Down the Mountain

High in the Rocky Mountains, a giant tractor eased a six-room house along a steep, narrow road. As workmen loaded another house onto a huge steel trailer, a foreman shouted to the anxious bystanders, "Don't you worry, folks, the coffee you left behind will be a bit cooler when it gets there, but not a drop will be spilled."

In this way Climax, Colo.--one of the last of the West's oldtime company towns --last week began to leave its perch on the Continental Divide. Within two years, Climax's 206 one-family dwellings and ten apartment houses will be relocated on the outskirts of Leadville (pop. 4,300), 13 road miles from Climax and 1,264 ft-lower.

For more than 40 years Climax has nestled next to Bartlett Mountain, where the Climax Molybdenum Co. has blasted out the world's largest molybdenum* mine. But company-owned towns have gone out of fashion. Explains Mine Superintendent Edwin J. Eisenach: "It used to be the company had to provide housing to get men to take jobs at Climax. Now transportation is good, and people don't want to live right next to the mine anymore. They want a home of their own, and they don't want their children to lead a segregated life."

Dealing in Towns. The firm that is towing the town away from Climax is John W. Galbreath & Co., headed by lively, slight John Galbreath, 63, who makes a specialty of buying company towns, sprucing them up and selling the houses back to the workers. Since 1941, Galbreath has revitalized and sold 17 company towns, including those of U.S. Steel, Westinghouse Air Brake Co. and Erie Mining Co. When the Climax Molybdenum Co. started having doubts about its town (dozens of employees had moved away), Galbreath moved in, bought the town of Climax for $1,500,000 and got ground near Leadville to set up a new community. He is selling the houses, moved from Climax, to former tenants for prices ranging from $3,700 for a three-room frame house to $10,000 for a five-room house with garage.

Moving Climax was only one of John Galbreath's ambitious undertakings last week. In Manhattan he is putting up the 41-story Continental Can Co. building; near Toronto he is building Bramalea, a $500 million "satellite city." He plans to add 500 houses to two towns he built in Minnesota for Reserve Mining Co. employees, is building a new town--Kearney, Ariz.--for employees of the Kennecott Copper Corp. He plans to put up an $18 million building for the Marine National Exchange Bank in Milwaukee. In all, Galbreath's company does some $100 million worth of business a year, and Galbreath has become one of the nation's richest real estate men.

The Simple Way. Son of an Ohio farmer, Galbreath worked his way through Ohio University, got his start in real estate in Columbus, which is still company headquarters. His chief talent is thinking up simple solutions to complex problems; his first big break came during the Depression. Life insurance and building-and-loan companies in Columbus, swamped with defaulted property, had no cash to redeem $100 certificates which were being traded as low as $40. Galbreath organized syndicates of well-heeled property owners to buy up the certificates at the going price, turn them into the companies at $100 face value as down payments on defaulted property. The syndicate members made handsome profits when the real estate market recovered; the companies got rid of defaulted property and reclaimed their certificates without having to give up cash; Galbreath pocketed a 5% commission on every sale.

Galbreath likes to do everything himself, always closes major deals in person. He keeps two airplanes and four pilots busy, works at least ten hours a day, seven days a week, likes straight talk. "If you can't say it outright," he snaps if annoyed, "then it's better unsaid."

Fillies & Pirates. Galbreath plays just as hard as he works, has sunk more than $5,000,000 into his hobbies. On his big white-fenced farms outside Columbus and Lexington, Ky. (both are named Darby Dan Farm), he has assembled some of the world's finest thoroughbred breeding stock. He got Ribot, the "Horse of the Decade," from Ribot's Italian owners on a five-year lease for $1,350,000. He has already set one mark in racing: he paid the world's record price--$2,000,000--for Swaps, 1955 Kentucky Derby winner, hopes Swaps will sire a champion for him.

In baseball Galbreath is also looking for a champion. He plunked down $400,000 in 1946 to become a member of a four-man syndicate (another member: Bing Crosby) that bought the ailing Pittsburgh Pirates. Four years later he got control (70%), took over as president and brought in Branch Rickey as general manager. Rickey signed up hundreds of young players, but the cure was slow. In the past decade the Pirates have usually finished way down, and Galbreath tossed in $1,500,000 to make up losses. This year things are different. At week's end the Pirates were in first place, four games ahead. Galbreath is happy, but not too surprised. That is the way he planned it.

*A mineral used for strengthening steel.

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