan Mountains in the late 1870s. And the railroad wanted to make money. So a 90-degree right turn occurred at Antonito, as rails headed west towards Durango and Silverton, Colorado.

Each new section station along the route was staffed with a foreman, a cook, usually the foreman’s wife, and about a dozen young rail maintenance workers. Arriana Garcia is the woman of the house at Sublette, New Mexico, on the D&RGW’s San Juan Extension. It’s a lonely, isolated mountain place, 9,276 feet up, where winters are harsh. Twelve young rail workers live in two bunkhouses next to the section house, and Mrs. Garcia cooks for everyone. She is the only female.

Though imperfect, she is stunningly beautiful. No lonely railroad male employee is immune from her charm.

Arri Garcia is from a traditional Hispanic background in Alamosa, Colorado. Her husband, Leo, the Sublette section foreman, is also from Alamosa. When World War 1 came along in 1914, men like Leo Garcia went to war to be affected by it, not always in the best of ways. The Great War also altered the behavior of women in the United States, where they substituted for men in factories, lived more independently, and liked it. In 1920, they got the vote. In 1927, during the Roaring 20s, many American women like Arri Garcia were rethinking traditional roles.

Leo Garcia was decorated for bravery in France during 1918, a hero. Garcia is a strict, effective railroad supervisor, but he has a dark side, a souvenir of the war. Leo is an abuser. Foreman Garcia rules his home the same way he rules his section gang – through intimidation and fear.

Eliseo Marinez, 28, is a star engineer for the D&RGW. He grew up in Conejos, Colorado, serving as an altar boy in Our Lady of Guadalupe church. Over time, Eli quietly falls in love with the married Arriana Garcia, though he knows better. More than once, Martinez sees fresh bruises on Arri. Finally, infuriated, he tells his best friend, fireman Samuel Gonzales: “If he hurts her again, I’ll kill him!”

Sam realizes that Eli has stepped into a Sublette funnel in which there’s only room for two people to come out alive. This can’t be good, thinks Sam. This can’t be good at all.

The author is a 31-year career police officer who now works as a docent for the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, the successor since 1970 to the Denver & Rio Grande Western. Although the story is fictional, some aspects parallel actual cases handled during his law enforcement days. Take this exciting ride through the San Juan Mountains on the Colorado & New Mexico Express by reading “Murder at Toltec Gorge”!