Cobweb Corners, indexed

Mel McFarland wrote Cobweb Corners in the Westside Pioneer from 2004 to 2019. This is an index of every column we could find: the date, what it reports, and the link to the Pioneer's archive where the column lives. The columns are the Pioneer's; the index is ours. The one-line summaries, the decade tags and the categories were drafted by software (a language model reading each column's full text, October 2026) and have not yet been checked one by one; if one is wrong, send it in and it gets fixed. This is not the Pioneer and not a transcription: cite the column, never this sentence. The 604 are every column the Pioneer's own archive index listed; the count of links that fail is zero as of October 11. Sorted by the questions this paper asks; the sorting is the software's too. Where the columns disagree with each other (the Pikes Peak signal station closed in 1887, 1888 or 1890 depending on the column), both stay until we check.

Crimes, mysteries, oddities (66)

• The unusual carriage team 2005-02-03 · 1890s
  In 1888 John O'Byrne got two tame elk from a judge in Aspen and trained them to pull a tourist carriage. Thunder and Buttons became a famous attraction, eventually sold to a movie company that took them to Alaska to film advertisements. (checked)
• The (in)famous tunnels 2005-04-07 · 1860s-1900s
  Two sets of tunnels ran under Old Colorado City. 1860s tunnels around 27th to 29th linked early houses and escaped to Fountain Creek. Tunnels between 24th and 26th let Colorado Avenue customers reach Cucharras Street brothels unseen. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado City's 2nd memorable fire 2007-09-27 · 1900s
  On Jan. 8, 1909 a wind-driven fire starting at 619 Washington, now the 2600 block of Cucharras, destroyed five two-story houses from 25th to 27th; loss $35,000 to $50,000. The block's notorious houses, Laura Bell's among them, were still operating; the Stone Jug was barely worth half the others. (summary unchecked)
• Funny money 2008-03-06 · 1900s
  In 1909 three Manitou children dug up about fifty English coins dated 1853 to 1870. A newspaper invented a tale of massacred English prospectors and buried loot; really a thief had hidden a neighbor's coins. (summary unchecked)
• The Emma Crawford story 2009-12-17 · 1890s-2000s
  Emma Crawford came to Manitou for her health and at her death in 1891 was carried by 12 men to Red Mountain's summit. The 1912 incline moved her grave; it eroded and in 1929 boys found her bones. (summary unchecked)
• The treasure train 2011-01-13 · 1910s
  In January 1914 six carloads of Cresson mine geode ore worth about $2,000,000 ran under armed guard from Cripple Creek through Colorado City to Denver, with Midland superintendent M.L. Phelps aboard. A second shipment went to Golden Cycle mill. (summary unchecked)
• Did the elephant remember this? 2011-05-26 · 1880s
  A May 1880 newspaper told of a circus train from Pueblo caught in snow. A cold elephant rocked its car; at Colorado Springs the crew gave it a keg of beer, another at Sedalia. The beer came from Colorado City. (summary unchecked)
• The sheepherding 'judge' 2012-04-05 · 1860s-1870s
  Judge Baldwin, an Irishman who reached Colorado City in 1867 via Australia and South America, had been scalped and in 1868 was shot in the neck by Plains Indians. A drinker who shunned water, he died in a well. (summary unchecked)
• A day of fires in Colorado City 2012-09-06 · 1890s
  On March 20, 1890 five fires struck Colorado City in one day, starting at Mayor Charles Stockbridge's unfinished new home, then the American Hotel, the Irwin House he owned, a stone cutter's house and a vacant house. Suspects were released. (summary unchecked)
• Flying... pre-airplane 2013-01-10 · 1890s
  In 1897 a man named Felts jumped from the Pikes Peak Summit House roof in a flying costume, crashed, then vanished; his gear was found in Englemann Canyon. Cog railway crews repaired it and crashed twice off Ruxton Avenue hill. (summary unchecked)
• Teller County's sleeper-car tax grab 2013-11-14 · 1900s
  On Oct. 5, 1903 Sheriff Henry Robertson chained the Pullman sleeper Chamita to the rails to a siding at the Midland Terminal depot in Cripple Creek for $663.21 in unpaid Teller County taxes; a U.S. marshal freed the car two days later and Pullman sued. (checked)
• 26th St. bridge collapse... and a mystery building 2015-04-20 · 1960s
  In February 1961 the 26th Street bridge collapsed under Fred Pflum's truck; Ary and Agnes Obert drove into the hole, Agnes died, six were injured. A photo shows a Hi Graders club later razed for the highway. (summary unchecked)
• General Palmer's other pistol 2017-05-15 · 1930s
  About 80 years ago a man arrested with venison and no license carried a .44 Smith and Wesson engraved General Wm. J. Palmer and D&RG RR. The Pioneers Museum holds its ivory-gripped twin. The poacher's gun has never surfaced. (summary unchecked)
• Cash on the railroad tracks - a double mystery 2017-11-27 · 1940s
  In 1942 two men found nearly $1,000 buried under the Colorado Avenue bridge near Sierra Madre; in 1944 a Midland Terminal bridge crew under John Sherbak found about $700 in bread wrappers under Rio Grande ballast; never solved. (summary unchecked)
• Unsolved 1946 fire destroyed Glen Eyrie School 2018-07-23 · 1880s-1940s
  Glen Eyrie School, started 1888 for Palmer employees' children, closed in 1930. In May 1946 the Parvins found books burning inside the piano and put it out; after midnight the building burned to the ground. The arson was never solved. (summary unchecked)
• The Pikes Peak Signal Station 2004-02-19 · 1870s-1880s
  The Pikes Peak weather station opened Oct. 11, 1873 with Sergeant Seyboth and two men in a one-room stone hut. Water boiled at 178 degrees; 28 below, 90 mph winds. Sergeant O'Keefe later invented a fictional wife and child; in his tall tale the rats ate the child, Erin O'Keefe. (summary unchecked)
• Have you seen Woody? 2004-06-17 · 2000s
  A serious appeal: Woody, about 80, a Westsider who worked for the Midland Terminal and Rio Grande and gave McFarland an eight-hour interview for his Colorado Midland book, has disappeared from Pueblo. Friends checked shelters and nursing homes without luck. (summary unchecked)
• Two stories of the missing engine 2005-06-30 · 1920s
  A working miniature steam engine built by Midland apprentices rode a parade float; one story says it went to a zoo; another says John Bock bought it for his son at Red Rock and later launched it into a pond. (summary unchecked)
• Items found after sorting the mail 2005-09-01 · 1900s
  A 1903 post office list of unmailable items: false teeth, wigs, artificial eyes, live alligators, Gila monsters, 17 rattlesnakes in one box, a cow jawbone, loaded pistols, Alaska gold dust, a human ear, a skull and a scalp. (summary unchecked)
• Gold Camp Road's ghost rider 2005-09-08 · 2000s
  Several people report an older bearded cyclist or hiker on the closed section of Gold Camp Road who vanishes inside Tunnel 7 or 8, leaving a single set of tire tracks. A friend's sighting was matched by others. (summary unchecked)
• Thar's gold in that creek! 2005-10-06 · 1900s-1940s
  A Colorado City man panned free gold from Fountain Creek and Ute Pass up to Green Mountain Falls, and reportedly found over a thousand dollars of dust in a season. His notebook of locations was lost. (summary unchecked)
• Houses can be note-worthy 2005-11-17 · 2000s
  McFarland urges residents to document their houses' histories for the Old Colorado City History Center. He cites a Westside house where a written murder confession was found inside the walls during remodeling, and one built from a streetcar. (summary unchecked)
• A cemetery on Pikes Peak? 2005-12-01 · 1870s-1920s
  Artist Carl Gustav Lotave is the only person buried on Pikes Peak, in 1925 under Spencer Penrose's artists' tribute plan. An earlier fake grave for Erin O'Keefe, eaten by rats in a tall tale, drew thousands. (summary unchecked)
• Yes, Virginia, it is Colorado Springs 2005-12-22 · 1870s-1900s
  In 1905 workers along Monument Creek found a vault the D&RG built in the 1870s over a large spring that made the ground too wet for track. Its flow was said to equal all Manitou's springs. (summary unchecked)
• Ticket to the next stop 2006-01-19 · 1900s
  A cowboy bought a ticket at the Midland depot at Divide for the next train, climbed over the baggage car roof onto the engine with a gun drawn, and the engineer fought him off with a chunk of coal. (summary unchecked)
• The mystery of the Pikes Peak plane 2006-03-09 · 1950s
  About 1958 the Air Force displayed a jet plane on Pikes Peak summit to honor engine research there; 100 mph winds tore it apart, it was buried in a summit trash dump, and reportedly later dug out. (summary unchecked)
• A railroad pass 2006-04-20 · 1900s
  In 1907 the Colorado Midland issued a lifetime pass, in a leather carrier, to Mr. William Goat, a sheepherding goat above Leadville who jumped trains to visit Leadville and Basalt and ate scraps at the railroad dining house. (summary unchecked)
• The fish that didn't get away 2006-05-11 · 1900s
  In 1906 Short Line fireman Harry Newell found six good-sized fish living in his locomotive's water tender, fed by the crew for months on stream water from Tunnel 6. They were caught with a bucket and released at Clyde. (summary unchecked)
• An interesting job 2006-09-21 · 1930s-1940s
  Golden Cycle Mill, where McFarland's uncles and father worked, shipped refined gold bricks in wooden boxes to the Rio Grande or Santa Fe stations in a beat-up shop truck, never the same route or train twice. None were stolen. (summary unchecked)
• Head 'em up, move 'em out! 2006-11-09 · 1860s-1920s
  Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving drove Texas cattle to Denver up Fountain Creek past Jimmy Camp through Black Forest. Rustler Fingerless Jackson, shipped north by stagecoach, was abducted by vigilantes near Colorado City and hanged on Fountain Creek. (summary unchecked)
• More about buses 2006-12-07 · 1940s-1960s
  Old Colorado Avenue shuttle buses were retired; KRDO used one as a traveling broadcast studio at Busy Corner. On the anniversary of the Midland Terminal's last 1949 train, the station owner drove it to Cripple Creek playing train sounds. (summary unchecked)
• Stick 'em up! 2007-02-01 · 1890s-1900s
  An August 1905 holdup at the Colorado Midland depot in Colorado City failed when agent T.M. Rhett said he lacked the safe combination; police caught the robber at the Rio Grande station. Depots were robbed once or twice a year. (summary unchecked)
• What does he have to do with here? 2007-10-04 · 1870s-1880s
  A 1950s tale said Jesse James survived Bob Ford and lived in Colorado City under an alias; DNA disproved it. New Mexico rancher John Tunstall, who employed Billy the Kid, invested in Palmer's D&RG. Tunstall's death launched the Kid. (summary unchecked)
• Missing trains 2007-11-01 · 1910s
  Two lost miniature trains: a 10 to 12 foot Midland engine replica built by shop apprentices, last reported behind a Colorado City garage; and James A. Wood's 1918 backyard-built steam train on 900 feet of track in Red Rock Canyon. (summary unchecked)
• The mystery mine 2010-07-08 · 1910s
  A 1912 newspaper described a copper mine near Garden of the Gods and Glen Eyrie shipping ore by wagon to the railroad. McFarland cannot locate it; a 1950s gravel quarry may have erased it. (summary unchecked)
• Plane crash on the Peak 2010-07-15 · 1940s
  In October 1947 an Iowa National Guard plane with seven crew hit Pikes Peak's north slope near Glen Cove in a snowstorm; three died. Master Sgt. John Knight walked out and was found by a USGS crew. (summary unchecked)
• High-grading at the gold mines 2010-08-19 · 1890s-1910s
  High-grading, miners stealing rich ore in the Cripple Creek District; one man collected stashes for a fictitious mine. In 1907 mines adopted changing rooms and showers, milling the sludge and burned clothes for gold. Brakemen picked ore from open cars. (summary unchecked)
• Farewell to the story-teller 2011-12-15 · 1880s
  Sergeant John O'Keefe of the Pike's Peak weather station, famed for tall tales including a child eaten by rats, was reassigned in early 1881. Colorado Springs held a packed farewell dinner at the Opera House, toasting the greatest prevaricator. (summary unchecked)
• One last O'Keefe tale 2011-12-22 · 1880s
  In October 1880 Sergeant John O'Keefe told Colorado City saloons that Pike's Peak was erupting, with lava heading for Ruxton Creek. A reporter found no lava, only burned trees and bonfire signs. He also told of a Lake Moraine serpent. (summary unchecked)
• A mountain lion chase in 1885 2012-06-21 · 1880s
  An 1885 newspaper told of Colorado City hunters with dogs chasing a mountain lion from Bear Creek Canyon three miles through the railroad yards and downtown to the county jail near today's Pikes Peak Center, where it was roped. (summary unchecked)
• Remembrances of the cabin 2012-10-18 · 1860s-1870s
  An 1892 article on the 1859 log cabin at 2508 W. Colorado built by Dr. James Garvin and Melancathon Beach: a justifiable homicide trial where the victim lived three weeks, treasurer Ben Crowell hiding county cash in a clock. (summary unchecked)
• Arrest of a bar room lounger 2012-10-25 · 1890s
  An 1892 Gazette story: George Green stole a faro dealer's bag of $600 to $700 in gold at the Hoffman House, rode a streetcar to Colorado Springs and was caught on Cucharras, $115 short. Bob Ford had drifted through town. (summary unchecked)
• The Denver hotel explosion of 1895 2013-03-07 · 1890s
  The Gumry Hotel boiler in Denver exploded in August 1895, killing owner Peter Gumry, capitol builder R.C. Greiner and General Charles Adams. Blame fell on 17-year-old Elmer Pierce, found among spectators. Adams had negotiated with Ouray after Meeker. (summary unchecked)
• An unusual railroad pass 2013-04-04 · 1900s
  A 1907 Leadville newspaper reported the Colorado Midland issued a lifetime pass in a leather carrier to Mr. William Goat, an actual goat who jumped onto trains at a mountain pass to visit Leadville and Basalt and eat kitchen scraps. (summary unchecked)
• Excitement on the train from Cripple Creek 2013-11-27 · 1900s
  A February 1902 newspaper told of four drunk, cursing men on a Saturday night Midland train. Past Cameron, Conductor Prosser and Brakeman Hoover subdued them with lanterns; the railroad lost two lanterns and a window. Prosser ran the last trains. (summary unchecked)
• A Cripple Creek 'coal rustler' dies as he'd lived 2014-08-18 · 1900s-1910s
  George Brewer, about 70, a reputed former Southern plantation owner who lived by stealing coal and served jail terms, was crushed between a gondola car and coal chute in the Midland Terminal yards at Cripple Creek while sacking spilled coal. (summary unchecked)
• 10 years left on West's time capsule 2014-09-29 · 1920s
  Century Chests placed in 1924 in West, South and North junior highs open in 2024; West's sits behind the keystone of the westernmost doorway with newspapers on Harding's and Wilson's deaths; an earlier Bancroft School chest was never found. (summary unchecked)
• Former gold mill turns into a 'gold mine' 2016-04-18 · 1930s
  In the 1930s men dug cinders from the old Portland Mill railyard, now the Norris-Penrose Event Center, and sold pickup loads to the Golden Cycle for $10 each, over $1,000 total. Flue sweepings yielded hundreds more. (summary unchecked)
• The puppy in Cripple Creek 2018-01-08 · 1890s
  Around 1890 Conductor Tuttle found a five-year-old girl alone on a Midland train out of Colorado City, carrying 35 cents and popcorn, bound for Cripple Creek to fetch her dog; her father had her sent home from Manitou. (summary unchecked)
• A 2nd year for the race track on mill hill 2018-05-21 · 1940s
  The 21st Street race track by the Golden Cycle mill, called Gasoline Alley, ran again in 1947. On June 13 someone dynamited its refreshment stand with explosives stolen from Midland Terminal Tunnel One; loss about $50. Later lightning hospitalized five. (summary unchecked)
• The bear with cattle horns 2005-08-25 · 1900s
  In 1903 a Midland train from Cripple Creek struck something in the only tunnel between Cripple Creek and Divide; fireman Ed Omer called it a bear. Omer went back for the hide and found horns. It was a cow. (summary unchecked)
• A breakfast story 2007-03-08 · 1890s
  In the late 1890s a well-spoken tramp posing as a carpenter talked a Colorado Avenue boarding-house keeper into a free breakfast with a promise of paid meals for two; the nearby construction site had never heard of him. (summary unchecked)
• Easier to dodge horses than cars 2008-04-24 · 1910s-1920s
  In 1925 a 14-year-old stole a 1914 Model T from the Fair Grounds, now the K-Mart site on North Nevada; the county's most rickety Ford was easily recognized. Colorado City set speed limits and bought a police motorcycle. (summary unchecked)
• The strange postcard 2009-04-02 · 1910s-1950s
  A postcard shows an engineless early airplane over Pikes Peak. A 1911 ad solved it: Ruxton photographer Van Lackum posed customers in a prop aeroplane. Manitou Avenue stuffed animal photo postcard stalls lasted into the late 1950s. (summary unchecked)
• Where was the Log Cabin Hotel? 2009-10-29 · 1870s-1930s
  The 1912 Pioneers' Association marked historic sites, including where the Everhardt boys were scalped near Boulder Crescent, but the Log Cabin Hotel site, called Colorado Springs' first railroad station, is lost, probably under D&RG tracks. (summary unchecked)
• Any word on Caboose Number 409? 2010-02-18 · 1880s-1960s
  Midland Caboose 409, built 1887, became Midland Terminal Caboose 3 in 1919, worked a gravel quarry east of Divide, sat at a ranch until about 1963, moved to Colorado Springs, was dismantled behind Ghost Town; fate after 1970 unknown. (summary unchecked)
• An accident on the Midland 2012-06-07 · 1910s
  On April 30, 1917 a Colorado Midland passenger train hit a broken rail near Arkansas Junction outside Leadville; the engine overturned, four cars derailed. Engineer Frank Smith and Fireman Fred Bruckman were thrown clear, the cab landing inches above them. (summary unchecked)
• The Gray Ghost and the baron 2013-09-26 · 1860s-1900s
  A 1901 newspaper reported Baron Robert Von Massow, a Prussian who rode with Mosby's Raiders, planned to leave his $3 million estate to the unit's survivors; local veterans J.D. Shewalter and Dr. B.P. Anderson recalled him; Palmer knew both. (summary unchecked)
