Tag
railroad
31 Porch Notes tagged “railroad,” from counties across Colorado.
History and culture - Lincoln County
Hugo grew up around the railroad, and a roundhouse still tells that story
Hugo began as a railroad town on the Kansas Pacific line, and its surviving Union Pacific roundhouse is a window into why the town is here.
Read note ->History and culture - Archuleta County
The railroad spur that ran on Pagosa Springs timber
A narrow-gauge line tied to the Denver and Rio Grande once reached Pagosa Springs, and the lumber it hauled out shaped the town's early economy.
Read note ->History and culture - Huerfano County
Coal and the railroad drove Walsenburg's growth
Walsenburg is older than the coal boom, but coal mining and the rail lines that hauled the coal out drove the town's growth and still shape the towns and land you see in Huerfano County today.
Read note ->History and culture - La Plata County
Durango exists because of a railroad and the mines it served
The narrow-gauge railroad between Durango and Silverton was built to move ore from the San Juan mines, and it helps explain why Durango sits where it does.
Read note ->History and culture - Summit County
Frisco's name and museum come from its railroad and mining past
Frisco grew as a silver-mining and railroad town in the late 1800s, and the Frisco Historic Park & Museum keeps that story in a cluster of original old buildings.
Read note ->History and culture - Fremont County
The Royal Gorge is narrow enough that two railroads once fought over it
The deep, tight Royal Gorge canyon on the Arkansas River had room for only one rail line, and the fight over that route is a real part of Fremont County's history.
Read note ->History and culture - Douglas County
Douglas County has long been a travel corridor
Long before I-25, Douglas County was a corridor people moved through — first by trail, then by rail, now by interstate.
Read note ->History and culture - Lincoln County
Limon is the 'Hub City' because the roads and rails all meet there
Limon earned its 'Hub City' name because Interstate 70 and several U.S. and state highways come together where rail lines once met on the plains.
Read note ->History and culture - Moffat County
Moffat County is named for David Moffat, the railroad financier
The county takes its name from David Moffat, a Denver financier whose railroad pushed into northwest Colorado, and that railroad shaped where towns grew.
Read note ->History and culture - Broomfield County
The Broomfield Depot Museum is a 1909 train depot moved to a park
Broomfield's local history museum sits in a railroad depot built in 1909, later moved to Zang's Spur Park and run with the help of the Broomfield Historical Society.
Read note ->History and culture - Weld County
Windsor grew up around the railroad and the sugar-beet factory
Windsor took shape after the railroad arrived and a Great Western Sugar factory drew families and farms to grow and process sugar beets.
Read note ->History and culture - Weld County
Ault's name remembers a grain buyer who helped farmers
Ault, on Highway 85, took its name from Alexander Ault, a grain buyer who bought wheat in hard times to keep local farmers afloat.
Read note ->History and culture - Routt County
Coal and the railroad shaped the towns of the Yampa Valley
Routt County's towns grew up around ranching, coal, and the arrival of the railroad, which helped shift the county's center to the Yampa Valley and Steamboat Springs.
Read note ->History and culture - Custer County
Westcliffe grew up around a railroad depot
The Denver and Rio Grande railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the early 1880s, and the historic depot near downtown, restored by a local effort, is a reminder of why the town sits where it does.
Read note ->History and culture - La Plata County
Animas City came first, then Durango, then they became one
Animas City was an older settlement just north of Durango that lost out when the railroad chose a new townsite in 1880, and the two eventually merged into modern Durango.
Read note ->History and culture - Summit County
Boreas Pass Road was once a high narrow-gauge railroad
The gravel road over Boreas Pass between Breckenridge and Como follows the old grade of the Denver, South Park & Pacific narrow-gauge railroad.
Read note ->History and culture - Gunnison County
Coal, ore, and rail explain the Gunnison Country map
Mining and the railroads that served it help explain why Gunnison, Crested Butte, and the smaller camps sit where they do.
Read note ->History and culture - Eagle County
Minturn grew up on the Tennessee Pass rail line
The Denver & Rio Grande's standard-gauge route over Tennessee Pass ran through Minturn and the Eagle River valley, and that railroad is why the town is shaped the way it is.
Read note ->History and culture - Montrose County
Montrose grew up around the railroad in the 1880s
The town of Montrose dates to the early 1880s, when the Denver and Rio Grande narrow-gauge railroad reached the Uncompahgre Valley and turned it into a regional shipping and supply hub.
Read note ->History and culture - Dolores County
Rico and the railroad: why a mountain town sits in Dolores County
Rico grew from a silver strike and a narrow-gauge railroad that ran over Lizard Head Pass, which is why a former mining town anchors the county's mountainous east end.
Read note ->History and culture - Douglas County
The old Castle Rock train depot is now the town's history museum
Castle Rock's historic Denver & Rio Grande stone depot now houses the Castle Rock Historical Museum, a free place to learn the town's railroad and quarry story.
Read note ->History and culture - Sedgwick County
Julesburg's old Union Pacific depot tells the county's railroad story
The historic Union Pacific depot in Julesburg, saved by the county and a local historical society, is a regional museum and a State Register property that explains why the railroad shaped this corner of Colorado.
Read note ->History and culture - San Miguel County
The Galloping Goose: how a struggling railroad kept Telluride connected
The narrow-gauge Rio Grande Southern once served Telluride, and during hard times it ran odd rail cars called Galloping Geese to keep going.
Read note ->History and culture - Bent County
The railroad helped move Bent County's seat from Boggsville to Las Animas
Bent County's seat sat at Boggsville for a time in the early 1870s, moved more than once, and ended up at the railroad town that grew into today's Las Animas — an example of how a rail line could pick the winners among early plains towns.
Read note ->History and culture - Alamosa County
Why Alamosa sits where it does: the railroad put it there
Alamosa began as a railroad town built by the Denver & Rio Grande along the Rio Grande, which is why it grew into the hub of the San Luis Valley.
Read note ->History and culture - Fremont County
Cañon City's 1913 Santa Fe Depot is now the start of a scenic train
The Mediterranean Revival Santa Fe Depot in Cañon City, built in 1913, survives as a historic landmark and serves as the boarding point for the Royal Gorge Route tourist railroad along the Arkansas River.
Read note ->History and culture - Pitkin County
A standard-gauge railroad once climbed over the divide to Aspen
The Colorado Midland Railway reached Aspen in the late 1880s by tunneling under the high country near Hagerman Pass, helping the silver town boom before the line was abandoned.
Read note ->History and culture - Denver County
Denver Union Station was built to gather the railroads
Union Station opened in the 1880s to bring many railroads into one Denver depot, and after a long restoration it reopened in 2014 as a rail, bus, and train hub.
Read note ->History and culture - Otero County
La Junta is the Otero County seat and grew up as a railroad town
La Junta is the seat of Otero County and built much of its early growth around the Santa Fe Railway, which still shapes the town's layout and economy.
Read note ->History and culture - Grand County
Kremmling grew where the river, the ranches, and the railroad met
Kremmling started as a store and became Grand County's shipping point when the Moffat railroad arrived, anchored by ranching in lower Middle Park.
Read note ->History and culture - Logan County
Sterling's old Union Pacific depot is a landmark that was moved to save it
Sterling's 1902 Union Pacific Railroad depot is a National Register landmark that the city relocated when passenger service ended, a small window into why the town grew.
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