"REVISITING THE RAINBOW ROUTE" |
| The colorful saga of the men, the mountains, and the three
narrow-gauge railroads that climbed into the rich mining districts surrounding Silverton,
Colorado, a hundred years ago." WRITERS:
Jim Zura and Jack Zura |
This material is copyrighted by Footnote Productions, with All Rights Reserved, and
presented herein by James A. Zura solely as an example of his work.
|
VISUALS:
|
SOUNDS:
|
| A-1a PANORAMA FROM TOP OF RED
MOUNTAIN. |
(Wind sounds and Theme Music
"A"") |
| A-1b DVE TITLE & RAILROAD
LOGOS |
|
| A-2 PULLBACK PANORAMA OF
SILVERTON FROM KENDALL MTN.: Reveal Wally On-Camera |
WALLY:"Silverton
Colorado, southern terminus of the San Juan Mining District. Active from the 1870's well
through the turn of the century. In the distance is modern day Silverton. Still the
terminus for one narrow-gauge rail system". |
| A-3. D. &S.N.G. RAILROAD STEAMS INTO
SILVERTON |
(nat train sounds; music ends)
|
| A-4 WALLY ON-CAMERA ABOVE
SILVERTON. |
"Behind us are the mountains:
both a curse and a joy to those rugged pioneers. As we stand along a smooth, paved
all-weather highway in summer, it may be difficult to sense the hardship and difficulties
that existed here a century ago. We are going to take you back beyond the blacktop, to the
old railroad grades and ghost towns... to the abandoned mines and equipment. Let's go back
to the San Juan Mining District during it's heyday." |
| B-1 DISSOLVE MONTAGE OF 9 B&W
STILLS. |
(Bring Period Music
"B" up full- 30 seconds |
| B-2a PULL BACK FROM B&W
STILL ON INTERIOR WALL OF MINER'S SHACK: REVEAL WALLY & JACK
ON-CAMERA IN SHACK SET |
WALLY:"A hundred years
ago, the area between Silverton and Ouray Colorado was in its boom. Gold and silver
mining, the expansion of a narrow-gauge railroad network, and towns that virtually went up
overnight. In addition to an historical perspective, we'll also give you a good look at
what you can still see today." |
| B-2b JACK ON-CAMERA. |
JACK:"Some areas are
easily accessible by car, while others should only be attempted in a four-wheel drive
vehicle. " |
| B-2c WALLY ON CAMERA. |
WALLY: "To help you more
fully understand the history of the railroads, mining and geology of the area, we've
enlisted the help of some experts. |
| B-3 SERIES. VIDEO CLIPS OF
SUBJECTS AS NOTED, W/I.D. C.G.'s. |
Bob Richardson; founder of the
Colorado Railroad Museum...Marvin Gregory, author and historian...William R. Jones,
owner of the assay office in Silverton…and Tom Hash, who runs the Bachelor-Syracuse
Mine." |
| C-1a WALLY & TOM HASH:
ON-CAMERA IN MINE. C-1b COVER: ORE PILE |
WALLY: "We're one
thousand, six hundred feet below Gold Hill, deep within the Bachelor-Syracuse Mine,
talking with Tom Hash. Tom, can you tell us about the room we're standing in now? " |
| C-2a ON-CAMERA C-2b
COVER: ORE CARS
C-3a ON-CAMERA
|
TOM: "Yes, we're
standing in what is known as a 'stope' in the mining operation. And the material that you
see behind us to my left is actual ore that has been blasted out of the vein in this mine.
This particular ore carries gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper and manganese. And possibly,
there's a hundred tons that we're looking at to my left. This ore has to be taken out of
this mine by rail, shipped to the mill, processed, and to a smelter to be smeltered into
gold bars and silver bars" |
| C-3b COVER: REVERSE SHOT |
WALLY: "Well, we all
watch the Hollywood movies, Tom, how come this isn't shiny gold?" |
| C-3c COVER: VEIN |
TOM:"Everybody wants to
know that. Gold does not hang from the walls in gold mines. Periodically, as miners,
whenever you blast into the vein, you will see small streaks of gold concentrated". |
| C-4a-TWO-SHOT IN MINE |
WALLY:"Any interesting
stories or anecdotes about the mine?" |
| C-4b COVER: TIDBITS |
TOM: "Oh, we always
like to tell a lot of good stories, but I don't know how true all of them are. Um, one
that some of the folks may enjoy is the fact that we do have Tommyknockers underground.
Now that's the small people. You always leave a few tidbits for the Tommyknockers and
everything goes well." |
| C-5 TWO-SHOT |
WALLY:"Yeah, are the
tidbits gone the next day? TOM:"Yeah, they're always gone,
and then you know there’s no problems. But if you don't leave them, you have a lot of
problems in the mine." |
| D-1: WALLY & JACK IN
MINER’S SHACK. |
JACK:"Wally, I guess
that little excursion showed that miners just didn't pick gold nuggets off the
walls." WALLY: "No indeed…it was hard, dark and
dreary work."
JACK: "Before we get into our episode, I think we should orient
ourselves as to where exactly in Colorado we're talking about."
WALLY: "Good idea. " |
| D-2 JACK WALKS TO TOPO MAP &
POINTS OUT LANDMARKS. PUSH IN & FOLLOW LOCATIONS |
JACK: "The ski resort
town of Telluride is here, and at the northern portion of our model is the box-canyon city
of Ouray. Lake City, Colorado is just off to the east. And here is the legendary mining
and railroad town of Silverton…Now this circular area of 13- to 14,000 foot. peaks
and 9- to 10,000 foot. alpine valleys is the Silverton Caldera. and this is the heart of
our story. |
| D-3a COVER: DRAMATIC MOUNTAIN
SHOT |
(Begin Music "C)" The
heat, stress and the pressures of long dormant volcanic activity and millenniums of
erosion have provided this dramatic backdrop to our story. |
| D-3b COVER OF 4-WHEELING. |
Long before downhill skiing and
4-wheeling was popular, thousands of men and many women trekked to this rugged area |
| D-4a MCU: JACK TO WALLY. |
And Wally, I believe your mine tour
gave you the reason - " |
| D-4b CU ON SPECIMENS. |
WALLY:"Gold and Silver
Ore." JACK:"The potential of striking it rich drove men
to these San Juan Mountains. "
(Music "C" Close) |
| E-1a BILL JONES AT ASSAY OFFICE
ON CAMERA E-1b.COVER SHOTS OF MOUNTAINS AND VALLE |
BILL JONES: "Well,
the San Juan region is unique in one respect. Being so high, the glaciers have wiped out
big valleys and exposed a lot of rock… there's no timber growing above 11,000 feet. |
| E-2a BILL ON CAMERA E-2b
COVER SHOTS OF. RIVERBEDS. |
So veins can actually be seen on
the surface quite easily. The coloration of the rock is different than the structure of
the rock. And these would be areas that a prospector would go and start digging.
Prospectors would also search the creekbed for rich pieces of ore that obviously would've
come down from higher elevations; and then work their way up to find the source of that
rich float." |
(END OF THIS SAMPLE)
(Total Program Time = 44 Minutes)
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