• Model T ads didn't talk about this 2013-11-21 · 1910s
  Before World War I schoolboys stole Model T Fords by rolling them downhill and popping the clutch, since cars lacked ignition locks and emergency brakes; the cars turned up out of gas nearby; the key ignition switch eventually solved it. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado City's first Catholic church 2014-07-14 · 1920s
  St. Mary's, Colorado City's first Catholic church at 26th and Robinson, burned in January 1925; neighbor Mrs. J.A. Porter raised the alarm; a normally locked door stood open; low water pressure forced pumping from Fountain Creek; the lot stays vacant. (summary unchecked)
• A buffalo skull causes a stir 2014-11-24 · 1920s
  In 1925 Garden of the Gods crews found a skeleton of an Indian woman, dated about 100 years old by a Denver expert, and a large buffalo skull while expanding the Hidden Inn parking lot near Kissing Camels. (summary unchecked)
• The mystery portrait of 'Hoodoo 22' 2018-10-01 · 1890s-1920s
  An itinerant photographer's charcoal-style portrait of Colorado Midland locomotive 22, the Hoodoo tied to the railroad's deadliest wrecks and an 1890s shop fire, was found nailed to a garage wall in Old Colorado City. The engine was sold in 1920. (summary unchecked)
• Woody: Found at last 2007-05-24 · 2000s
  In June 2004 McFarland sought his missing friend Woody Ralston, about 80, a Westsider who worked for the Midland Terminal and Rio Grande and gave an eight hour interview for his first book. Woody died recently; buried at Fairview. (summary unchecked)
• It's the law! 2007-08-09 · 1900s-1930s
  Old papers show summer traffic, cars on their sides, as big news about 70 years ago. Citations covered sidewalks and ash pits. Bicycles, called wheels, were banned from sidewalks, a $5 fine, and had speed limits. (summary unchecked)
• Researching train wrecks... with postcards 2007-11-08 · 1920s
  Thirty years ago McFarland found a postcard of an unidentified train wreck, apparently in Ute Pass. A dated card finally led to the newspapers: August 1920, a summer rain washed out track, closing the line nearly two days. (summary unchecked)
• The mystery of Monroe Creek 2013-02-21 · 1910s-1950s
  Camp Creek through Pleasant Valley once ran into a stretch called Monroe Creek, rerouted down the 31st Street ditch in the late 1950s. A 1913 bridge wall survives on Pikes Peak Avenue near 31st. McFarland asks readers why the name. (summary unchecked)

What was but isn't (234)

• Remembering Ramona 2004-05-20 · 1900s-1910s
  Colorado City had saloons, opium dens and a red light district while Colorado Springs was dry. When Colorado City banned alcohol, bar owners founded Ramona between 21st and 25th north of Uintah. It died when Colorado went dry in 1916. (summary unchecked)
• Up on a mountainside 2009-03-19 · 1900s-1910s
  The Mount Manitou Incline, built to haul water pipe, carried tourists until a washout closed it; the Red Mountain Incline crossed a Midland tunnel and disturbed Emma Crawford's grave, which later washed out; a Cheyenne Mountain Incline was never built. (summary unchecked)
• The 'other' incline 2013-08-08 · 1910s-1920s
  J.H. Griffith and B.M. Starks planned the Red Mountain Incline in 1910; it opened in 1912. Construction moved Emma Crawford's grave; her coffin slid downhill and children found her bones. It closed in 1925 and was dismantled in 1927. (summary unchecked)
• The Westside's forgotten cemetery 2017-03-06 · 1860s-1970s
  Pioneer Park was Pioneer Cemetery, used from the 1860s, declining after Fairview opened in 1895, abandoned by the 1930s. Graves were mapped with metal detectors in the 1970s, a project McFarland joined; a cast iron coffin may remain. (summary unchecked)
• The forgotten cemetery 2004-05-06 · 1860s-1950s
  Colorado City's Pioneer cemetery, used from about 1860 to 1917, sits on the mesa. Not all burials were moved. By the 1930s cattle roamed it; tombstones were removed in the 1940s. In the 1950s it became Pioneer Park. Graves remain. (summary unchecked)
• The first streetcar west 2004-08-05 · 1890s
  On June 18, 1890, the first streetcar ran west from Tejon along Huerfano, now Colorado Avenue, to Colorado City with Mr. Tucker of Rapid Transit; it jumped the track past Spruce, crowds cheered, and celebrants finished at Armitage's Saloon. (summary unchecked)
• Remember the chug races? 2004-09-02 · 1920s-1930s
  In the late 1920s Colorado City boys built gravity chug cars and raced them on Pikes Peak, Kiowa and Bijou streets; the Colorado City Independent sponsored Saturday races on 25th Street near Fairview Cemetery. Ira Current filmed them. (summary unchecked)
• The Gardiner tents 2004-12-16 · 1900s-1950s
  Odd little backyard buildings around the region are Gardiner tents, Dr. Charles F. Gardiner's sleeping huts for tuberculosis sanitariums like Woodman. When real treatment closed the camps around 1950, tents sold for about $25 and were moved. (summary unchecked)
• The coming of Alexander Industries 2005-03-03 · 1920s-1930s
  After its Englewood factory burned in 1928, Alexander Industries moved airplane building to Colorado City in 40 truckloads while 150 men built a North Nevada factory; finished planes were rolled across the Santa Fe tracks to a landing field. (summary unchecked)
• Wetter times in Colorado City 2005-03-17 · 1890s-1900s
  Colorado Springs was founded dry, so Colorado City supplied liquor to the mining camps. The Geiger Beer Warehouse at 26th and Cucharras distributed Anheuser-Busch, which considered brewing here; a D&RG beer run train served four warehouses. (summary unchecked)
• Streetcars: Not just for travel 2005-04-28 · 1950s
  A local house is built around a Colorado Springs and Interurban streetcar. A Denver streetcar became a Fountain apartment with another stacked on top; others were diners in Green Mountain Falls and Florissant. A B-29 sat near 19th and Uintah. (summary unchecked)
• Mystery street, Part 2 2005-11-03 · 1890s-1900s
  In the 1890s up to eight Rio Grande trains a day ran through Colorado City, with a station about 1892 at today's 22nd Street. Crews switching near Cucharras Street were warned about the women there. A 1909 fire ended that. (summary unchecked)
• Miss Patty's cafe 2006-02-23 · 1880s-1890s
  Miss Patty's cafe beyond 26th Street in the 1880s-90s was where town ladies took tea with a bit of extra; Patty and husband Harry raised pet pigs by the creek and left for Nebraska when the secrets got out. (summary unchecked)
• On the Avenue in the 1920s 2006-07-13 · 1920s
  Ted Wright's father recalled Colorado Avenue first paved in spring 1922. The 2400 to 2600 blocks held Wilson's Clock Repair, Cross' News Stand, Klintworth Hardware, City National Bank with the Palace Hotel upstairs, and the Isis Theater. (summary unchecked)
• Legacy of early mines still with us 2006-10-05 · 1870s-1950s
  A coal seam up to 100 feet thick curves under Colorado Springs from 30th and Centennial toward Schriever; mines worked from the 1870s still collapse into sinkholes. Matt France started Franceville about 1878; D&RG workers found coal in 1872. (summary unchecked)
• The Pikes Peak signal station 2006-11-22 · 1870s-1880s
  The Pikes Peak signal station opened October 11, 1873 under Sgt. Seyboth with L.A. Lemman and J.H. Smith, a one-room stone building with two-foot walls, seven daily observations, 28 below and 90 mph winds. Closed after 15 years. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado City quiz time 2008-01-17 · 1890s-1950s
  Quiz on reused buildings: Golden Flake's potato chip factory is now part of the Goodwill center; Fire Station 5 was the Standard Club recreation hall; old city hall at 29th was the first Whittier School; Bancroft Park held Bancroft School. (checked)
• Where the Garden once extended 2008-02-28 · 1860s-1920s
  Garden of the Gods red rocks once extended south of Colorado Avenue into Red Rock Canyon; quarries at Arensdale, Adams Crossing and Manitou removed ridges from the 1860s to 1920s for foundations and sidewalks. (summary unchecked)
• Those odd-shaped buildings 2008-03-27 · 1900s-1950s
  Octagonal cone-roofed Gardiner Tents, designed by Dr. Charles F. Gardiner for tuberculosis patients, filled sanitarium grounds like Woodman; after TB treatment arrived they sold for about $25; two survive in Manitou and one at Rock Ledge Ranch. (summary unchecked)
• The mid-20th century growth 2008-12-18 · 1940s-1950s
  The backward house starts the 500 block of 31st. Colorado City's century-old natural gas lines, bought by Colorado Springs in the 1930s, were over-pressured after World War II and houses exploded every winter; one blew into the street in 1950. (summary unchecked)
• A tough-luck bridge 2009-05-07 · 1900s-1920s
  The Short Line's wooden Bear Creek Bridge burned three times and was badly damaged six more in about 20 years. Six-person carts coasted from Summit Station at about 30 mph over ten bridges. The route became the Corley Mountain Highway. (summary unchecked)
• A forgotten anniversary 2009-07-16 · 1900s-1990s
  The Mt. Manitou Incline, designed by Claude L. McKesson and proposed by Charles W. Stiff, opened July 4, 1908 at 50 cents, converted from a 1907 pipeline incline. Its powerhouse was dragged uphill at 1/8 mile an hour. (summary unchecked)
• The other Incline 2009-11-12 · 1910s
  The Red Mountain Incline Company formed in 1911; Richard Clough built it from January 1912 with a Ruxton Avenue station, a long steep bridge carrying the area's first big electric sign, and a summit pavilion. Riders found it too scary. (summary unchecked)
• A wind-driven disaster 2011-04-07 · 1890s
  On October 1, 1898 a wind-driven fire started at the Denver and Rio Grande freight house on Cucharras; a car of blasting powder exploded. It burned four blocks by three, lumber yards, two depots and the Antlers Hotel. (summary unchecked)
• The Glass Works disaster 2011-11-17 · 1890s
  Just after midnight on September 9, 1892, the Glass Works furnace top collapsed and fiery glass poured out. Three Midland boxcars burned. J.B. Wheeler promised to rebuild, but lost customers and the Silver Panic killed the plant by 1900. (checked)
• The man behind Adams Crossing 2011-12-08 · 1870s-1910s
  General Charles Adams, born Schwanbeck in Germany, Civil War veteran, Indian agent and minister to Bolivia, negotiated captives' release with Ouray after the 1879 Meeker Uprising. He died in an 1895 Denver hotel fire. Chipeta visited widow Margaret in 1913. (summary unchecked)
• Local 'subways' were really tunnels 2012-01-12 · 1910s-1970s
  Colorado Springs had pedestrian subways: one to Monument Valley Park built 1916 and used to 1959, one under Colorado Avenue at 17th for Buena Vista School children, one on North Nevada, and several at the Santa Fe station. (summary unchecked)
• The tunnels up the pass 2012-03-01 · 1880s-1940s
  Five Midland tunnels in Ute Pass, built 1886 and used until 1949, plus three in Manitou; the Ruxton Avenue bridge was cut up in 1964; Golden Cycle sold land for a house to block driving on the old roadbed. (summary unchecked)
• Carlton outbids the junk dealers 2012-07-19 · 1910s
  At the Colorado City depot, auctioneer Dayton sold the bankrupt Colorado Midland. A.E. Carlton opened at $600,000 against Denver and New York junk dealers and won at $1,425,000, backed by Spencer Penrose, Charles MacNeill and Eugene Shove. (summary unchecked)
• Drilling in Colorado City 2012-07-26 · 1890s-1950s
  In 1894 businessmen drilled Iris Well No. 1 near the Midland shops, named for Iris editor W.P. Epperson, raising $100,000 in stock. Gas pockets exploded when burning waste was dropped in. Gas lines served homes until at least 1915. (summary unchecked)
• The Automobiliary 2013-08-22 · 1900s
  In 1900 a livery stable owner near the Colorado Springs courthouse began renting cars as the Automobiliary; three electric cars from the American Bicycle Company arrived by boxcar, each about 1,500 pounds and $1,500; driving lessons took 20 minutes. (summary unchecked)
• Ramona's Heidelberg Inn 2014-02-17 · 1910s-1920s
  Ramona, a drinking town along 24th Street, began after Colorado City went dry in 1913 and faded with 1916 prohibition; annexed 1955. The Geigers' Heidelberg Inn hosted boxing and westerns before 1921 demolition. Lennon's 1921 town near Balanced Rock failed. (summary unchecked)
• The Westside's burying ground(s) 2014-05-12 · 1860s-1970s
  Colorado City's first burying ground was in Red Rock Canyon, then a hill north of Colorado Avenue used as a gravel pit, then Pioneer Cemetery near 30th and Mesa Road. The last markers became riprap in Fountain Creek. (summary unchecked)
• Two buildings before Pikes Peak's summit house 2014-05-19 · 1870s-1950s
  Pikes Peak's Army weather station opened in 1873; Sgt. O'Keefe sold invented tales of a wife and daughter; the cog railway took it in 1891, adding hotel rooms and tower; it and the 1916 highway house burned in the 1950s. (summary unchecked)
• Spencer Penrose's spectacular mountain road 2014-06-23 · 1920s-1960s
  In July 1924 Penrose announced a toll road up Cheyenne Mountain to a 9,400 foot stone pavilion with cafe and dance floor. It opened summer 1925. The hotel closed in the early 1960s; the 1965 flood wrecked the road. (summary unchecked)
• Puzzle may be solved for streetcar diner 2015-01-26 · 1920s-1950s
  A North Nevada diner run by a McFarland family from about 1930 to the 1950s was probably a retired streetcar that the homeless Sherman family lived in at Christmas 1927 near Broadway Park. (summary unchecked)
• The Old Town building that Spec saved 2015-03-02 · 1920s
  In 1927 Spencer Penrose paid to save the 1859 log cabin used by the 1861 legislature. Architect Thomas McLaren dismantled it log by log; it moved to Polo Park, the golf course, Denver in 1959, now Bancroft Park. (summary unchecked)
• Blasting Ute Pass to make 2 lanes in the 1930s 2015-10-12 · 1930s
  The state project ending mid-1931 blasted Ute Pass to two lanes with dynamite, removing hills called Yellow Mountain and Red Mountain, shaking Manitou residents from bed, cutting half the Greenstone Quarry, destroying the original Rainbow Falls and shifting springs. (summary unchecked)
• Pikes Peak's first weather station 2016-01-04 · 1870s-1880s
  Army Signal Corps weather station on Pikes Peak summit ran 1874 to 1890, two to five soldiers, telegraph line to Colorado Springs. Supply man John O'Keefe invented tall tales including the Erin O'Keefe grave. (summary unchecked)
• Finally! Bridge in '32 opened Ute Pass to 2 lanes 2016-01-25 · 1930s
  The 1931 Ute Pass highway lacked a Fountain Creek bridge above Manitou. In December 1931 the pass closed; the Midland Terminal ran extra trains for schoolchildren. The bridge opened in 1932; road work had destroyed the original Rainbow Falls. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado City's jail was just too far away 2016-10-31 · 1890s-1990s
  Colorado City built a city hall and jail at 26th and Cucharras in 1892 because the 29th Street jail was too far to haul bar rowdies; later Fire Station 5, it burned in 1990; the Old Town GuestHouse replaced it. (summary unchecked)
• A restaurant with airplane wings 2017-01-02 · 1920s-1930s
  Short items: a cafe near Adams Crossing built under airplane wings was ordered removed in 1937; Fountain Creek was rerouted in 1924 after 1913 and 1921 floods; the area near Las Vegas and Royer streets was once called Leander. (summary unchecked)
• An auto race track at the Golden Cycle Mill 2018-04-09 · 1940s-1950s
  In 1946 young men raced jalopies on a sand oval beside the Golden Cycle Mill; 200 watched the first race, 1,000 the second; the track moved to Powers and US 24; a 1950s drag strip ran beside the airport. (summary unchecked)
• The short-lived WWII soldier train excursions 2018-08-20 · 1940s
  In summer 1944 the Midland Terminal ran special trains for Camp Carson soldiers to Cripple Creek. On July 2, 175 engineers got rowdy and damaged cars, ending the series. Ernie Payton arranged the final excursion February 6, 1949. (summary unchecked)
• When the Incline was a railway 2018-12-03 · 1900s-1990s
  The Mt. Manitou Incline railway, built in 1907 to haul water pipe, opened July 4, 1908 at $1; no one dared ride the first car. Each car was photographed near the top for postcards. It closed in 1990. (summary unchecked)
• Who were the Merry Maids? 2004-02-26 · 1890s-1920s
  The Midland Merry Maids, a singing group of railroad wives and daughters from Colorado City, entertained on Colorado Midland Wildflower Excursion trains, which ran about 1887 to 1924 through Ute Pass; McFarland has never found a photo of them. (summary unchecked)
• The railroad's marching band 2004-03-25 · 1880s-1920s
  The Colorado Midland started in Colorado City in 1886 and closed in 1918; its shop workers formed the Colorado Midland band, which wore buckskin uniforms, marched in Washington, D.C., had three directors in 35 years, and faded after shop cutbacks. (summary unchecked)
• From a club to a fire station 2004-04-01 · 1900s-1920s
  A century ago nearly a fourth of Colorado City worked in three gold mills. The Standard Mill built an employee club across from the old City Hall, funded by 50 cents a month. It became the 29th Street fire station. (summary unchecked)
• From rails to backyards 2004-07-01 · 1900s-2000s
  Railroad relics in Westside yards: boxcar parts, garage doors reading CMRy, a passenger car turned cottage in Old Colorado City, a house built around a streetcar, a Woodland Park building holding a baggage car, a Fountain streetcar apartment. (summary unchecked)
• The Westside railroad stations 2004-08-19 · 1880s-1930s
  The D&RG reached Colorado City in 1881; the Villa Motel office was Manitou's depot. Passenger service ended 1930; the Colorado City station burned in 1932. The Midland came 1886; the Midland Terminal station burned winter 1931. Manitou had six stations. (summary unchecked)
• The glass works 2004-11-24 · 1880s-1890s
  The Colorado City glass factory, backed by Jerome B. Wheeler and Augie Busch, made bottles for Manitou mineral water and beer; the Midland built a steep spur up Arch Street; an 1893 fire hurt it; it closed in 1895. (summary unchecked)
• The Ute Pass Paint Company 2004-12-02 · 1890s
