Mt. Sneffels Press is pleased to welcome the Ridgway Railroad Museum to its list of authors! Their new book, Narrow Gauge Railroading in the San Juan Triangle, can now be ordered from the Mt. Sneffels Press catalog.
 
In the summer of 2005 the Ridgway Railroad Museum approached David Mullings, the editor and owner of The Ouray Plaindealer and The Ridgway Sun, with a proposal to write semi-monthly columns for these two newspapers on topics relating to the narrow gauge railroading history of Ouray County. David agreed and the first article was published in the Ouray Plaindealer in October of 2005. Over the past three and a half years more than 40 of these articles have now been published.
 
The authors of these articles, who are all active members of the Ridgway Railroad Museum, include Tom Hillhouse (retired corporate attorney and Vice president of the Ouray County Historical Society), Rodney Holloway (Ridgway Railroad Museum volunteer and too young to retire), Bonnie Koch (retired elementary teacher and Ridgway Railroad Museum Educational Coordinator), Keith Koch (retired high school teacher and National Model Railroad Association Master Modeler), Don Paulson (retired college professor and Curator of the Ouray County Museum), Jim Pettengill (retired geologist and freelance writer), and Karl Schaeffer (retired railroad mechanical engineer and President of the Ridgway Railroad Museum).
 
This book is a compilation of most of these newspaper articles, which have been edited from their original versions. Appropriate historic photos, contemporary photos, maps and railroad forms accompany the articles. See the Ridgway Railroad Museum website.

Our Authors, Railroad

Mary Ann Dismant is the author of Growing Up in Denver, 1944-1957: A Memoir. Mary Ann and Carl have lived in Ouray, Colorado, since 1963. She was Director of the Ouray Public Library until 1998, when she became a part-time circulation librarian. Mary Ann and her husband Carl, who also grew up in Denver, celebrated their 48th anniversary in June, 2009. She attributes the longevity of their marriage to the fact that she is still a great speller. Carl needs her badly because he is a not-so-great speller!

Our Authors

Paul McCreary grew up on farms in East-Central Illinois in the 1950s and 60s. He graduated from college as an art major with an interest in creative writing and photography and moved to Michigan to teach in 1966. After nearly 29 years there, and becoming the father of three accomplished children, he retired to Southern Indiana in 1996. He pursued art, writing, and photography, and met and married his lovely wife Becky, continuing the same interests. They moved to beautiful Ouray, Colorado, to operate a bed and breakfast. And now they split their time between Colorado and Arizona. They have long threatened to write a collaborative work of prose and poetry. The threat has come to fruition. Most of Paul’s short stories are fiction, while some are based on true events.

Our Authors

Becky Klein McCreary grew up on a farm in East-Central Indiana where she had freedom to wander the woods, streams, and meadows. There, her creativity took root as she connected with nature. She worked as a feature writer, photographer, and news reporter for newspapers and written communications coordinator for Ford Motor Company, but her most fulfilling career was raising her four children. Becky and Paul live, love, and laugh in Green Valley, Arizona, and Ouray, Colorado.

Our Authors

Dave Casler is the creator of the flying broomstick series and organized Mt. Sneffels Press, a Colorado Micropress that offers local authors a platform for publication.

Dave Casler went into engineering because he loved math and science from the time he was in elementary school in Glendale, California. His Bachelor of Science in Mathematics came from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and his Master of Science in [Electrical] Engineering came from the California State University at Northridge.

Dave is a ham radio operator, callsign KEØOG. He holds the highest class of ham license available, Amateur Extra.

His mind wanders frequently and he thinks of unusual ways to accomplish ordinary things. He has one patent and another pending and loves to invent, whether it’s real or not. The Flying Broomstick series grew out of a daydream during a long and boring meeting. And Dave really does work for IBM.

He and his wife Loretta live just north of Ridgway, Colorado, in the San Juan Mountains. Dave loves writing, motorcycling, ham radio, photography, and genealogy. As part of his genealogy work, Dave encourages you to go to www.familysearchindexing.org and help digitize old records.

Our Authors