Who were those magnificent Durand brothers?
Gilpin County heavy haulers and miners
Their names were Roy Durand, born 1916, and Russell Durand, born 1910. They were second generation heavy haulers and miners in Gilpin County. During the early 1920′s up to the 1950′s they were responsible for hauling much of the mining equipment from the railroad yards in Denver and Golden up into the foothills and mountain areas. They would take on the most extreme heavy moving of equipment that other companies would reject because of the dangers and lack of knowledge of how to do it. Their natural born engineering skills made them a perfect fit for this type of work. Rough and tough men that grew up though the great depression, they learned to use what machinery they had at hand to get the job done. They were geniuses when it came to extreme moves of heavy objects (Mega Movers), the pioneers of what is known today as the heavy hauling industry.
Russell Durand went to college and received a degree from the Colorado School of Mines as a steam engineer in the 1920′s. On his graduating year from the School of Mines he wanted to prove to everyone his engineering genius by modifying a stock 1922 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, complete with side car. He proceeded to remove the complete engine assembly and gas tank from the motorcycle, and installed a steam powered engine instead. He put a water tank were the fuel tank was previously located, and installed a small boiler in the sidecar’s seat location. In the accompanying rare and never before published photographs are Roy and Russell Durand driving this steam powered motorcycle. Russell is the older one in his 20′s, and Roy his brother is the young teen taking his turn on his big brothers’ steam bike.
Roy Durand, with no formal education, would show the world his self-taught engineering skills by inventing and patenting his placer mining equipment. To this day he holds a United States patent on an ingenious gold processing machine know as a mobile trommel unit. Invented in the 1960′s, this mining machine design was light-years ahead of its time – 75% of the machine is made out of high quality aircraft aluminum which made it very light to move around in the creek bed. By contrast, other trammel machines of the day were made out of heavy steel. Not only were they bulky, they were extremely heavy and it took a excavating machine or several men to move them around.
Several of Roy’s machines were produced for the commercial market and are used today in Brazil, Utah, Africa, and Colorado. His prototype, the first trammel machine made, can be seen in operation at Vic’s Panning just south of Black Hawk this summer processing gold in North Clear Creek.
In 1951 the two brothers bought what is known as the Lump Gulch Placer in northern Gilpin County just south of Rollinsville, where they moved in a Massive Bucyrus 50-B steam shovel. They lived on-site during the summer months and mined this area with the steam shovel for over 25 years. Today you can see this monster steam shovel at its’ new home at the Nederland Mining Museum in the center of town.
This coming fall we will explore the fantastic and very well recorded pictorial history of the Durand Brothers heavy hauling, moving and mining history in the Gilpin County area. We’d like to thank Sue Durand Cordova, Barbara Durand Ball, and the entire Durand family for their extensive collection of historical family photographs that we’re sharing with you.