  Railroad officials founded the Ute Pass Paint Company in 1892 near today's Carrier Annex, grinding local minerals into paint sold as far as Trinidad and Cheyenne; a February 1894 night fire destroyed it with hydrants frozen. (summary unchecked)
• Our railroads 2005-01-13 · 1870s-1900s
  Counts rail lines: four in Colorado City, eight in Colorado Springs, seven in Manitou. D&RG arrived 1871, Denver and New Orleans 1880, then Santa Fe, Colorado Midland, Rock Island and the 1901 Short Line; Midland shops ran 21st to 26th. (summary unchecked)
• The early days of moving pictures 2005-02-10 · 1900s
  Around 1905 Denver photographer Harry Buckwalter bought an early movie camera, filmed trains, cowboys, Cripple Creek mines and Garden of the Gods, and showed them nightly at an amusement park near Cheyenne Canyon; nearly all the brittle films are lost. (summary unchecked)
• Where does Colorado City end? 2005-02-24 · 1870s-1910s
  Colorado City ran from Limit Street west to 30th; Arensdale town and school stood beyond. Adams Crossing is named for General Charles Adams, Ute agent and Meeker hostage negotiator, who died in an 1895 Denver hotel fire. (summary unchecked)
• Alexander Industries' film side 2005-03-10 · 1920s-1930s
  Alexander Film Company filled Colorado Avenue offices in the late 1920s with illustrators, a developing lab and filming rooms, boosting cafes and stores before moving to North Nevada. Colorado City appeared in some of the first Colorado films in 1903. (summary unchecked)
• The Log Cabin anniversary 2005-03-31 · 1900s
  In 1905 the Ladies Improvement Society planned to move the log cabin, then the Sam Wah Laundry at 26th and Colorado, to Bancroft Park. It survived an 1890s dynamite blast, served as county courthouse; Anthony Bott disputed the capitol story. (summary unchecked)
• Movie time in the 1920s 2005-05-05 · 1920s
  In the 1920s the W.W. Smith company of Tulsa filmed three $30,000 westerns in El Paso County, Gold Grabbers, Trails End and Cross Roads, using Red Rock Quarry. Composer Bert Kibler wrote a local march. (summary unchecked)
• Where the wood came from 2005-06-02 · 1840s-1940s
  A fire, probably in the late 1840s or 1850s, burned Ute Pass to the Royal Gorge for perhaps 18 months, leaving few big trees. Dr. Bell's Manitou Park timber built the D&RG; logging camps shipped by Midland until 1949. (summary unchecked)
• Spudnuts and other treats 2005-06-23 · 1950s-1960s
  Spudnuts had 140 shops in 28 states; the local one opened at 2921 N. Nevada and moved to 2430 W. Colorado. Colorado Broom Company employed blind workers; F&L Foods made Golden Flake Potato Chips near 24th and Colorado. (summary unchecked)
• General Grant pays a call 2005-10-13 · 1880s
  Grant arrived July 16, 1880 by D&RG and rode the first train to Manitou after a flood washout; stayed at Dr. Bell's Briarhurst and Mansions Hotel; the chapel-design depot later became the Villa Motel office, torn down in the 1960s. (summary unchecked)
• Farmers Highway and other names 2006-02-02 · 1920s-1940s
  Farmers Highway is now Highway 94. Farmers herded livestock to sales a block from the Antlers Hotel into the late 1940s, later at a barn near Platte and Circle. Manitou tent cabins got names for mail. (summary unchecked)
• Schochs were Westside landmarks 2006-03-23 · 1900s-1960s
  Tribute to Ed and Mrs. Schoch and their crammed Westside store where Mrs. Schoch could find any item; also notes the century-old Golden Cycle Mill smokestack, the lost Burns Opera House (Chief Theater), and a Colorado City opera house. (summary unchecked)
• The Greenlee Quarry 2006-04-27 · 1880s-1920s
  Robert C. Greenlee and two sons ran the Red Rock Canyon quarry from the 1880s with over 50 men; its stone helped rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Abandoned in the 1920s, the Bocks bought it 20 years later. (summary unchecked)
• When the circus came to town 2006-06-29 · 1900s
  In summer 1907 three circuses came by train, setting up near today's St. Francis Hospital. Advance cars hired boys to post bills. The 26-car Sells-Floto show had sick animals and grifters and left early; Barnum and Bailey came in July. (summary unchecked)
• More tourist stories 2006-08-10 · 1900s-1950s
  Attractions made for tourists: Cliff Dwellings built 1906, the Mount Manitou Incline from a pipeline, a Red Mountain incline behind the Emma Crawford Coffin Race, a paid wall around Balanced Rock, and Manitou Avenue photo shops with stuffed buffalo. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado Springs' second railroad 2006-11-02 · 1880s-1930s
  The Denver and New Orleans, incorporated January 1881, built down Jimmy Camp Creek to near Fountain by 1883 with a Franceville coal branch and a station called Manitou Junction. Fearing Palmer, crews laid track in a street overnight. (summary unchecked)
• Potato chips and cameras 2006-12-14 · 1940s-1950s
  When Golden Cycle Mill closed in 1949, McFarland's father went to work at Frank Lynch's new Golden Flake Potato Chips factory in the 2300 block of Colorado Avenue, now part of Goodwill; sold 1960, moved to Sinton Road, later closed. (summary unchecked)
• Cold winters past 2006-12-28 · 1910s-1950s
  Memorable winters: a three-foot September snow in 1957, the 1935 flood. In 1931 both the D&RG and Colorado Midland stations in Colorado City burned weeks apart from overstoked stoves; in 1953 a hobo burned the Midland's three-story office. (summary unchecked)
• From ice boxes to refrigerators 2007-01-18 · 1940s-1950s
  Neighborhood groceries once stood almost one per block; sixty years ago three were visible within a block at 30th and Colorado. A Kiowa Street building was a grocery until 1957. Refrigerators ended daily shopping. (summary unchecked)
• The top of the mountain 2007-03-15 · 1920s-1950s
  Spencer Penrose built a small hotel atop Cheyenne Mountain in the 1920s, possibly as a Prohibition retreat; it lasted to the 1950s. A cable car from the zoo was once planned. A displayed cog engine moved after the 1965 flood. (summary unchecked)
• Up on Midland Heights 2007-03-22 · 1890s-1950s
  Fairview Cemetery sits in Midland Heights, home to mill and railroad workers; Glass Town housed 1890s bottle factory workers. A track ran up Arch Street until 1949. Short Line yards sat near Bear Creek Park; Portland Mill stood at Norris-Penrose. (summary unchecked)
• Artifacts in front of us 2007-04-19 · 1890s-1950s
  Yards hold artifacts: Palmer Park sandstone used in old houses on Tejon, Weber, Nevada and Cascade, and chunks of green glass from the late 1800s Glass Town factory, found in rock gardens and fireplaces, once as big as bowling balls. (summary unchecked)
• Up Ute Pass in an ore train 2007-05-03 · 1900s-1940s
  Daily from 1907 to 1949 an evening ore train with three to five engines hauled 40 to 50 empties from Colorado City up Ute Pass past Waters Tunnel and Blizzard Point to Bull Hill, returning loaded by morning. (summary unchecked)
• 'Lost' town names 2007-07-12 · 1880s-1920s
  Lost place names: Beckers, Kelker, Hulbert, Lime Rock and Edlowe on the Midland; Franceville, named for a Colorado City mayor, a coal area 1880 to 1920; Manitou Junction at US 24 and Colorado 94, nowhere near Manitou; Bierstadt, Edgerton, Glentivar. (summary unchecked)
• Bricks, greenstone and the president hills 2007-09-20 · 1870s-1930s
  Colorado City made brick from the 1870s to the 1930s near the cement works. Colorado Springs' Mt. Lincoln near Evergreen Cemetery was mostly dug away for brick clay, Mt. Washington too. Ord's Quarry above Manitou still shows its crane. (summary unchecked)
• When traffic was really bogged down 2007-10-11 · 1870s
  In 1878 and 1879 the Leadville rush sent freight wagons through Colorado City; a million pounds waited in Colorado Springs in spring 1878 at 1 to 3 cents a pound. Streets were mud; Ute Pass trips took eight hours. (summary unchecked)
• The Ghost Town building 2007-11-29 · 1900s-1950s
  Ghost Town occupies the Colorado Midland machine shop, where over 300 Colorado City men worked and a track ran from the roundhouse through the big doors. Locomotives were dismantled and rebuilt there. Midland Terminal razed most shops in the 1920s. (summary unchecked)
• A burger to remember 2007-12-27 · 1950s-1970s
  Uncle Sam's has served food over 60 years; Michaelis' Burger in a Basket grew to five locations before losing to McDonald's, whose first store on South 8th sold burger, fries and drink for a dollar. Maid-Rite steamed loose hamburger. (summary unchecked)
• More burgers! 2008-01-24 · 1950s-1960s
  Reader memories of burger spots: Garth's, Jay's, Barthel's, Colt's, the Matchless, Howard's Barbeque, Eddie's Drive-In where McDonald's is now, Jones' Drive In, and Cy's, opened 1954 by Cy and Roberta Long, moved to Uintah and 19th in 1970. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado Avenue: West from 29th 2008-03-13 · 1940s-1950s
  Colorado Avenue west of 29th in the late 1940s and 1950s: a steam pumper at Fire Station 5, Brookside Market where Mason Jar sits, motels like Mountain View Lodge, Earl James' gas station, Howard Smith's first barbeque at 3165. (summary unchecked)
• When coal was the main fuel 2008-04-17 · 1870s-1950s
  A coal layer curves under Colorado Springs, mined since the 1860s; coal heated homes from the 1870s to the 1950s and old mines still cause sinkholes. Matt France founded Franceville in 1878. Coal yards stood on Cucharras and Arch. (summary unchecked)
• Relocated house had railroad family 2008-06-12 · 1900s-1920s
  The house at 2102 W. Colorado Ave., moved to 1128 Calvert St., was home to Chris Sonnekson, a Colorado Midland employee from 1887 to 1920. McFarland later acquired his daughter's dining car tablecloth and Sonnekson's railroad pocket watch. (summary unchecked)
• The gold mills in Colorado City 2008-09-25 · 1890s-1940s
  Colorado City's gold mills: Colorado-Philadelphia 1894 off 31st Street, Portland at today's Penrose Stadium, Telluride at Gold Hill Mesa remade as Golden Cycle, and the Standard. By 1911 Golden Cycle took all the business amid cyanide fears. (summary unchecked)
• The end of the Midland 2008-10-02 · 1940s-1950s
  After World War II Midland Terminal shop men struck for higher pay; the month-long dispute sealed the railroad's fate. The Golden Cycle Mill closed, the line made final runs and every locomotive was scrapped. US 24 took the route. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado City's first gold mill 2008-12-04 · 1890s-1900s
  Cripple Creek ore went by wagon to Canon City and Florissant before a railroad arrived in 1894. That year Spencer Penrose and partners announced the Colorado-Philadelphia mill near Colorado City. It closed after a decade; red stones mark the site. (summary unchecked)
• The early gold mills 2008-12-11 · 1890s-1900s
  After the Midland Terminal reached Cripple Creek in 1895, Spencer Penrose opened the Colorado-Philadelphia mill about 1897. Winfield Scott Stratton's Portland mill opened 1901; the Telluride mill at Gold Hill Mesa became the Golden Cycle in 1906. (summary unchecked)
• New life for the roundhouse 2009-01-08 · 1950s-2000s
  The old Colorado Midland roundhouse, later Van Briggle Pottery, is being gutted for redevelopment. McFarland recalls the 90-foot turntable pit, a round crack that kept returning in the parking lot, and his 1980 book party there. (summary unchecked)
• The shops in the Midland yards 2009-02-12 · 1880s-1910s
  The Midland's Colorado City yards held about 20 buildings and employed about 300 people from 1887 to 1918, including the machine shop now Ghost Town, a saw mill, foundry and boiler shop; an 1890s fire destroyed the saw mill. (summary unchecked)
• What happened to the Midland shops? 2009-02-19 · 1910s-1950s
  Decline of the Colorado Midland shops: 63 locomotives rebuilt and sold in World War I, line west of Divide scrapped 1920, under 100 workers by 1925, about fifty by 1948, railroad scrapped 1949, office burned 1953, roundhouse became Van Briggle. (summary unchecked)
• On the west end of the yards 2009-02-26 · 1890s-1910s
  Midland yards reached 25th Street; a tiny office was the depot until a real station near Fountain Creek about 1909. A Short Line plan never happened. An 1890s paint factory burned and became an ice warehouse. (summary unchecked)
• The El Paso Canal 2009-04-30 · 1870s-1950s
  Colorado Springs built the El Paso Canal, three feet deep and six wide, from a Fountain Creek dam near 33rd Street around Colorado City and the Mesa to Prospect Lake. Colorado City fought losing the water. Dry by the 1950s. (summary unchecked)
• Following up on a 'hobnail' car 2009-05-14 · 1900s-1980s
  In 1908 the Midland Terminal converted narrow gauge Florence & Cripple Creek coaches to standard gauge; miners' boots earned them the name Hobnail Specials. One car sat on a 26th Street hill until the 1980s, then was restored in Nebraska. (summary unchecked)
• Those Midlands, again! 2009-05-21 · 1910s-1950s
  On April 21, 1917, A.E. Carlton, backed by Spencer Penrose, bought the bankrupt Colorado Midland at auction on its Colorado City office steps. The Midland closed in 1918; surplus equipment choked Colorado City yards until 1920. Records burned in 1953. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado City gets a band 2009-06-04 · 1890s
  Colorado City organized a brass band June 12, 1894, first concert May 8, 1895. In 1896 the Midland Railroad sponsored it; members wore Sioux-made headdresses and buckskin with Ute face paint. Drum major W.H. Bosworth stood 6 feet 6. (summary unchecked)
• The Midland Band, Part 2 2009-06-11 · 1890s-1910s
  Colorado Midland Band continued: Charles Dipp conductor 1896, first prize among 22 bands at Denver's Festival of Mountain and Plain, 31 shop employees, played Teddy Roosevelt's inaugural parade, weekly concerts at Acacia and Stratton parks, faded after 1918. (summary unchecked)
• Can you see the light(s)? 2009-07-23 · 1870s-1880s
  The Army weather station opened on Pikes Peak October 11, 1873 with Sergeant Seyboth, L.A. Lemman and J.H. Smith in a stone building. First winter: 28 below, 90 mph winds. O'Keefe's fictional daughter Erin had a fake grave. (summary unchecked)
• Some of the early towns 2009-12-10 · 1890s-1950s
  Vanished local towns: Hulbert where Eighth crosses US 24, Williams religious community, Ramona, Arensdale, Breed near Woodman and I-25 reaching into the Air Force Academy, Husted at the north gate, Pike View coal camp, Papetown, Roswell City, Elsmere. (summary unchecked)
• The private rail car 2010-01-21 · 1890s
  In 1892 a furnished private rail car with 17 beds and three servants rented for $50 a day. Midland president James J. Hagerman used cars Mountaineer and Hesperia; the 1899 Cascade survives in Las Vegas. (summary unchecked)
• A problem that turned into money 2010-02-04 · 1880s-1920s
  In the 1880s ice was an industry. Lakes at Green Mountain Falls, Divide and Lake George were cut and stored in straw and sawdust; the Midland had three ice houses near Robinson Street. Don's Body Shop was one. (summary unchecked)
• The second-most-asked-about mountain 2010-05-20 · 1920s-1960s
  Cheyenne Mountain is the mountain cog passengers ask about most after Pikes Peak. McFarland retells the Indian legend of the flood and crashed Lizard Dragon whose outline forms the mountain. A Broadmoor summit hotel closed in the 1960s. (summary unchecked)
• Jones Park: the old summit route 2010-06-03 · 1870s-1920s
  Jones Park up Bear Creek was a resort from the 1880s to 1920s. The Army's 1870s weather station trail passed Joseph C. Jones's cabin; the city improved it for Lake Moraine water; a toll gate and hotels followed. (summary unchecked)
• Bicycles and cattle drives 2010-08-26 · 1900s-1930s
  A century ago bicycles, called wheels, delivered goods and raced Colorado Springs to Fountain. Riders took the Midland uphill and coasted home. Cattle drives came down Ute Pass through Colorado City for shipment to Pueblo as late as the 1930s. (summary unchecked)
• The two 'Short Lines' 2010-10-21 · 1900s-1980s
  Two Short Lines: the Midland Terminal was called the Cripple Creek Short Line; the Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek District Railway opened 1902, closed 1920, was sold to a coal dealer as the Corley Mountain Highway, now Gold Camp Road. (summary unchecked)
• The railroad's paint company 2010-11-04 · 1890s
  Ute Pass Paint, a Colorado Midland venture, made paint from local minerals in a three-story yellow factory on South 25th from about 1891, brands Little Chief and Royal. It burned one February night; Jerome B. Wheeler refused to rebuild. (summary unchecked)
• Life after the railroad 2010-12-09 · 1940s-1950s
  Midland men lost jobs in World War II mine cutbacks and a postwar strike; the railroad closed in 1949 when owners built a mill near Cripple Creek. Former railroaders started businesses: Skip Sherbak's radio and TV repair, Charlie O'Brien's printing. (summary unchecked)
• Some Manitou history 2011-01-06 · 1920s-1970s
  In the 1920s William A. Bell's son gave Manitou park land along Fountain Creek; only parts were built. Schryver Park pool, 1971, had a sliding roof using cog railway parts. D&RG station 1880 stood at the Villa Motel site. (summary unchecked)
• The Rio Grande's line to Manitou 2011-03-03 · 1880s-1930s
  The Denver and Rio Grande reached Manitou through Colorado City in 1880, first stopping near Cucharras and 25th. Passengers avoided the saloon district, so a depot was built at 22nd. The station burned in 1931; freight ran into the 1970s. (summary unchecked)
• The Corley Mountain Highway 2011-07-14 · 1920s-1930s
  On October 16, 1922, coal dealer W.D. Corley outbid the Carlton and Penrose interests for the failing Short Line railroad and made it a toll road to Cripple Creek. His permit expired in 1939; it became Gold Camp Road. (summary unchecked)
• The mountain park 2011-10-27 · 1880s
  Dr. William A. Bell founded Manitou Park, 26 miles up Ute Pass, as a summer resort on his lumber lands; an 1880 season needed 40 extra tents. H.D. Fisher's mill was the state's largest; its log railroad gave full-moon rides. (summary unchecked)
• A weekend at Manitou Park, 1882 2011-11-03 · 1880s
  An 1882 news account of Dr. Bell's Manitou Park log hotel: about 35 guests, a Bungalow for billiards and dancing, a trout hatchery, cowboy races, a Zuni mirror, Turkish divans, and a ladies' game called snake scramble. (summary unchecked)
• Glass Works once employed 200 2011-11-10 · 1880s-1890s
