Many of the poles are still in place, especially in the section of the line between Cumbres to roughly Sublette. They are typical of the type used throughout the D&RGW system. It would be interesting to know if these poles were cut locally, as the timber industry in the area was (and still is) quite substantial. Perhaps some D&RGW records will be found that indicate where these poles came from.
Quite a few of the poles have an interesting "repair". It appears that the original poles were sawed off, leaving a 4 or 5 foot stump. A new pole was then lashed on using steel cable. Ed Trump provided this explanation of the reasons behind this odd-appearing repair:
When a pole rotted off in the earth, the damage almost always was within the two feet beneath the surface of the earth...old poles were dug up frequently where the entire original butt was intact except for the portion two feet below the earth surface.
The repair for such a situation, if the above-ground portion of a pole was still serviceable and reasonably sound, was to dig a hole adjacent to the rotted pole, then set a "stub" which was a short section of pole set to the original pole's depth, and extending four or five feet above the ground. Then the original pole was lashed or banded tightly to the "stub" thus restoring the pole's original integrity. Sometimes the original pole was sawed off at ground level, but usually not.
Old pole lines will show a large percentage of "stubs" on the poles. It was considered an economical method of pole line repair and cost less than setting a whole new pole, as the linemen didn't have to climb the pole, untie the wires and move the crossarm and insulators to the new pole. In fact, the work could be accomplished by the groundmen without the assistance of the lineman at all, which resulted in labor savings as groundmen were not paid at the same rate as linemen.