Tag
railroad history
11 Porch Notes tagged “railroad history,” from counties across Colorado.
History and culture - Broomfield County
Broomfield's rail stop was Zang's Spur, and the name is usually traced to broomcorn
Broomfield grew from farm country along the railroad and was known to the railroad as Zang's Spur after a local landowner; the name Broomfield is traditionally traced to broomcorn grown nearby, though the city's own history does not settle the question.
Read note ->History and culture - Chaffee County
Salida grew up as a railroad town where the Arkansas leaves the valley
Salida was founded by the Denver and Rio Grande railroad around 1880 near where the Arkansas River exits the upper valley, and its downtown carries that railroad-era history.
Read note ->History and culture - Sedgwick County
Julesburg moved four times - and one version was called the Wickedest City in the West
The town anchoring Sedgwick County has been built and rebuilt four times, and one short-lived end-of-track version earned the nickname Wickedest City in the West.
Read note ->History and culture - Park County
Como exists because of a narrow-gauge railroad, and its stone roundhouse still stands
Como was a junction town on the Denver, South Park and Pacific narrow-gauge railroad, and its 1880s stone roundhouse, depot, and hotel complex are listed on the National Register.
Read note ->History and culture - Moffat County
Craig keeps David Moffat's private railcar, the Marcia
In Craig sits the Marcia, a Pullman-built private railcar named for David Moffat's daughter, a piece of the railroad history that the county is named after.
Read note ->History and culture - Montezuma County
The Galloping Goose in Dolores is a leftover from a vanished railroad
Dolores keeps a restored 'Galloping Goose,' a homemade motor car the Rio Grande Southern Railroad used to survive in its final decades before the line was scrapped.
Read note ->History and culture - Phillips County
Why Phillips County's towns line up the way they do
Holyoke, Haxtun, Paoli, and Amherst grew up as evenly spaced railroad towns along a line built across the plains in the late 1800s.
Read note ->History and culture - Adams County
A free summer-only museum keeps Strasburg's railroad story alive
On the Adams County plains in Strasburg, the seasonal Comanche Crossing Museum gathers a 1917 depot, two relocated one-room schools, and thousands of everyday artifacts on a couple of landscaped acres.
Read note ->History and culture - Jefferson County
Colorado's narrow-gauge railroad history lives in Golden
The Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden preserves locomotives and cars from the state's narrow-gauge lines, on a site near Clear Creek between the Table Mountains.
Read note ->History and culture - Montezuma County
Mancos got its name from a river, and built its main street beside it
The town of Mancos takes its name from the nearby Rio de los Mancos, and its historic commercial core grew southeast of the railroad siding, near the river.
Read note ->History and culture - Montezuma County
Dolores grew up around a railroad, and its oldest hotel still shows it
Dolores took shape as a stop on the Rio Grande Southern Railroad, and the town's oldest building, the Southern Hotel, was named for that line.
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