  The Glass Works, Colorado City's first manufacturer, ran under a decade on the town's south edge; Wheeler and Busch streets honor its investors. Built to bottle Manitou mineral water, it reached full production in 1889 with 200 men. (summary unchecked)
• Streets changed with annexation 2012-01-05 · 1910s
  The 1917 annexation of Colorado City by Colorado Springs forced street renames and house renumbering; Colorado City's First Street became 21st, 20 was added to numbered streets, and odd and even house numbers were swapped. (summary unchecked)
• The Midland's buildings 2012-04-19 · 1880s-1950s
  The Colorado Midland shops, 57 acres between 21st and 26th south of Fountain Creek, included a 14-stall stone roundhouse and office; 600 men worked there at peak with payroll near $200,000 a month in 1888. The office burned in 1953. (checked)
• Our industrial past 2012-07-05 · 1870s-1900s
  With the railroad, Colorado City grew past 2,000 by 1890. Industries included the 1875 plaster works off Vermijo, quarries shipping five carloads a day in 1888, a glass works part-owned by Adolph Busch, paint works, foundries and mills. (summary unchecked)
• Cascade's Ramona Hotel 2012-08-09 · 1880s-1920s
  The Ramona Hotel in Cascade opened July 1889, built for $65,000 by Kansas investors, designed by W.R. Parsons and Son of Topeka, named for Helen Hunt Jackson's novel, four stories with a 100-foot beehive dome; torn down in the 1920s. (summary unchecked)
• An electric railway up Ruxton 2013-01-31 · 1890s-1930s
  Manitou approved an electric railway up Ruxton Avenue in June 1893; M.A. Leddy held the franchise, construction began March 1895, and photographers Hiestand and Weir built a casino. The line closed in the 1930s; its pavilion is the cog office. (summary unchecked)
• Conductor Scrim and the Ruxton line 2013-04-25 · 1920s
  In the 1920s the Ruxton streetcar in Manitou, the Dinky, had Conductor Scrim, possibly an old sailor who sold scrimshaw, and a motorman from New Orleans. Three cars ran only when the cog ran, since the cog owned the line. (summary unchecked)
• Coal was key in early Springs 2013-06-06 · 1890s-1900s
  Coal mining near Pikeview surged in 1898; the Santa Fe built a spur to the Curtis Mine in 1899. The town of Pike View at today's south Rockrimmon exit vanished with I-25. Its power plant fed the Golden Cycle Mill. (summary unchecked)
• The days of multiple gold mills 2013-06-20 · 1890s-1940s
  The first Colorado City mill, the Colorado-Philadelphia, came in 1894 near 31st and Highway 24. Golden Cycle bought the failed Telluride mill in 1906 and rebuilt with cyanide after a 1907 fire. Midland cars climbed Arch Street daily until 1949. (summary unchecked)
• A visiting palace on wheels 2013-08-29 · 1890s-1900s
  On April 10, 1901, Dr. Seward Webb, son-in-law of Cornelius Vanderbilt, arrived on a private New York Central train with 10 servants, dogs and parrots in cars Genesta, Swananono and Elsmere. After lunch the train went to Manitou. (summary unchecked)
• The hotel on Pike's Peak 2013-09-05 · 1900s-1950s
  In 1900 Manitou photographer J.G. Hiestand funded a stone tower addition to the Pikes Peak summit house with five tourist rooms, stairs 100 feet above the summit, and water coolers for altitude sickness; most guests stayed one night. (summary unchecked)
• A Familiar Building 2014-01-06 · 1900s-1950s
  History of the Little London Cake Shop building at 25th and Bott, once Fifth and Main in Colorado City: McCracken Grocery burned about 1905, then Weaver, Jones, Howard and Gardner groceries, Adams Syrup Company, storage, furniture. (summary unchecked)
• The 1910 fire that destroyed a Short Line bridge 2014-01-20 · 1910s-1920s
  Short Line bridge 3-A over Bear Creek Canyon, 60 feet high and 340 feet long, burned April 2, 1910, costing $7,000. It burned again in 1918; W.D. Corley bought the line in 1922 and it became Gold Camp Road. (summary unchecked)
• How the gold mill got powered 2014-03-31 · 1920s-1950s
  A 1923 concrete power plant at the Pikeview coal mine, near South Rockrimmon and Mark Dabling, burned lignite to generate 2,000 kilowatts for the Golden Cycle Mill. The mine closed in the 1950s; the shell was razed for apartments. (summary unchecked)
• Early car camping and Stonewall Park 2014-04-07 · 1920s
  I.M. Johnson bought land between Adams Crossing and Manitou in 1921 and built 39 cottages; Stonewall Park opened in 1922 as the first large campground west of Colorado City, now Garden of the Gods RV Resort. (summary unchecked)
• The Red Rock Canyon train 2014-11-10 · 1920s-1970s
  In 1925 James Wood and Linden Hezeler moved their homemade wood-burning miniature steam train, the Manitou Short Line, from Red Rock Canyon to where the Manitou post office stands; other miniature trains later ran at Memorial Park and Cascade. (summary unchecked)
• The old Half Way House in Ruxton Park 2014-12-08 · 1880s-1920s
  Thomas Palsgrove's early 1880s cabin below Ruxton Park grew into the 22-room Half Way House hotel. Colorado Springs bought it in 1916 and tore it down in 1925 for the Big Tooth reservoir, reusing doors and windows in workers' cabins. (summary unchecked)
• Places around town that we used to know 2014-12-29 · 1920s-2010s
  Gone businesses: Couture's Fabric Care, Golden Flake, Clark's, Merri-Lane, Barthel's, Lucas Sporting Goods, Ruth's Oven, Michaelis Burger in a Basket, Rogers Bar, Schoch's Hardware, Stonewall Cottages. An early rodeo arena near Walnut and Spruce collapsed injuring several; the Isis theater. (summary unchecked)
• City first built reservoir off 19th Street in the '20s 2015-01-05 · 1920s-1950s
  After the 1921 flood, Colorado Springs built two drainage dams in 1927: one at 19th and Manitou Boulevard (now Uintah Gardens), 500 feet long and 28 feet tall. Filled in by the 1950s; today's pond dates to 1968. (summary unchecked)
• The roads people drove before Uintah Street 2015-06-01 · 1950s-1970s
  Before the freeway opened in 1960, Mesa Road bridged Monument Creek; drivers went west by Mesa, San Juan Road and Boulder. Uintah was notched through the Mesa and extended past 19th by 1970. A B-29 body sat in Chambon's lot. (summary unchecked)
• The train station for both Roswells 2015-07-20 · 1890s-1940s
  The Rock Island built a Roswell City depot in the early 1890s. After a 1920s wreck nearly hit it, the depot moved to the newer Roswell near North Wood Avenue, survived the 1935 flood, and became a garage still standing. (summary unchecked)
• The man who built the Husted House 2015-08-31 · 1860s-1900s
  Calvin R. Husted ran a sawmill south of Palmer Divide, married Amanda Talbert, supplied timbers to the D&RG, and built the Husted House in Colorado City in 1884. He died poor at the County Poor Farm in 1906. (summary unchecked)
• How a bandstand came to Bancroft Park 2016-03-28 · 1920s-1930s
  Bancroft School stood on the block from 1888 until demolished in 1926. The Manitou greenstone bandstand, just over $11,000, was built in 1934 and dedicated July 1935 after the Memorial Day flood, Mayor George Birdsall speaking. (summary unchecked)
• The train to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo 2016-08-29 · 1930s-1970s
  The Broadmoor's cog-style zoo train with three little gas engines built at the Manitou cog shops opened in 1937, running from behind the hotel through a tunnel under Marland Road; it closed when Broadmoor West was built in the 1970s. (summary unchecked)
• A mystery motel from the 1930s 2017-01-23 · 1930s
  Isaac Rucker announced a purpose-built motel in late 1938 on the north side of the 2600 block of West Colorado, 13 concrete block units plus a home. One of Colorado City's first houses and churches were razed for it. (summary unchecked)
• If old houses could talk 2017-02-13 · 1890s-1960s
  A holdout house above Uintah was surrounded on three sides by the Knolls apartments, then torn down. The Dive on 31st was a late 1800s house. General Charles Adams's house at Adams Crossing fell in the 1960s. (summary unchecked)
• The annexation of Colorado City 2017-03-27 · 1910s
  Colorado City voted in April 1917 to join Colorado Springs. Streets were renumbered, the Iris became the Independent, the Midland yard became West Colorado Springs. The name Old Colorado City came 50 years later. Albert E. Carlton bought the Midland. (summary unchecked)
• Streets that once had railroad tracks 2017-04-24 · 1900s-1940s
  Robinson, 23rd and Arch streets follow the old rail spur from the Midland yards to the glass factory and Golden Cycle Mill; six days a week a switch engine hauled ore cars up the steep line; operations ended 1948. (summary unchecked)
• Tourist camps and the road to Manitou 2017-11-06 · 1930s-1940s
  In November 1941 C.J. Burkhardt sold the Buffalo Lodge, 50 cottages, for nearly $100,000. In 1942 he turned Manitou's 1881 stone D&RG depot into the Villa Motel with cabins. The depot was razed in the 1970s for a pool. (summary unchecked)
• When Colorado City's fluorspar was bigger than gold 2018-03-19 · 1940s
  In World War II gold mines were non-essential; Golden Cycle survived on zinc, gold the byproduct. In 1944 Kramer Mines built a fluorspar mill off Gold Camp Road west of 26th, ore from St. Peters Dome, for steel flux. (summary unchecked)
• 1st Chinese restaurant here in the 1940s 2018-06-11 · 1940s-1960s
  Colorado railroads used Mexican, Italian and Irish labor, not Chinese. The first Chinese restaurant, the Grand Cafe at Colorado and Tejon, opened after World War II and was razed in 1960s urban renewal; the Golden Dragon on South Eighth followed. (summary unchecked)
• The grander cars on the Midland Railway 2018-09-10 · 1880s-1980s
  The Colorado Midland's business car Mountaineer, later Manitou, carried James J. Hagerman and was kept in a building he built in the Colorado City yards. Sold to Arkansas in 1918, it became a winter home and burned past age 100. (summary unchecked)
• What happened to the city's Civil War memorial? 2018-10-22 · 1900s-1970s
  A Civil War cannon barrel at the courthouse, dedicated after Palmer's veterans' reunion in the early 1900s, went to a WWII scrap drive. Camp Carson soldiers installed a WWII barrel from Pueblo Ordnance Depot; it vanished in the mid-1970s. (summary unchecked)
• Rail safety much improved since early Midland 2019-01-14 · 1890s
  A Colorado Midland accident book for 1912 to 1918 shows trouble nearly daily. Tunnel 2 above Ruxton was the worst spot. In 1891 a rock derailed a freight at Engelmann trestle; a month later a slide killed two crewmen. (summary unchecked)
• Early Colorado City yearned for classy Midland station 2019-02-04 · 1890s
  In 1890 Colorado City called the Midland depot akin to a dump; after the old shack burned in 1891 the Midland built a station at the west end of its yards near 25th Street, which burned in 1931. (summary unchecked)
• A winter trip on the old Midland 2004-03-04 · 1890s-1900s
  An imagined night ride a century ago from Colorado City up Ute Pass to Leadville: six cars, a Pullman sleeper, stove-heated coaches, stops at Manitou and Woodland Park. In winter 1899 snow stopped trains; Leadville built an Ice Palace. (summary unchecked)
• Schools and street names 2004-05-27 · 1880s-1910s
  Colorado City's first one-room school was replaced by a big school at Bancroft Park; Midland and Whittier opened in the 1880s; after 1917 District 1 merged into District 11; streets renamed about 1900 and 1917; Limit Street marked the boundary. (summary unchecked)
• The old-days post office 2004-06-10 · 1950s
  Memories of the early-1950s Colorado City post office on Colorado Avenue near Roger's Bar, mail addressed with just a name and city, multiple daily deliveries, railroad cars of Christmas packages, and the old schools Whittier, Midland and Buena Vista. (summary unchecked)
• A walk on the Avenue: Part 1 2004-09-09 · 1960s
  A 1961 walk on Colorado Avenue from 23rd: Blunt Mortuary, F&L Foods making Golden Flake potato chips, Safeway, Royal Bicycle, Merri-Lane Restaurant, Duckwall's, Peiper Drugstore, West End Post Office at 2512, Roger's Bar, Clark's gas station, Cy's Drive In. (summary unchecked)
• A walk on the Avenue: Part 2 2004-09-16 · 1950s
  Business-by-business walk along Colorado Avenue from 23rd past 31st as it was in 1954: Mervin Sinclair Service, Osborne Drug, Tapp's Food Store, Sno-White, Schoch's Hardware, Frontier Bar, Dennen Market, Frosty Delight, Amarilla Motel, Cupp's Cottages and garages rented to tourists. (summary unchecked)
• A walk on the Avenue: Part 3 2004-09-23 · 1940s
  A 1943 walk up Colorado Avenue from 21st: Micci and Sons Grocery, Blunt Mortuary, Safeway, Blue Lantern, Piggly Wiggly, Hobbs Cafe, Cole Drug with the Post Office at 2512, West Side Bowling Alleys above 2528, Louis Unser's house. (summary unchecked)
• A walk on the Avenue: Part 4 2004-09-30 · 1930s
  Colorado Avenue in 1932 from 21st: Sacred Heart, Micci Grocery, Midland Terminal crewmen Clyde Prosser and Charlie Pressler, Dr. Fanning's A-1 Tonic, many empty stores, Safeway at 2503, Alexander Film Company lab at 2611, Clark's Service Station at 2715. (summary unchecked)
• A walk on the Avenue: Part 5 2004-10-07 · 1920s
  Colorado Avenue in 1923: Micci and Bonicelli at 21st, Dr. Fanning at 2225, no Bancroft Park yet, West Junior temporarily in the old Colorado City High School, six grocery stores in one block, Coca Cola bottled at old City Hall. (summary unchecked)
• A walk on the Avenue: Part 6 2004-10-14 · 1910s
  Colorado Avenue in 1918 after the Midland closed and the town lost nearly 200 residents: Sommers Market at 2502, Red Cross at 2508, Colorado City Iron Works at 2628 making Hassell fences, half the 2500 block vacant. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado City's businesses in 1902 2004-11-04 · 1900s
  Colorado City in 1902: Citizens State Bank; hotels Brookside, Enterprise, Hoffman House, Noble and Stone; 2500 block saloons Blackwood's, Bland & Co, Comer & Comer; Stewart & Tiger Bicycles; Wagner-Stockbridge Mercantile where Surplus City sits; Martin Drake real estate. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado City's businesses in 1912 2004-11-11 · 1910s
  Colorado City in 1912: Barr & Sons carriages and burros, Fred Barr's stable near today's Red Rocks Safeway; First National Bank; Arlington House, Elk Rooming House, National Hotel; saloons Hopper & Zobbel, Nolan & Putkey; librarian Eleanore Smelser. (summary unchecked)
• Things we remember 2004-12-30 · 1950s-1970s
  Year-end list of remembered Westside names: the field before Uintah Gardens, the Safeway now Goodwill, Cy's, Clark's gas station, Howard's Pit Barbecue, the 8th Street Drive In, Cupp's Cottages, Merri-Lane, Schoch's Hardware, Rogers Bar, White Spot Drive In. (summary unchecked)
• More on our railroads 2005-01-20 · 1880s-1930s
  A count of area railroads: Manitou had seven including the cog, two inclines and two streetcar lines; Colorado City four; Colorado Springs eight. The Broadmoor Hotel owned coal cars moved by streetcar at night until 1931. (summary unchecked)
• The long and short of the Short Line 2005-05-12 · 1890s-1940s
  Two local railroads carried the Short Line name: the Midland Terminal, built 1894, and the Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek District Railway, opened 1902 along today's Gold Camp Road. It closed in 1920 and became the Corley toll road. (summary unchecked)
• A sweet dream 2005-07-07 · 1950s-1960s
  McFarland's childhood dream of running a candy store near a school; recalls stores by Whittier, Buena Vista at 20th and Pikes Peak, Palmer, North Junior, and Palmer High's open campus with the Mayflower Cafe, Barthel's, Colt's and the Matchless drive-in. (summary unchecked)
• The forgotten importance of coal 2005-10-20 · 1880s-1940s
  Coal mining at Cragmor and Pikeview powered Cripple Creek mines, Colorado City mills and homes from the 1880s; trains hauled up to 10 coal cars a day up Ute Pass. The Carlton brothers shipped their own coal to Cripple Creek. (summary unchecked)
• Landmarks near the Colonel's place 2006-04-13 · 1940s-1960s
  With the KFC at 31st and Colorado coming down, landmarks recalled: Cupp's Cottages, an early motel; the Fireside Lounge that burned; the old Safeway now Goodwill at 23rd; and Highway 24 following the Midland right of way, 1887 to 1949. (summary unchecked)
• A great house 2006-05-04 · 1880s-1970s
  The Gillette House, built in 1882 by W.S. Stratton before his Cripple Creek fortune, stood in today's park on Walnut near Bristol School and was moved thirty years ago to 18th Street. It originally had no bathrooms or closets. (summary unchecked)
• Traveling shows 2006-06-01 · 1890s
  Railroad traveling shows: a dozen church cars, one with a portable steeple, stopped at the Colorado City Rio Grande depot and sometimes seeded congregations. Circus trains parked near stations. In 1896 the Salzer Seed Company show car paused here. (summary unchecked)
• Hunger-inducing memories 2006-06-08 · 1950s-1960s
  Remembered eating spots: Merle Crocker's Merri-Lane on Colorado Avenue, Imboden's chicken near Manitou, Michaelis' Burger in a Basket with four locations, Uncle Sam's in the old Manitou site, Bon Ton's once a gas station, Maid Rite burgers now under I-25. (summary unchecked)
• The Avenue in the '20s (cont.) 2006-07-20 · 1920s
  Using Ted Wright's memories, the column walks Colorado Avenue near 25th in the 1920s: Palace Market, Odd Fellows upstairs, Koch's and Jeffries drug stores, the post office, Nathan Apple's shoe repair, Sanitary Laundry, Piggly Wiggly, Nelson Motor Company. (summary unchecked)
• Sitting on the porch 2006-08-24 · 1900s-1950s
  Evening porch-sitting was once how neighbors met; streets were quiet and music came from the home. Radio, cars, television and bugs ended the habit; finer houses had upstairs sleeping porches. Only one house in McFarland's neighborhood has a real porch. (summary unchecked)
• Old trucks and cars 2006-09-14 · 1950s
  Westside memories from about 1956: the Ice Man's truck for ice boxes, Sinton and Meadow Gold milk routes, and the Divco milk truck, driver standing at the door, with a bin of ice chunks for the kids. (summary unchecked)
• The town of Manitou Park 2006-10-26 · 1870s-1880s
  Dr. Bell's Manitou Park resort had a log hotel, daily coaches from Manitou, and a planned fish hatchery. H.D. Fisher's lumber company laid 7.2 miles of narrow-gauge track using borrowed D&RG locomotive #5 Ouray, hauled up Ute Pass by wagon. (summary unchecked)
• When buses replaced streetcars 2006-11-30 · 1930s-1950s
  Colorado Springs replaced streetcars with buses in 1932, starting with truck-like buses carrying a dozen, then 48-seat and 100-passenger White buses. The old car barns between Cascade and Tejon became stores. All buses crossed at Busy Corner. (summary unchecked)
• Up front about cabooses 2007-04-05 · 1980s-2000s
  McFarland bought his caboose in 1983 and uses it as an art studio; neighbors protested on TV when he moved it. A Colorado Midland caboose from Divide was dismantled behind Ghost Town. About five remain in town. (summary unchecked)
• Churches, then and now 2007-04-12 · 1890s-1940s
  The Old Colorado City History Center was First Baptist Church, filled for Colorado Midland accident funerals. Duncan Lamont of Bethany Baptist became a politician. Churches declined from the 1920s to 1940s; one at Nevada and Colorado became a gas station. (summary unchecked)
• When most people heated with coal 2007-04-26 · 1900s-1950s
  Most Colorado City houses heated with coal: iron coal doors, basement bins, furnaces and stokers. Two coal yards used old cabooses as offices, near Bott and near Eighth. Depression-era thieves raided the Midland coal shed. Gas wells served by 1900. (summary unchecked)
• It has always been like that! 2007-06-07 · 1900s-1910s
  McFarland hunts then-and-now photo locations. Colorado City industries south of Colorado Avenue along the D&RG included breweries, bottle works, paint factory, brick kilns and a plaster works. He finally located the stove and furnace factory at South 23rd and Vermijo. (summary unchecked)
• Tourists and the automobile 2007-08-02 · 1900s-1960s
  The first car up Pikes Peak in 1902 drove the cog tracks; the first on the highway was 1913, then Penrose bought the road. Postwar car tourism surged. Motels ran tour cars; 1950s Cadillacs still toured in the 1960s. (summary unchecked)
• Other ways rocks were used 2007-09-13 · 1890s-1940s
  A concrete plant north of Fountain Creek used local limestone. A Manitou lime kiln quietly supplied the Golden Cycle into the 1940s. In the 1890s Ute Pass Paint near Robinson and 25th burned on a December night. (summary unchecked)
• How did the people do it? 2007-10-18 · 1870s-1890s
  Three late 1870s stage lines: McClellan & Spotswood ran six-horse Concords to Fairplay and South Park; Bradbury, Woodgate and Hundley served Leadville, and Hundley, buying out partners, lasted into automobile days; William Foster served Florence and Canon City. (summary unchecked)
• Fighting traffic in pre-pavement days 2007-10-25 · 1920s-1930s
  US 85/87 was the north-south route before I-25. The first paved Denver to Pueblo highway, built around 1930, replaced a dirt road crossing railroad tracks about 20 times. The Colorado City turn was at Pikeview. (summary unchecked)
• Down at the roundhouse 2007-11-21 · 1900s-1910s
  The Van Briggle Pottery building was the Colorado Midland and Midland Terminal roundhouse, holding up to 14 locomotives. Engines were turned on the turntable, backed into stalls, checked by crews, cleaned by apprentices, and moved out by a hostler. (summary unchecked)
• A hidden object in plain sight 2008-01-10 · 1940s-1950s
  McFarland describes his own caboose, built sixty years ago for Montana service and parked in his neighborhood for twelve years, and explains old crew roles: conductor, brakemen, engineer, fireman. Modern trains run with two people. (summary unchecked)
• The little groceries... and Safeway 2008-03-20 · 1930s-1950s
  Neighborhood grocers before refrigeration; Safeway on the Westside since the 1930s in buildings now the Glass Shop and Goodwill; a Kiowa Street house across from Whittier was a grocery into the late 1950s; boyhood baseball card stops. (summary unchecked)
• The old avenue: From 29th to Manitou 2008-05-15 · 1880s-1930s
  West of 29th, Colorado Avenue's present route is only 60 or 70 years old. Midland yards ran 21st to 26th; Arensdale joined Colorado City 100 years ago; General Adams' white house named Adams Crossing when the road was rebuilt. (summary unchecked)
• Bristol, Pike and the two Roswells 2008-06-05 · 1890s-1950s
  Roswell City, platted by the Rock Island in 1890 west of its D&RG junction, had a short-lived school called Rock Island or Roosevelt School, attended by McFarland's mother about 1922. McFarland attended Bristol, then new Zebulon Pike School in 1956. (summary unchecked)
• Things that were once common 2008-07-17 · 1950s-1960s
  A roll call of vanished names: Merri-Lane Restaurant with Merle Crocker's rifles and live organ, Cy's Drive-In, KRDO's Wes Bradley, KKTV in the old streetcar barn, dealers Higdon and Marksheffel, dairies Carlson-Frink and Scotland Pride, Pixie Land Golf, Schoch's Hardware. (summary unchecked)
• Those two railroads 2008-09-04 · 1920s-1930s
  The Colorado Midland closed in 1921 and the Midland Terminal took over to Divide. Colorado City shop jobs fell from 300 in 1918 to under 100 in 1928. The last MT passenger train ran in 1931; converted streetcars ran later. (summary unchecked)
• The telephone office 2008-09-11 · 1920s
  In 1920 the Westside telephone exchange moved into a plain brick building behind the Safeway at 23rd and Colorado, with three women working the manual switchboard in shifts and a bill-paying window in front. Party lines invited eavesdropping. (summary unchecked)
• The tracks to the mill 2008-11-13 · 1900s-1940s
  A Colorado Midland track ran from near 25th and US 24 up Robinson, Bott, 23rd and Arch Street to the glassworks, then to the Golden Cycle Mill, opened 1906 as the Telluride. Ore trains ran day and night until 1949. (summary unchecked)
• Back yards and alleys 2008-12-29 · 1940s-2000s
  A Florence and Cripple Creek railroad car sat beside South 26th Street for 30 years and is now restored in Nebraska; another F&CC car went to the Street Car Museum then Antonito; old box cars once filled Westside back yards. (summary unchecked)
• Early sport: Jackrabbit hunting 2009-01-22 · 1890s
  An 1897 newspaper described Easterners hunting jackrabbits with greyhounds and horses in winter snow; the Garden of the Gods Road area was a popular hunting site; McFarland notes hunter safety was once taught in schools. (summary unchecked)
• Newspaper bargains from 1948 2009-03-05 · 1940s
  A December 1948 Colorado City paper: West End Furniture at 2432, Henry's Shoe shop 25 years in business, a $9.95 all-steel wagon, cranberries 21 cents a can. Notes said Midland Terminal trains would end and Golden Cycle was being wrecked. (summary unchecked)
• Figuring out where things were 2009-08-06 · 1900s
  Colorado City street names changed twice and numbers three times, making 1904 businesses hard to place: Citizens State Bank, hotels Brookside, Enterprise, Hoffman House, Noble and Stone, saloons, the Iris newspaper, Martin Drake selling real estate, Central Lumber at 23rd. (summary unchecked)
• Dairies were once all around us 2009-08-13 · 1880s-1960s
  Sinton Dairy, organized by four brothers in 1880, incorporated in 1906 and brought pasteurization to Colorado in 1907, absorbing Rustic Home, Bates, Hassler and DeCoursey ranches. Other dairies: IXL, Mowrey, Carlson-Frink, Huff Brothers on the Westside, Scotland Pride. (summary unchecked)
• The coming of the streetcar 2009-09-03 · 1880s-1930s
  The horse-drawn Colorado Springs and Manitou Street Railway opened November 2, 1887 on Tejon; the Colorado City trip took an hour. Rapid Transit electrified it in 1890. W.S. Stratton bought the line in 1902; last car 1931. (summary unchecked)
• East to Manitou Junction 2009-09-24 · 1880s-1910s
  The Denver & New Orleans railroad laid track into Colorado Springs under cover of night, finishing in October 1882. Jimmy Camp station became Manitou Junction; a siding honored painter Albert Bierstadt. Matt France developed the Franceville coal mine. (summary unchecked)
• The Midland Creamery 2009-11-05 · 1900s-1960s
  A.J. Smith, grocer since 1886, founded Hollywood Creamery with George Allebrand, then in 1920 started the Midland Creamery with H.R. Stealy on Cucharras, selling Gold Band, Blue Hill and Best Foods butter; it was not railroad-owned. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado City's early depots 2009-11-19 · 1880s-1930s
  Colorado City depots: the Rio Grande built through in 1880, stopped near 25th, moved near 24th about 1886, burned 1891, rebuilt near 22nd until 1931. The Midland's first station was a box car; a fine depot about 1904 burned 1931. (summary unchecked)
• Tick Tock! 2010-04-15 · 1940s-1950s
  A late 1940s photo shows the Tick Tock diner in the 600 block of West Colorado Avenue was a purpose-built diner, not a converted streetcar; it may have burned in the 1950s when George's Pet Supply occupied the site. (summary unchecked)
• The caboose that inspired me 2010-07-01 · 1880s-1960s
  An 1887 Colorado Midland caboose sat near Divide through the 1950s, was moved to Colorado Springs by 1965 stripped of windows, then dismantled behind Ghost Town. McFarland salvaged its last parts; an end board hangs in his living room. (summary unchecked)
• The era of the dude ranches 2010-07-29 · 1880s-1970s
  Ute Pass ranches became dude ranches in the 1880s; Teddy Roosevelt popularized the idea around 1900. Fence riding became trail rides, branding became entertainment. Competition like Paradise Ranch wore it thin by the 1930s; most broke up in the 1960s. (summary unchecked)
• Remembering fun places 2010-08-05 · 1950s-1960s
  Manitou's last miniature golf became a garden shop. The Miracle House below Manitou High had crooked walls and optical illusions. A 1960s trampoline center sat near today's 7-11. Stuffed animal postcard stalls became T-shirt shops. Indian statues are gone. (summary unchecked)
• The other Westside railroad 2010-09-02 · 1880s-1890s
  The Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska built the Rock Island line into Colorado by 1889, founding Falcon and platting Roswell City west of the D&RG junction, named for director Roswell P. Flower. Rumors it would buy the Colorado Midland persisted. (summary unchecked)
• The house at 31st and Colorado 2010-09-16 · 1900s-1950s
  3044 W. Colorado, built 1909, was Earl James's home; his gas station sat across the avenue, and in the mid-1950s he bridged Fountain Creek for a campground. Neighbors were Midland Terminal engineer Hoot Sullivan and the Hartley motel. (summary unchecked)
• More railroad stations 2010-11-24 · 1880s-1950s
  About 12 stations once stood inside today's Colorado Springs. Manitou had four: the cog station on Ruxton, two Midland stations, one later Nelson and Inez Hunt's home, and the D&RG depot at the Villa Motel, replaced by a pool. (summary unchecked)
• Some background on burgers 2010-12-02 · 1950s-1970s
  Cy's in the 2700 block of Colorado Avenue closed in 1968 and reopened in 1970 at Uintah and 19th when Uintah was cut through the mesa. Uintah was Manitou Boulevard in the 1950s. A B-29 chunk sat in Chambon's lot. (summary unchecked)
• Cheyenne Mountain and the stone tower 2010-12-23 · 1920s-1960s
  Spencer Penrose built the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun in the 1930s after Rogers' 1935 Alaska crash with Wiley Post; it stands 100 feet tall above the zoo. A Broadmoor summit hotel ended with the 1965 flood. (summary unchecked)
• The days when trash was burned 2011-02-17 · 1940s-1960s
  Backyard incinerators and ash pits were standard before clean-air rules. A dump sat under Penrose Arena on the Portland Gold Mill site. A surviving incinerator off I-25 near Garden of the Gods Road is mistaken for an Indian oven. (summary unchecked)
• Blazing interest in incinerator topic 2011-03-10 · 1940s-1960s
  Readers pointed out a red brick incinerator on the 30th Street trail, remnant of the one-room School District 35 schoolhouse that burned May 7, 1946. McFarland recalls the Monroe Street dump and Portland mill ruins now under Penrose Stadium parking. (summary unchecked)
• Coal mining in the region 2011-04-21 · 1870s-1960s
  The coal strip ran from Garden of the Gods around Austin Bluffs to Jimmy Camp. First mines opened in the 1870s near Garden of the Gods Road. In 1899 the Santa Fe built a spur to the Curtis Mine. (summary unchecked)
• The noisy but reliable 'Uncle Sam' 2011-05-19 · 1880s-1910s
  D&RG Engine 501, built 1883, pulled the Colorado Springs to Manitou train three times a day from about 1900 to 1916 with engineer Jack Stephen; people called it Uncle Sam. The last Rio Grande Manitou train ran in 1931. (summary unchecked)
• The mountain connection 2011-07-21 · 1900s-1910s
  A century ago Colorado Midland crews lived part-time in Divide or Florissant, some in canvas tent frames, moves reported in the Colorado City Iris. When the Midland quit in 1918 Florissant nearly blew away. Railroaders chose burial at Colorado City. (summary unchecked)
• The traveling exhibit of 1891 2011-09-01 · 1890s
  A three-car Santa Fe exhibit train stopped in Colorado Springs in October 1891 with a ton of Canon City coal, a 75-pound Colorado City squash, Manitou spring waters, Glenwood marble, Leadville gems and a 12-foot Colorado City Glass Company display. (summary unchecked)
• The wreck train 2011-09-22 · 1890s-1910s
  The Colorado Midland kept three wreck trains, at Colorado City, Leadville and Basalt; a telegram would dispatch crews within minutes with cranes, kitchen and bunk cars; all other trains held at stations to clear the path. (summary unchecked)
• The plaster mill fire of 1892 2011-09-29 · 1890s
  On November 20, 1892, fire destroyed the Colorado City plaster and cement works near South 23rd Street, founded in the 1870s by George H. Stewart. Warehouse, kilns and machinery burned; the mill was never rebuilt. (summary unchecked)
• A day at the Midland station in 1908 2011-10-06 · 1900s
  A typical October 1908 day at the Colorado City Midland station: a 6 a.m. freight taking 12 hours to Leadville, a 9:45 passenger train from Cripple Creek, the noon fast train west, an eastbound from Grand Junction, freights all night. (summary unchecked)
• Stagecoaches were big before trains 2011-10-13 · 1870s-1880s
  Before trains, McClellan and Spotswood stages left Colorado Springs Monday, Wednesday and Friday for Leadville via Fairplay, carrying mail. Bradbury, Woodgate and Hundley competed; Foster ran to Canon City. Ute Pass freighting needed nearly 500 mules and 100 men. (summary unchecked)
• Fewer train cars in yards nowadays 2012-02-23 · 1890s-1980s
  Old railroad cars once dotted the Westside: an 1894 Florence and Cripple Creek coach on South 26th until Nebraska buyers restored it in the 1980s; a West Bijou alley car went to Antonito; a Midland business car in Las Vegas. (summary unchecked)
• The Midland's coffee cups 2012-08-23 · 1890s-1970s
  Walking the old Midland grade in the 1970s, including where 11 Mile Reservoir dropped low, McFarland found broken Midland dining car china thrown from trains, two shoe boxes of it, mostly on one side. Handleless cups were for crews. (summary unchecked)
• The building of West Colorado Springs 2012-10-04 · 1890s
  West Colorado Springs, between Monument Creek and Limit Street, boomed after the Midland opened in 1887; by summer 1891 a dozen houses rose in a few blocks, Second Presbyterian at Bijou and Spruce, streetcar up Spruce and Walnut. (summary unchecked)
• Manitou's limestone operation 2012-11-08 · 1890s-1940s
  David Jones of Manitou built a lime kiln at Jones Spur between Midland Tunnels 3 and 4 in 1892: three brick kilns fueled by kerosene from an 18,000-gallon tank. Golden Cycle bought the lime; it ran to 1949. (summary unchecked)
• They called them news 'butchers' 2013-02-14 · 1900s-1910s
  A century ago news boys called butchers boarded trains at stations to sell newspapers for a nickel or dime, often shortchanging buyers and sometimes getting stuck aboard; local railroads eventually confined them to platforms. (summary unchecked)
• Auctions at the train depot 2013-03-28 · 1900s-1910s
  About 100 years ago the Colorado City Midland depot auctioned unclaimed baggage and freight every six months; buyers lined up, sometimes found perfume or dirty laundry, and the disappointed resold outside the depot. Railroads also sold wreck-damaged goods. (summary unchecked)
• Home for a dinky and art at Windy Point 2013-05-23 · 1930s
  The enclosed Ruxton Avenue dinky streetcar was hauled up the cog track to the Minnehaha section house for storage in the 1930s; McFarland paints fake doors and windows on the surviving Windy Point section house, including Brough Taggart's name. (summary unchecked)
• Manitou's former limestone quarry 2013-07-11 · 1910s-1950s
  In 1918 the Gannister Mining Company opened a limestone quarry above Manitou shipping 15 carloads weekly toward CF&I in Pueblo; it later went to the Golden Cycle Mill, which ran it until the 1950s; scars remain above the water tank. (summary unchecked)
• Inner workings of a gold mill 2013-07-18 · 1900s-1910s
  The Standard chlorination plant opened March 1900 southwest of Colorado City, processing 600 to 700 tons of ore daily through rollers, furnaces and 11 chlorination barrels into gold bricks for the Denver Mint; officers were Tutt, Penrose and MacNeill. (summary unchecked)
• How Manitou used to get 'plastered' 2014-03-10 · 1920s
  Western Lime built a $100,000 plaster plant above Minnehaha Avenue in June 1920: three kilns, 20 men, 40 to 50 tons a day. Earlier kilns at Adams Crossing closed when Cave of the Winds tourism arrived. (summary unchecked)
• Centennial extension graphic prompts boyhood memories 2016-10-10 · 1890s-1950s
  The Centennial Boulevard extension between Fillmore and Fontanero crosses McFarland's boyhood neighborhood. Fontanero was the border of Roswell City, separate in the early 1890s. Roswell School became Roosevelt School. The 1959 I-25 Fontanero exit preceded the boulevard. (summary unchecked)
• A Midland excursion train to Leadville in 1889 2017-06-26 · 1880s
  Narrates an 1889 Colorado Midland excursion from Colorado Springs through Ute Pass, Cascade, Green Mountain Falls, Florissant with a petrified stump on the platform, Eleven Mile Canyon, South Park, Hartsel and Trout Creek Pass to Leadville by 2 p.m. (summary unchecked)
• A company's grocery sites, over the decades 2017-07-17 · 1920s-1950s
  Safeway arrived in the late 1920s with three downtown stores. The Westside store opened in 1929 at 2503 W. Colorado and moved in 1942 to a drive-in store at 2306 W. Colorado, now Goodwill. A 25th Street store fell 2004. (summary unchecked)
• World War II paused tour car business 2017-12-18 · 1930s-1940s
  In the 1930s tourist cottage camps spawned tour car companies running Cadillac, Lincoln and Packard limos from motel offices in Manitou and Old Colorado City. In mid-September 1942 the state halted tour cars for the wartime gas shortage. (summary unchecked)
• Coal used for cooking here into the 1960s 2018-02-26 · 1890s-1960s
  Coal yards sold coal by the bucket into the 1960s; McFarland's family cooked on a coal stove on Pikes Peak Avenue. Iron coal doors remain on houses; Colorado City had natural gas by the 1890s. (summary unchecked)
• A concrete bridge where the trains once ran 2018-11-12 · 1900s-1940s
  The concrete Gold Camp Road bridge at Bear Creek Canyon replaced a 1948 span, which replaced the Short Line's 1919 timber railroad bridge after a 1900 bridge burned in 1918. Corley's toll highway opened 1924; renamed Gold Camp Road 1939. (summary unchecked)
• More info about the old Avenue 2005-12-29 · 1900s-1950s
  A century ago the Westside post office was in the First National Bank building, now Michael Garman's; in the 1920s it moved to 2512 W. Colorado and in 1949 expanded into the McIntosh block. Half-size summer shuttles ran the Avenue. (summary unchecked)
• Rail crossings safer now 2011-11-23 · 1910s
  A 1916 article counted vehicles crossing El Paso County rail lines daily to warn of danger; crossing lights came after World War I. Rio Grande tracks ran in the middle of 22nd to 26th. (summary unchecked)

What could have been (38)

• What could have been Manitou's 'Bishop's Castle' 2014-10-06 · 1910s-1920s
  Will J. Carlin, an Illinois governor's son who reached Manitou about 1915 with $2, saved to buy land at the mouth of Williams Canyon and began hand-building a medieval castle; three walls stood when exposure killed him in 1925. (summary unchecked)
• Tough landing at the Manitou airport 2015-07-06 · 1920s
  In May 1928 C.B. Keller, a former Marine aviator, won $100 for the first landing at a Manitou airport on A.T. McLaughlin's rocky land near Crystal Park Road, losing a wheel. McLaughlin planned tourist flights around Pikes Peak. (summary unchecked)
• The welcome arch 2007-02-22 · 1900s
  About 1907 the Colorado City Chamber of Commerce planned a steel welcome arch over Colorado Avenue at 24th Street, designed by George F. Geiger. Dollar pins sold poorly and the builder quit over the wide street and streetcar wires. (summary unchecked)
• The red rock park that never was 2007-03-29 · 1860s-1890s
  Arensdale, west of 31st Street, held quarries from the late 1860s to about 1890 that cut away Garden of the Gods rocks for building stone. A quarry spur ran near today's Safeway; a paint factory burned in the 1890s. (summary unchecked)
• Railroad to Pikes Peak: The first attempt 2009-03-26 · 1880s
  In 1883 Professor James H. Kerr, Irving Howbert and others proposed a Pike's Peak Railway via Crystal Park. Three miles were graded before a New York bank closed with the money in 1884. The grade became Crystal Park Road. (summary unchecked)
• No saving locomotive #59 2009-07-09 · 1940s
  In 1949 Harry Blunt and John Bock Sr. tried to save Midland Terminal locomotive 59 for Bancroft Park. Golden Cycle, angry over a 1948 strike, barred the scrapper from selling to any Colorado City group; the engine was cut up. (summary unchecked)
• If fate had gone differently! 2009-09-10 · 1910s
  In 1911, while Colorado City discussed annexation, Manitou's Hot Iron Club proposed that Manitou annex Colorado City instead; R.E.L. Giles wanted it by next summer, but it upset everyone. Colorado City houses were renumbered at least twice before 1917. (summary unchecked)
• The incline that never happened 2010-01-07 · 1900s-1920s
  In 1906 promoters proposed an electric incline railway up Cheyenne Mountain with a summit hotel; never built. Penrose built a road in the 1920s, a summit hotel, zoo and Shrine of the Sun. The hotel closed late 1950s. (summary unchecked)
• The only 'real' grave at the Pikes Peak summit 2014-09-01 · 1920s
  Swedish artist Carl Lotave, in Colorado Springs from 1901, proposed to Spencer Penrose in 1924 a summit cemetery for creative people with urn niches in a stone wall. Permission never came; one grave was allowed in 1925. (summary unchecked)
• El Paso County's first car 2005-07-21 · 1890s
  In July 1899 E.J. Cabler and Robert Temple of Denver drove a converted wagon, capable of 15 mph, to Colorado Springs in two days, repeatedly running out of gasoline; their plan to haul Cripple Creek ore failed on Ute Pass. (summary unchecked)
• The first Pikes Peak Hill Climb (almost) 2006-01-26 · 1900s
  The first car reached Pikes Peak's summit via the railroad tracks in 1901. In 1904 a Denver promoter tied to Anthony Motor and Manufacturing organized an auto race up the mountain; October weather canceled it. Penrose rebuilt the road later. (summary unchecked)
• Not-so-big oil 2006-06-15 · 1900s-1920s
  A Colorado City well under today's US 24 produced natural gas sold commercially for nearly five years. A Wigwam well hit oil at 2,500 feet and ran dry in days. The Pinion refinery died after the 1921 and 1922 floods. (summary unchecked)
• Teddy wanted to drive the train 2006-08-31 · 1900s
  In 1905 President Roosevelt rode the Colorado Midland from Colorado City to New Castle, having asked to run the locomotive as a Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers member. The engine was to be given to him; he returned it. (summary unchecked)
• Palmer and his towns 2007-03-01 · 1870s
  In 1871 General Palmer planned towns every 5 to 10 miles along his railroad, naming them from a notebook now at the Pioneers Museum. Colorado Springs was nearly Fountain or Park Gate. (summary unchecked)
• Don't be too quick to tear it down 2008-02-14 · 1900s-2000s
  McFarland objects to plans to raze the Bock family home and a garage with a 1960s bomb shelter in Red Rock Canyon Open Space, a former quarry and site of Colorado City's first gold mill. (summary unchecked)
• Tracking down the Westside's tracks 2008-07-24 · 1900s-1940s
  Maps rail lines: the D&RG roadbed is now the Midland Trail, and its Cucharras Street tracks were abandoned in 1931; Robinson and Arch tracks served Golden Cycle until 1949; a 1920s streetcar loop through Garden of the Gods was proposed. (summary unchecked)
• This time he gets here! 2009-08-27 · 1860s
  In 1868 Palmer's Kansas Pacific survey found the divide route south from Denver; in 1869 Palmer and Bell visited Colorado City and met Irving Howbert. Palmer eyed a Bijou home site, now the Air Force Academy, then chose Glen Eyrie. (summary unchecked)
• How illuminating was light from peak? 2010-03-11 · 1910s
  In 1913 the cog road owners planned a million candlepower searchlight on the Pikes Peak summit to light downtown Colorado Springs with street lights off at 9 p.m. Results are unrecorded. 1970s summit floodlights drew complaints. (summary unchecked)
• What General Grant didn't do 2010-04-08 · 1880s
  The 1883 Pike's Peak Railway, promoted by James H. Kerr, Irving Howbert, Thomas J. Fisher and Orlando Metcalf, graded three miles toward Crystal Park before a New York bank failure took its money in 1884. General Grant never financed it. (summary unchecked)
• The Peak's searchlight in 1913 2010-09-30 · 1910s
  In 1913 the cog railway put a searchlight with a three-foot lens on Pikes Peak summit, partly to light Colorado Springs neighborhoods. Operator W.B. Attwell in 1914 brought his bride up instead of a honeymoon; snow and lightning interfered. (summary unchecked)
• The Blair Athol mine 2010-10-07 · 1910s
  Blair Athol Mining and Milling worked a copper deposit two miles north of Glen Eyrie on 40 acres leased from Marjorie Palmer Watt; stock sold 500 shares for $100; about six tons of concentrate a month went to Omaha. (summary unchecked)
• The man who owned Balanced Rock 2011-06-09 · 1900s-1920s
  When the Perkins family gave Garden of the Gods to Colorado Springs, Balanced Rock was excluded; Paul Goerke owned it and charged photographers. After losing a road fight, Paul and son Curt threatened to fence Balanced Rock and Steamboat Rock. (summary unchecked)
• The road up the Peak from the north 2012-05-03 · 1880s-1890s
  After the Army weather station closed in 1887, the Pikes Peak Toll Road from Cascade was backed by Santa Fe owner Cyrus K. Holliday and Kansas investors. Crews built on Army land at night. Spencer Penrose later bought it. (summary unchecked)
• Gold and silver claims near Woodland 2012-11-15 · 1890s
  In 1892 the Manitou Park District north of Woodland Park boomed around the Leonetti Claim, located by Jack Templeton and reopened by a Mr. Jenson of Colorado City; stock set at $1 million. The 1893 silver crash ended it. (summary unchecked)
• D&RG expands to Leadville, Manitou 2012-12-06 · 1880s
  Racing the Santa Fe to Leadville, the D&RG built from Colorado Springs to Manitou in 1880 as the start of a Ute Pass line, then stopped. A July flash flood wrapped new rails around trees before General Grant's ride. (summary unchecked)
• Ripple effect of trains up Ute Pass 2012-12-13 · 1880s
  Manitou's stone D&RG depot was a copied English church meant as an Episcopal chapel for Mrs. Bell. The D&RG spent $19,726.34 surveying Ute Pass, then quit. The Colorado Midland built the pass in 1886, spawning towns west of Manitou. (summary unchecked)
• That winding road above Manitou 2013-05-30 · 1880s-1910s
  Crystal Park Road began as the never-tracked Pike's Peak Railway of 1883, graded three miles before a New York bank failure ended it. About 1910 it became a scenic auto road with small turntables at two tight curves. (summary unchecked)
• A small but controversial railway 2013-09-12 · 1900s
  In April 1901 investors including Judge Kerr asked City Council to build a 15-inch gauge miniature railway about 1.5 miles long with two tunnels in Cheyenne Park and North Cheyenne Canyon; neighbors petitioned against visitors and smoke; backers withdrew. (summary unchecked)
• The president's train trip of 1901 2013-10-10 · 1900s
  President McKinley's planned seven-week 1901 rail tour listed Glenwood Springs, Leadville, Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek among its stops aboard a seven-car train with the private car Olympia; the tour was canceled in California and McKinley was soon assassinated. (summary unchecked)
• Time for a new summit house... in 1936 2016-05-09 · 1930s
  In 1936 the Forest Service took over the Pikes Peak Highway from Penrose, made the road free, and proposed a WPA-funded 100-by-100-foot summit house that shrank to a remodel; a 26,000-square-foot replacement was planned to start in 2017. (summary unchecked)
• New year's cog to the summit - What could possibly go wrong? 2016-07-18 · 1930s
  In 1936 the cog railway planned a New Year's night train to the summit for the AdAmAn fireworks, 100 reservations. A storm hit Dec. 30. A test train and snowplow quit above 8 Mile, under a mile short. (summary unchecked)
• Corley's attempt to build a different Pikes Peak road 2016-12-12 · 1920s-1930s
  After buying the Short Line in 1922, W.D. Corley, who disliked Spencer Penrose, proposed a second Pikes Peak road from Clyde through the Seven Lakes up the South Slope to Cog Corner. The Forest Service rejected it for 10 years. (summary unchecked)
• Bell and Palmer and the D&RG 2006-07-06 · 1870s-1880s
  General Palmer and Dr. William A. Bell planned a railroad to Mexico City with mountain branches. The D&RG built to Manitou in 1880 after spending $19,726.34 on Ute Pass surveys never used. Bell's land became Manitou Park. (summary unchecked)
• More on the Hot Iron Club 2009-10-08 · 1910s
  In 1912 Manitou's Hot Iron Club planned street lights from 31st Street through Adams Crossing to Ruxton Avenue, powered by the Ruxton hydroelectric plant opened 1905. R.E.L. Giles promised parks, springs, an auditorium and pavilions. (summary unchecked)
• Welsh influences on Palmer's railroad 2010-06-24 · 1870s
  Palmer modeled the Denver & Rio Grande on Welsh narrow gauge, choosing three-foot gauge to beat the 14 mph Festiniog, ordering 30-pound English rail, named Baldwin locomotives, and four-wheeled cars from York, Pennsylvania. His English town names went mostly unused. (summary unchecked)
• The unbuilt Short Line station 2013-05-09 · 1900s-1910s
  An early 1900s plan called for a Short Line depot on 26th Street a block west of the Midland's, reached by an embankment over Fountain Creek. A rate war and the Colorado and Southern sale ended it. (summary unchecked)
• The modern cog road 2013-08-15 · 1920s-1930s
  In 1925 Spencer Penrose bought the Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway, moved heavy repairs to the Midland Terminal shops, studied reconnecting the cog to the Midland or streetcar line, and had a gasoline bus-like railcar built; fares fell to $1. (summary unchecked)
• Changes in early cog railway plans 2017-10-09 · 1880s-1890s
  An 1889 article said B. Lautry and Co. graded the cog line with 1,000 men, with three-cog Baldwin engines and Pullman observation cars planned; the engines got two cogs. In 1890 the first engine was unloaded at Iron Springs. (summary unchecked)

How people first lived here (104)

• Return of an early cattleman 2006-10-19 · 1860s-1870s
  W.H. Bowman, visiting in 1919, recalled coming from Ohio in 1866 and running cattle near Fountain for nine years; cowboys laughed at easterners planning a town on the dry mesa near Colorado City. By 1872 he worked at the bank. (summary unchecked)
• A real old-timer 2009-12-03 · 1850s-1910s
  Henry Coby, born in Germany, arrived 1858, opened Colorado City's first saloon, ran the trading post where the First Colorado Volunteers organized, rode with the Third Colorado Cavalry at Sand Creek; died 1912. Two women fought over coal in 1912. (summary unchecked)
• The floods of 1864 2012-01-26 · 1860s
  On June 10, 1864 a cloudburst over Cheyenne Mountain sent a midnight wall of water down Fountain Creek. Cabins washed from Colorado City; a dozen Fountain houses vanished and a family of eight died. Grasshoppers followed. (summary unchecked)
• That terrible summer 2012-02-02 · 1860s
  In summer 1864 Indians killed a settler family 40 miles northeast of Colorado City; Colorado City men disarmed a party near today's Garden of the Gods Road and killed three who fled; the Third Colorado militia formed. (summary unchecked)
• Another terrible summer 2012-02-09 · 1860s
  In August and September 1868 Cheyenne and Arapahoe raids near Colorado City killed Henrietta Dieterman and her son, 17-year-old Charley Everhart and the Robbins brothers aged 8 and 11; Judge Baldwin was shot. About a dozen died, 1,500 animals taken. (summary unchecked)
• A pleasant little valley 2012-04-26 · 1860s-1960s
  Camp Creek was named for Leavenworth settlers who camped there and sheltered in a Garden of the Gods cave, sealed since 1965, their names scratched inside. The valley became truck gardens, then Pleasant Valley subdivision. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado Springs in 1873 2004-07-15 · 1870s
  An 1873 newspaper describes Colorado Springs as a colony town of 10,000 acres: business lots $150 to $250, residential lots $50 to $150; population just under 1,000; two churches, two schools, a lyceum, newspaper, bank, hotels. (summary unchecked)
• The old Pikes Peak weather observers 2004-07-29 · 1870s-1880s
  Sergeant Choate described daily life at the early Pikes Peak Army weather station: readings sent three times a day at 5:42 am, 2:45 and 7 pm, water boiling at 170 degrees, wood hauled from below, a shelter at Lake Moraine. (summary unchecked)
• Early Colorado City 2004-08-12 · 1850s-1860s
  In 1858 a Lawrence, Kansas party staked El Paso where Fountain and Monument creeks meet; Winchester, Whitsitt, Tappan and Beach founded Colorado City nearby. By spring 1860 there were 230 houses and 1,000 to 1,500 people; by 1865 nearly empty. (summary unchecked)
• Who was Ruxton? 2005-05-19 · 1840s
  George Ruxton, a young English adventurer, wintered near Manitou in 1846, recording legends of the springs and the mountain men in his books. Colorado Springs named the creek for him in 1871; the English earned Little London. (summary unchecked)
• When Did Colorado City Start? 2005-09-15 · 1850s-1860s
  El Paso City at Ute Pass and El Dorado near 21st Street both failed in early 1859. Colorado City was platted in August 1859 by R.E. Cable, Melancthon S. Beach and others; it became county seat in 1861. (summary unchecked)
• The car show of 1903 2005-11-23 · 1900s
  In fall 1903 El Paso County's 60 car owners staged a show with 30 running machines; over 200 people got first rides. Spencer Penrose's French touring car cost over $13,000 and ended on railroad wheels at Penrose. (summary unchecked)
• The first mail deliveries 2006-06-22 · 1900s
  House-to-house mail delivery in Colorado City began in mid-1909. Before that, mail came on two trains each way daily plus a wagon from Colorado Springs. Customers had to provide boxes, some using cigar boxes or canvas bags. (summary unchecked)
• The original 'Uncle Dick' 2006-11-16 · 1850s-1870s
  Richens L. Wooton arrived in 1858, opened a store in new Denver, trapped near future Manitou, farmed north of Pueblo until an 1864 flood 18 feet deep ruined him, then built the Raton Pass Toll Road. (summary unchecked)
• Just a cottage 2007-02-15 · 1920s-1950s
  In the 1940s McFarland's family lived in tourist cottages along Colorado Avenue, cheap in winter, cooking on a hot plate, dishes in the bathroom sink. Cottage courts like Bungalow Court preceded motels; his father walked to Golden Cycle Mill. (summary unchecked)
• The Long Expedition of 1820 2007-05-10 · 1820s
  Major Stephen Long's 1820 party followed the Platte into Colorado and first mistook Longs Peak for Pikes Peak. Dr. Edwin James climbed the peak in three days; Long named it James Peak. It became Pike's Peak in the 1840s. (summary unchecked)
• Tent cabins 2007-06-28 · 1890s-1950s
  Many old houses in Manitou, Green Mountain Falls and Cascade began as rented summer tent floors; walls, plumbing and roofs were added and by the late 1950s they were year-round homes. A friend found the pattern under shag carpet. (summary unchecked)
• An early Colorado City cabin 2007-08-30 · 1860s
  An imagined September 1860 Colorado City cabin: dug into a hillside, five feet of wall, a roof of branches and split logs, packed dirt floor, local lime plaster. Logs were dragged from Fountain Creek since forests burned in the 1840s. (summary unchecked)
• Big fire, major logging... where? 2008-05-01 · 1840s-1870s
  A pre-settlement fire burned about 16 months from Manitou Park down Ute Pass to the Royal Gorge and toward Palmer Lake; 1870s logging camps supplied timber for Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Denver; Colorado City had at least three lumber companies. (summary unchecked)
• Culture shock if you went back to 1900 2008-06-26 · 1900s
  Life in Colorado City in 1900: daily store trips, ice wagons, milk from cans, coal from Cucharras Street dealers, ash pits, outhouses, hand pumps, coal oil lanterns. A gas well in the Midland yards lit some houses first. (summary unchecked)
• A forgotten explorer 2008-11-20 · 1840s
  Englishman George Ruxton, born 1821, fought in Spain at 17 and in 1846 led an expedition from Mexico into Colorado. He made two trips up Fountain Creek, reaching Manitou's springs and South Park. He died at Pueblo in 1847. (summary unchecked)
• What brought General Palmer here? 2009-04-09 · 1850s-1870s
  William Palmer's path: surveyor's apprentice 1853, Pennsylvania Railroad secretary testing coal as locomotive fuel, the 1867 Pacific survey that drew Dr. William Bell, and an 1869 visit to Colorado City with Bell where they met Irving Howbert. (summary unchecked)
• It's not No Man's Land 2009-04-23 · 1860s-1970s
  The US 24 stretch called No Man's Land was two communities: Arensdale, 31st Street to Ridge Road, annexed a hundred years ago, and Adams Crossing, Ridge to Columbia, named for General Charles Adams. Yucca Court's office is now Amanda's Fonda. (summary unchecked)
• Pikes Peak or... Colorado City! 2009-05-28 · 1850s-1860s
  The 1858 to 1859 rush: Fontaine City near old Fort Pueblo, short-lived El Paso City and El Dorado, then Colorado City founded August 1859, platted by R.E. Cable and Melancthon S. Beach. County seat 1861; lost the capital to Denver. (summary unchecked)
• Background on Rock Ledge 2009-10-01 · 1860s-1960s
  Walter Galloway farmed Camp Creek, filing in 1871 at $1.25 an acre, then sold to Robert Chambers, who named Rock Ledge Ranch. Palmer bought it in 1900 for Glen Eyrie water rights and built a manor for ornithologist William Sclater. (summary unchecked)
• The contributions of Matt France 2010-01-14 · 1860s-1890s
  Matt France, born 1830, came to Colorado in 1860 by ox team, homesteaded east of Colorado City, founded the coal town Franceville, served over 12 years as county commissioner, died 1900; a special train carried mourners to Evergreen Cemetery. (summary unchecked)
• City traffic usage, circa 1914 2010-09-23 · 1910s
  In summer 1914 Colorado College students counted Tejon Street traffic for five days: daily averages of 2,682 motor vehicles, 1,684 horse-drawn, 2,878 bicycles, including 522 motorcycles and 119 electric cars. New rules barred hotel taxis from yelling at train passengers. (summary unchecked)
• The county's first cars 2011-01-20 · 1890s-1910s
  C.G. Strang, a bicycle shop owner, owned probably the county's first car, an 1897 Locomobile steam car. A gasoline car arrived 1900, a Winton in 1902, an electric Columbia in 1901. By 1914 the county had 1,472 automobiles. (summary unchecked)
• The Grand Colorado Exposition 2011-02-03 · 1880s
  At the July 1882 Grand Colorado Exposition in Denver, El Paso County was the last county to commit a display. It promoted wool, over 125 tons shipped in 1881, Franceville coal, Colorado City plaster, lumber and artist Charles Craig. (summary unchecked)
• The Chinese in this area 2011-02-10 · 1880s-1900s
  Colorado railroads were built mainly by Mexican, Italian and Irish laborers, not Chinese. Colorado City had a small Chinese laundry enclave near the 1859 cabin now in Bancroft Park, plus an opium trade. China Jim imported goods in Colorado Springs. (summary unchecked)
• Chickens on the rampage 2011-02-24 · 1910s
  In 1915 Colorado City newspapers reported flocks of free-ranging chickens in the streets and orders to pen them. McFarland recalls 1950s neighbors on West Pikes Peak keeping chickens, one raising them for a store across from Whittier School. (summary unchecked)
• The man behind Cameron's Cone 2011-03-31 · 1870s
  General Robert A. Cameron, a Civil War veteran, joined Palmer's 1871 survey party, located water for the El Paso Canal, and laid out Colorado Springs' 100-foot grid streets; a log eating house in the D&RG yards was the only building. (summary unchecked)
• The Cripple Creek District, 1891 2011-06-23 · 1890s
  Letters from Colorado City men in the 1891 Cripple Creek camp: a six-horse stage from Florissant to Fremont took three hours for 18 miles; men slept in muddy tents; builders had the best jobs on Bennett and Myers. (summary unchecked)
• Gold and the area's earliest towns 2011-08-04 · 1850s-1860s
  The 1858 gold finds brought the Pike's Peak or Bust rush. Fontaine City formed near old Fort Pueblo. At the mouth of Ute Pass the camps El Paso City and El Dorado failed before Colorado City was organized in 1859. (summary unchecked)
• How they'd compete for the county seat 2012-01-19 · 1860s-1870s
  Colorado City was the first El Paso County seat; the county was named for Ute Pass. An 1872 election kept it there. In 1873 Colorado Springs campaigned town by town and Fountain's voters moved the seat. (summary unchecked)
• The best route to the gold fields 2012-03-29 · 1850s-1860s
  In 1859 George A. Bute and five men scouted Ute Pass to South Park, making Colorado City the shortcut to the gold fields. The town grew to over 100 cabins in winter 1859-60, then emptied in spring. (summary unchecked)
• The coming of the Midland 2012-04-12 · 1880s
  In summer 1887 Colorado City boomed as 200 men built the Colorado Midland yards along Fountain Creek: twelve new saloons, full hotels, tents in vacant lots, mail up fourfold. Anthony Bott's addition housed workers and funded a water system. (summary unchecked)
• The building of the cog road 2012-07-12 · 1890s
  Starting 1889, 800 men and 100 mules built the Pikes Peak cog road up Englemann Canyon in three years using Roman Abt's Swiss rack design and four stone and steel bridges. Round trip cost $5 into the Depression. (summary unchecked)
• Forts built for protection in early years 2012-12-20 · 1860s
  Settler forts built into homes: John Irvine's 1860 fort at Wigwam south of Fountain with five-foot walls still standing, the Mason place, Monument forts lost to construction, and Colorado City's Anway Hotel fort at 2818 W. Pikes Peak. (summary unchecked)
• The general called her Queen 2013-01-03 · 1870s-1890s
  Queen Mellen Palmer, General Palmer's wife, died in England in February 1894. The Palmers lived in a tent, then the Glen Eyrie stable loft, until January 1871. She founded and taught the first school unpaid, leaving in 1883. (summary unchecked)
• When a landowner from 1885 returned after 40 years 2014-04-21 · 1870s-1920s
  F.H. Austin bought 15,000 acres east of Colorado City at $1.25 an acre for sheep, had Tom Blair lay out park roads on Austin's Bluffs, left about 1885, and returned in 1922 to a city of 30,000. (summary unchecked)
• The real start of local aviation history 2015-02-16 · 1920s
  Two airports opened in 1927: the city paid $17,243 for 640 acres as Dillwyn Parrish Field, used by airmail and the Pikes Peak Flying Club, and Alexander Aircraft's Nichols Field off Nevada north of Fillmore. (summary unchecked)
• Fred Barr and his camp in 1922 2015-05-11 · 1920s
  After finishing Barr Trail in 1922, Fred Barr fired the first New Year's fireworks from the summit and built Barr Camp near 10,000 feet with surplus tents for 50. He guided burro parties from the Incline top; first cabin 1924. (summary unchecked)
• How the town of Hartsel came to be 2018-02-05 · 1860s-1880s
  Sam Hartsel came west from Indiana in 1859, cowboyed in South Park, guided a Cheyenne raiding party out of Ute country, ranched near present Hartsel, declined a Civil War commission, and sold out after the Colorado Midland arrived in 1887. (summary unchecked)
• Fred Barr and the making of his camp 2018-12-24 · 1920s
  In 1922 Fred Barr finished Barr Trail, climbed with the Frozen Five for the first New Year's Eve fireworks, and ran Barr Camp with war surplus tents for 50, spaghetti suppers and burros. The first cabin came later. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado City schools of old 2004-04-29 · 1880s-1950s
  Colorado City schools: Midland School on 25th Street from 1889; Whittier first in the old City Hall, named by fourth graders for the poet; new Whittier cornerstone May 1, 1901, 525 students within a month. West built 1923. (summary unchecked)
• The West's early explorers 2004-07-22 · 1800s-1860s
  Early explorers: Coronado 1543, Zebulon Pike 1806, Major Long 1820 who named the peak James Peak, Fremont 1842, Louisiana Purchase 1804, Hayden Survey. Dr. William A. Bell joined Palmer's California survey as a photographer knowing little photography. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado City businesses of 1892 2004-10-28 · 1890s
  Colorado City in 1892: Acme Medicine, Newton Lumber, the Glass Works, Red Rock Quarries, Ute Pass Paint, Snider Stone and Lime; All Right Restaurant, Cavner's Saloon, Wing Hah Laundry; Jerome B. Wheeler's bank; mayor Charles Stockbridge; the Iris daily. (summary unchecked)
• School lunches over the years 2005-01-27 · 1900s-1920s
  Before lunch programs, about 100 years ago, teachers brewed soup on room stoves; lunches were sandwiches, home rolls, slaws, canned or dried fruit, oatmeal and molasses cookies; milk was hard to carry, which helped drive inventions like the Thermos. (summary unchecked)
• A summer outing 2005-04-21 · 1900s
  A century ago Colorado City families filled churches on Sunday then rode extra streetcars to Manitou or the Garden of the Gods; McFarland's grandparents hauled jugs to fill with Manitou spring water for lemonade; his great-grandfathers came for tuberculosis. (summary unchecked)
• That other town 2005-09-22 · 1870s
  In 1871 Palmer surveyed the rail route south from Denver and named proposed towns: Pickwick, Wigwam, Citadel for Castle Rock, Coal Town for Florence. Colorado Springs was nearly Fountain or Park Gate. The Colorado Springs Company met June 26, 1871. (summary unchecked)
• A mystery street from the early days 2005-10-27 · 1870s-1890s
  Colorado City's second street, later Washington Street, carried the D&RG's 1880 line south of the business district; a flood washed out the new track. After the Midland came in 1886 the street filled with warehouses and cheap houses. (summary unchecked)
• Tough times for a tenderfoot 2006-05-25 · 1900s
  Around 1906 Colorado City residents enjoyed watching tenderfeet from New York, Pennsylvania and Denver outfitting on Colorado Avenue for Cripple Creek, where most land was claimed by 1900. The district held over 20,000 people; many newcomers left broke. (summary unchecked)
• Early summer visitors 2006-08-03 · 1870s-1920s
  Early tourism owed much to George Ruxton and General Palmer; soldiers on Pikes Peak in the 1870s added interest. Visitors preferred rented tent sites to hotels; Manitou tents got names for mail. Some Manitou cottage camps have survived 70 years. (summary unchecked)
• Local history with the Army 2006-09-28 · 1800s-1960s
  The Army's first area mission in the 1880s was a detachment buying horses and mules. Early forts included Pike's Stockade at Pueblo in 1806, a house on Pikes Peak Avenue, and two at Monument. Camp Carson became Fort Carson. (summary unchecked)
• Imagine the early days 2007-06-14 · 1850s-1860s
  Describes the region before settlement: buffalo, antelope, no trees except along Fountain Creek; 1850s gold seekers in covered wagons; first settlers gathered at the base of the mountains with water and trees; plains settlers built sod huts. (summary unchecked)
• When coal was beneath our feet 2007-08-23 · 1860s-1900s
  Settlers burned buffalo chips, then wood. Jimmy Camp was the earliest settlement. Coal was found near Jimmy Camp and north of Colorado City; Matt France bought mineral rights. Seams up to twenty feet thick lay under 50 feet of ground. (summary unchecked)
• Wild horses roamed here 2007-09-06 · 1800s-1860s
  Two hundred years ago wild horse herds, descended from Spanish stock, roamed along Fountain Creek. The first Army detachment in the region came for cavalry horses. Cowboys circled herds until exhausted, catching 20 or more a week. (summary unchecked)
• Inside the one-room schoolhouse 2007-12-13 · 1860s
  Imagines Colorado City's unknown 1860s one-room school: the teacher arriving early to stoke the coal stove, mostly girls at first since boys worked, older students teaching younger, a raised platform for recitations, and Christmas programs with carols. (summary unchecked)
• A drive along the avenue of yore 2008-05-08 · 1870s-1900s
  McFarland traces Colorado Avenue from Limit Street west: open land until the 1880s, Colorado City starting about 21st, wooden stores replaced by brick after the 1890s mills, a City Hall at 29th and later one on 26th with a jail. (summary unchecked)
• Our neighbor to the west 2008-07-31 · 1870s
  Plains and mountain tribes shared the mouth of Ute Pass until settlers came. Palmer, Bell and E.S. Nettleton planned a spa town first called Villa La Fonte; William Blackmore suggested Manitou. The town sat nearly empty fifteen years. (summary unchecked)
• The birth of the Midland 2008-08-28 · 1880s
  Dr. Bell pushed the D&RG to build up Ute Pass to his Manitou Park hotel; refused, he and H.D. Fisher incorporated a company Nov. 23, 1883. Irving Howbert's rival group merged with them in June 1884, forming the Colorado Midland. (summary unchecked)
• The arrival of the automobiles 2008-09-18 · 1900s-1940s
  The first car in Colorado arrived about 1900; Colorado Springs paraded all its cars until there were too many. A steam rig reached the Pikes Peak summit in 1901, the second in 1905, the third in 1913. (summary unchecked)
• The unusual railroad project 2008-10-09 · 1880s-1890s
  The Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway was incorporated September 28, 1888 with Zalmon Simmons as backer, using the Swiss Abt cog and rack system. Grading began from the summit September 25, 1889; the last spike was driven October 22, 1890. (summary unchecked)
• A little about Manitou 2009-04-16 · 1870s-1880s
  Palmer and Bell hired county clerk Irving Howbert to buy land. The D&RG reached Colorado Springs October 21, 1871; regular service began January 1, 1872. Bell and E.S. Nettleton planned Villa La Fonte; William Blackmore suggested the name Manitou. (summary unchecked)
• Life without conveniences 2009-07-30 · 1850s
  McFarland imagines July 1859 in a Colorado City dugout soddie: packed dirt walls and floor, roof logs dragged from Fountain Creek, a stove for cooking and heat, a chest from Kansas, pegs for clothes, a door of wagon boards. (summary unchecked)
• General Palmer comes West 2009-08-20 · 1860s
  In spring 1867 Palmer led a 48-engineer Kansas railroad survey toward California, with Dr. William Bell as photographer and physician. Palmer first saw Pikes Peak near La Junta, reached Trinidad Aug. 7, and did not see Colorado City until 1869. (summary unchecked)
• Palmer helps Colorado City 2009-09-17 · 1870s
  July 31, 1871 the first stake was driven at Colorado Springs; Gehrung Mine was the first coal producer; the D&RG's first paying customer was lumber at Plum. Palmer's company financed blasting a better Ute Pass road along Fountain Creek. (summary unchecked)
• The first climb of 'James Peak' 2009-10-15 · 1820s-1840s
  Edwin James of Major Stephen H. Long's expedition climbed Pikes Peak in summer 1820, likely via Englemann Canyon and Ruxton Park. The mountain was called James Peak, Blue Mountain and Grand Peak until Fremont fixed Pike's Peak in the 1840s. (summary unchecked)
• The early Manitouans 2009-10-22 · 1860s-1870s
  Isaac Scales was reportedly first to build at Manitou; Uncle Dick Wooton had a cabin nearby. Bell, Palmer and D&RG backers bought land through Irving Howbert and platted the town in 1872. Manitou House opened August 1872, Cliff House 1873. (summary unchecked)
• More about ice 2010-02-11 · 1900s-1950s
  Before refrigeration the well-to-do had galvanized wooden ice boxes; ice wagons ran routes and customers set out flags. Ice trucks still ran in Colorado City in the 1950s. Colorado City had gas from a Midland yards well before Colorado Springs. (summary unchecked)
• Palmer's first look at Colorado 2010-04-22 · 1860s
  In spring 1867 a Missouri railroad sent General William Jackson Palmer with 48 engineers to survey toward California; Dr. William Bell joined as photographer and physician. By August 7, 1867 Palmer reached Trinidad, a village of 200. (summary unchecked)
• Palmer leaves the Kansas Pacific 2010-04-29 · 1860s
  The Kansas Pacific built only to Denver, dropping Palmer's survey. In 1869 Palmer and Bell first visited Colorado City and met county clerk Irving Howbert, who bought land for them near Ute Pass. Palmer resigned to start the D&RG. (summary unchecked)
• Trails that became roads 2010-05-27 · 1800s-1870s
  Animals, Utes and trappers followed Fountain Creek; French trappers named it. Pike camped at the Arkansas in 1806. No one lived here year-round until the 1840s. Mountain trails became roads in the 1870s, then highways. (summary unchecked)
• Palmer's early railroad days 2010-06-10 · 1850s-1870s
  Palmer apprenticed on the Hempfield Railroad in 1853, studied railroads in England in 1855, and proved coal could fuel locomotives. After marrying Queen Mellen in 1870 he and Bell studied the Festiniog narrow gauge in Wales and met Robert Fairlie. (summary unchecked)
• Blacksmiths and wagons 2010-07-22 · 1880s-1910s
  Blacksmith shops were the busiest places before and after the railroad. Colorado City wagons were built locally; buggies came from Pueblo, Denver or catalogs. One wagon took a week and five or six men. A stove factory stood near Vermijo. (summary unchecked)
• Downtown Colorado City in the 1880s 2010-11-11 · 1880s-1890s
  Colorado Avenue in the 1880s was still frontier; the Midland brought money and store buildings. An imagined store interior: big windows, brass cash register, coal boiler, kerosene lanterns and skylights, later electric lights. Dave Hughes credited for saving old buildings. (summary unchecked)
• When they made do with less 2010-12-16 · 1860s-1880s
  Early Colorado City Christmas from old newspaper remembrances: a red apple in a stocking, pine bough garlands instead of trees, tiny candles, paper decorations, suspenders and boots for boys, buffalo, venison or goose for dinner. (summary unchecked)
• The Midland's unique alliance 2011-03-17 · 1880s
  Irving Howbert and Joseph F. Humphrey recruited tuberculosis patient James J. Hagerman in May 1885 to lead the Colorado Midland; rails reached Leadville in 1887. The same men opened the horse-drawn Colorado Springs and Manitou Street Railway November 2, 1887. (summary unchecked)
• The stagecoach from Denver 2011-05-12 · 1870s
  In the 1870s a stagecoach from Denver took nearly two days with a Castle Rock hotel stop, passing Larkspur, Palmer Lake and Monument before Colorado City, which had a stage stop before Colorado Springs existed; the train was quicker. (summary unchecked)
• The early automobile tourists 2011-06-16 · 1910s-1930s
  About 100 years ago auto tourists began arriving, staying weeks in mom-and-pop motels and a large campground near Fountain Creek; horse-drawn caravans appeared until 1940. Roads were poor until 1928, guidebooks steered by farmhouses, rivers crossed by ferry. (summary unchecked)
• England: Where Palmer researched trains 2011-08-11 · 1870s
  After incorporating the D&RG on Oct. 27, 1870 and marrying Queen Mellen Nov. 7, Palmer went to England, studied the Festiniog narrow gauge with George Spooner and Robert Fairlie, and chose a wider gauge, named locomotives and British-style stations. (summary unchecked)
• Changes in Colorado City 2012-05-10 · 1880s-1900s
  In the mid-1880s Colorado City had two stores on the main road, a grocery and a saloon. The Colorado Midland brought streets, lots, piped water from Colorado Springs, telephones, electric streetlights and natural gas wells; sewers came years later. (summary unchecked)
• New schools in Colorado City 2012-05-17 · 1880s-1910s
  In 1888 Colorado City had one school; District 1 built Bancroft School, the first Midland School in 1889 for railroad families, and Whittier in the old city hall. No churches before 1888. Thirty volunteer firemen. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado City's growth boom 2012-05-24 · 1880s
  In 1888 the Midland boom gave Colorado City three meat markets, seven groceries, a jewelry store, two drug stores, two doctors and a lawyer, but no hardware or bank. Population neared 2,000 from about 100. (summary unchecked)
• George H. 'Judge' Stewart 2012-08-16 · 1870s-1890s
  George H. Judge Stewart, born Vermont 1816, came for asthma, became First National Bank president and justice of the peace, built a plaster and cement mill in Colorado City in 1875 and a larger lime works; died 1893. (summary unchecked)
• When the cog was built 2012-08-30 · 1880s-1890s
  Cog railway construction: a thousand workers in camps, roughing out took a year, ties cut near Florissant, rails from Chicago and Switzerland, track work began April 1890, first steam locomotive in May. Proposed Ruxton streetcar lines were first rejected. (summary unchecked)
• The first cog locomotive 2012-09-13 · 1890s
  The Pikes Peak cog was the eighth in the world; three Baldwin locomotives built in Philadelphia, rack rails from Johnson Works of Johnstown. First engine John Hulbert arrived May 24, 1890 with Baldwin's C.D. Herman supervising setup. (summary unchecked)
• The cog starts running 2012-10-11 · 1890s
  In late summer 1890 the cog railroad ran passengers to Half Way House; rails reached the top October 26, 1890. A June 1891 special reached Windy Point before snow. By late 1891 trains ran to the summit several times daily. (summary unchecked)
• Students on the cog ' then and now 2012-11-01 · 1890s
  In July 1892 fifty summer-school students and teachers made perhaps the first school trip up the cog: Engine Number 1 pushed the coach Leadville, Professor Cannon explained geology, stops at Half Way House and Gulch Station; some walked down. (summary unchecked)
• It WAS an icebox back then 2012-11-21 · 1890s-1940s
  A century ago an icebox was an insulated wooden cabinet holding lake ice from up to 50 miles away; a 10-pound chunk cost about fifty cents and nobody iced drinks. In 1893 William Frizzell had 2,000 tons at Lake Argyle. (summary unchecked)
• Hamburger in a house with history 2013-01-17 · 1880s-1960s
  The Dive diner, 3043 W. Pikes Peak, dates to the 1800s. Andrew and Mary Reid lived there with seven children in 1889; son Andrew Jr. worked for the Midland and Interurban; daughter Mary Reid Miller stayed into the 1960s. (summary unchecked)
• Riding the Midland on a snowy day 2013-02-07 · 1900s
  An imagined 1900 winter trip from Colorado City on the Colorado Midland: one corner stove per car, frost sealing windows, Pullman lap blankets, open-platform cars, no dining car, and a walk through deep snow to a hotel. (summary unchecked)
• The man named Roswell 2013-04-11 · 1890s
  Roswell P. Flower, New York banker who died May 1899, invested in the Rock Island railroad; both local Roswells are named for him. Roswell City was annexed before 1890. Howbert town lies under 11 Mile Reservoir. (summary unchecked)
• Palmer's friend, Dr. Bell 2013-05-02 · 1860s-1920s
  Dr. William Abraham Bell, English, met Palmer in St. Louis in 1867 and joined his survey as photographer after quick chemistry lessons. He found English investors for the D&RG and helped found Manitou and Palmer Lake. (summary unchecked)
• Where the region got its wood 2013-06-27 · 1860s-1890s
  Black Forest sawmills of J.A. Weir and Carl Husted supplied Denver's first buildings from the 1860s; Husted's house stands at Kiowa and 30th. Bell's 1878 Manitou Park mill fed the D&RG. Imported hardwood cracked in the dry climate. (summary unchecked)
• The first radio stations 2014-09-08 · 1920s
  Colorado Springs' first radio station, KFUM, started December 1924 from a downtown tower where Penrose Library now stands, owned by W.D. Corley of the Corley Mountain Highway; it used Perkins Hall at Colorado College; Denver's KOA began the same month. (summary unchecked)
• The first railroad in Colorado 2015-02-02 · 1860s-1870s
  Union Pacific laid Colorado's first rails June 25, 1867 along the South Platte, only a couple of miles before entering Wyoming. Denver panicked and built its own line to Cheyenne with Palmer's help; service began July 1870. (summary unchecked)
• Some early Colorado Springs mayors 2015-03-16 · 1870s-1890s
  Early Colorado Springs mayors: Major William Wagner, Palmer's cavalry officer, elected after 1876 incorporation; Matt France served twice, founder of Franceville coal town; Joseph Humphrey of the Colorado Midland; George M. Taylor, last Short Line superintendent. (summary unchecked)
• The early road to Colorado City from the north 2017-09-18 · 1860s-1870s
  The road from the north followed Monument Creek, then west past Rockrimmon to Camp Creek and into town near 28th and West Pikes Peak; an 1872 map calls it the Denver Road. Red sandstone ridges once linked the parks. (summary unchecked)
• Imagine how it was... 2005-08-04 · 1850s-1870s
  Before settlement the area held Indians, buffalo, antelope and unfenced plains. Gold seekers followed rivers; I-25 follows Cherry, Monument and Fountain creeks. First settlers gathered at the mountain base for water, trees and game; survival took 20 years. (summary unchecked)
• Another big part of Colorado 2008-10-30 · 1840s
  Fort Pueblo began as a trading post in 1840 on the Sangre de Cristo Trail. Fremont hired Kit Carson at Bent's Fort; in 1846 Stephen Kearny's Army of the West took Santa Fe without a shot. (summary unchecked)
• French were too late for Coronado 2011-07-28 · 1540s-1800s
  Coronado passed through Colorado along the Arkansas in 1540; the Spanish settled Santa Fe in 1598; the French pushed west, prompting a 1714 Spanish expedition, and by 1800 held land north of the Arkansas, leaving names like Cache la Poudre. (summary unchecked)
• When mail was delivered by train 2011-09-15 · 1900s-1910s
  A century ago mail reached Colorado City by the Rio Grande or the Midland, sorted by clerks in special cars en route. The postmaster met every mail train at both stations. Home delivery began only about 1911. (summary unchecked)

Everything else (162)

• The real Lucy Van Pelt 2006-03-02 · 1950s
  In the early 1950s Colorado College student Charles Schulz painted children on the nursery wall of Pike principal Philip Van Pelt's home. The wall was later removed and sent to the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. (summary unchecked)
• An unusual vehicular wreck in 1927 2014-12-15 · 1920s
  In November 1927 motorman Andrew Parks' empty Colorado Springs and Interurban streetcar hit a house being moved on rollers by horses across the tracks near the D&RG station in Manitou; Parks suffered puncture wounds and went to St. Francis Hospital. (summary unchecked)
• The miraculous train wreck of 1903 2005-08-18 · 1900s
  In 1903 Colorado Midland freight No. 42 lost its air brakes and ran six miles down the four percent Ute Pass grade through eight tunnels, hitting a switch engine at 26th Street. Two engines and sixteen cars smashed; nobody died. (summary unchecked)
• The big storm of 1913 2007-01-11 · 1910s
  The 1913 storm dropped about three feet of snow, stopping streetcars and the Short Line; a Midland rotary plow run on the Colorado Avenue streetcar tracks broke dozens of windows and blew in front doors near 15th Street. (summary unchecked)
• Not an anniversary to forget 2007-02-08 · 1870s-1900s
  Charles E. Perkins bought 480 acres of the Garden of the Gods in 1879; his family offered it to Colorado Springs as a park in 1908, deadline 1911; it reverts to the Perkins family if the city stops maintaining it. (summary unchecked)
• North vs. South 2008-08-14 · 1860s
  Early Colorado City leaned Union while Pueblo's Knights of the Golden Circle hauled arms to Texas. At Pueblo's July 4, 1862 barbecue the Knights objected to parading the Stars and Stripes but, weakened by Taos Lightning and sun, backed down. (summary unchecked)
• The Captain Jack story 2009-12-29 · 1900s-1920s
  Captain Jack was Mrs. Ellen E. Jack, born in England in 1842, a Navy captain's widow. From about 1900 she lived in a High Drive cabin up Bear Creek, filed gold claims, carried guns, and wrote a memoir. (summary unchecked)
• The pie lady 2010-11-18 · 1920s-1940s
  From the 1920s to the Midland Terminal's end in 1949, a woman in a cabin at Woodland Park handed pies up to ore train crews creeping through town. Firemen shoveled coal beside the track in thanks. (summary unchecked)
• The reluctant rich man 2011-05-05 · 1890s-1900s
  Winfield Stratton sold the Independence mine for $10 million, bought a bicycle for every laundry lady, bought the failing Rapid Transit streetcar line in 1900 and rebuilt it by 1902, died Sept. 14, 1902; his trust founded Myron Stratton Home. (summary unchecked)
• The runaway freight car 2011-12-01 · 1880s
  An 1881 newspaper told of a flat car of Manitou Park lumber whose brakes released at Manitou. It hit perhaps 60 mph at 30th Street, rolled unseen through Colorado City and tipped over at the Colorado Springs station. (summary unchecked)
• Testing airplane engines on the Peak 2012-03-15 · 1910s-1940s
  In 1917 the War Department chose Pikes Peak to test American aircraft engines at altitude after J.G. Vincent of Packard inspected the site; tests ran at night in secret. Jet engines were tested in WWII and Bell helicopters later. (summary unchecked)
• Sherman's 'march' to the Peak 2012-08-02 · 1880s
  General William Tecumseh Sherman visited in July 1889, rode the Midland from Manitou to Cascade, was recognized by a war widow, took stage wagons up the new Pikes Peak road through Halfway House, and dined at the Ramona Hotel. (summary unchecked)
• Night-long fire at the rail yards 2013-02-28 · 1890s
  In 1895 a boxcar carrying oil tubs caught fire at 9 p.m. in the Colorado Midland yards and burned all night. Tanks exploded, a fireball drove back the crowd, streetcars ran full and saloons offered fire specials. (summary unchecked)
• WWI: Women filling men's jobs 2013-04-18 · 1910s
  In 1917 the Golden Cycle Mill in Colorado City hired 11 women to replace men at war, at the same salary; workers included Sadie Hutton, Edna Sikes and Gertrude Cochrane; the mill nearly closed as non-essential but produced zinc. (summary unchecked)
• Cars driving up the cog tracks 2013-12-19 · 1900s-1920s
  The first car up Pikes Peak was a steam rig driven up the cog tracks in 1901; in 1920 racer Bear Cat Brown drove a stock Paige up the cog tracks as a filmed publicity stunt. (summary unchecked)
• The 1921 storm 2014-02-03 · 1920s
  In June 1921 Ruxton Creek flooded Manitou, washing houses toward the loop, leaving streetcar track hanging in midair, and forming a lake near today's swimming pool; a landslide dammed water back to Briarhurst. Creek walls date from this flood. (summary unchecked)
• The mysterious telegraph operator 2015-11-02 · 1900s-1950s
  A young telegrapher at the Divide station became Ed C. Johnson, Colorado governor 1933 to 1937 and 1955 to 1957. He appeared in the 1952 film Denver and Rio Grande and tapped the key at the Colorado Railroad Museum. (summary unchecked)
• When the city bought Balanced Rock 2015-11-23 · 1900s-1930s
  Paul Goerke bought Balanced Rock in the late 1800s and took a cut from photographers; son Curt fenced it and tried a toll road as tourists expected free access after the 1906 Perkins gift. On February 20, 1932, it fell. (summary unchecked)
• The end to the 1934-35 drought (Part 2) 2016-03-07 · 1930s
  May 1935 cloudbursts caused Manitou mudslides and a 48-hour Midland Terminal blockade. The Memorial Day flood swept away every Colorado Springs bridge over Monument Creek except Bijou Street; Colorado City's bridges held. (summary unchecked)
• Visits from the March King 2004-03-11 · 1890s-1900s
  John Philip Sousa, Marine Band director, visited the Pikes Peak region at least twice with his band, once conducting the Colorado Midland Railroad's employee band, which traveled east for presidential inaugurations; Sousa later stayed at the Antlers and Broadmoor. (summary unchecked)
• The Storm of '99 2004-04-15 · 1890s-1910s
  The Storm of 1899 brought daily snows from January; railroads closed statewide by mid-February, Leadville had six feet, Aspen nearly 20, camps paralyzed into April, then flooding. The 1913 storm dropped six feet on Cripple Creek in a day. (summary unchecked)
• The view from the top 2005-02-17 · 1890s-2000s
  McFarland, a cog railway engineer, describes Pikes Peak summit weddings. The railroad opened June 30, 1891; the first known summit wedding came that October, Rev. J.P. Lucas marrying A.B. Frowman and Emma Michael. (summary unchecked)
• A golden opportunity 2005-03-24 · 1900s
  For the 1903 St. Louis World's Fair, Commissioner E. Lyman White sought $1 million in Cripple Creek gold bricks; two Victor operators agreed, the fair asked for $2 million, Guardsmen escorted it. McFarland's uncles moved Golden Cycle bricks in taxis. (summary unchecked)
• The first traffic light 2005-04-14 · 1910s-1920s
  Colorado City's first traffic light went in at 25th and Colorado Avenue after regular crashes; police also enforced ash pit rules and a $5 fine for bicycles in Bancroft or Thorndale parks; McFarland's grandfather got a bicycle speeding ticket. (summary unchecked)
• Answers to local-history quiz 2005-06-16 · 1890s-1950s
  Quiz answers: Adams Crossing location; 2902 W. Colorado as City Hall then Whittier School; St. Francis began as Colorado Midland Hospital; Alexander Aircraft's Nichols Field; the Ribbon of Death highway; Crystal Park Road planned as a railroad; Balanced Rock fence. (summary unchecked)
• Her first ride on the Wild Flower Train 2005-08-11 · 1900s-1910s
  Denver Post reporter Alice Lambert rode seven hours in the engine cab of the Wild Flower train through the Ute Pass tunnels. A black horse ran ahead on the rails; at Divide a track torpedo warned of a washout. (summary unchecked)
• When Teddy Roosevelt came to town 2005-09-29 · 1900s
  In May 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt arrived by five-car train, stayed at the new Antlers Hotel, planned a Cripple Creek visit. A week later a Cheyenne Mountain fire shifted three ways before rain stopped it. (summary unchecked)
• The story of Old Pots 2006-02-09 · 1900s-1920s
  A century ago a lone woman potter sold Indian style pottery from a wagon labeled Pots in Manitou each summer. Someone wrote Old in the dust and it stuck. A mountain lion did not faze her. (summary unchecked)
• A wet time in the old town 2006-05-18 · 1900s
  An April 1905 storm hit Colorado Avenue: lightning struck the Manitou streetcar, exploding its fuse box, and hit houses, poles and a barn near North 15th; fist-sized hail filled a stuck wagon; Broadmoor dairies lost cows; Stratton Park flooded. (summary unchecked)
• The president is not amused! 2006-09-07 · 1900s
  On Roosevelt's 1905 Midland trip west, the Buena Vista agent's daughter toured the train with the President. At Glenwood Springs he stepped out to see the town and crowd gliding past across the river; the train backed into the station. (summary unchecked)
• Pikes Peak: Tall tales 2007-01-25 · 1870s-1950s
  Pikes Peak's official height has shifted from Pike's 18,000-foot guess through 14,147, 14,107, 14,109 and 14,110 to a satellite figure of 14,115. The Army built the weather station in 1873; two rival summit houses burned in the 1950s. (summary unchecked)
• Anybody seen a Hiestand postcard? 2007-05-17 · 1890s-1900s
  A 1908 paper called Manitou photographer Heistand an original postcard maker. The Postal Service accepted picture postcards after 1902. Heistand financed the summit house tower. In 1909 a train fell off the Midland bridge onto his Ruxton shop. (summary unchecked)
• The Flood of '35 2007-08-16 · 1930s
  The Memorial Day 1935 flood swept away nearly every bridge in Colorado Springs; only the Bijou Street bridge, rebuilt stronger after the 1913 flood, survived. Midland Terminal and Rio Grande tracks were buried near Eighth Street. (summary unchecked)
• Our New Year tradition 2007-12-20 · 1920s
  New Year 1923: AdAmAn fireworks from Pikes Peak, nine 500,000 candlepower flares and 30 rockets at midnight, seen across the plains. The club began in 1922 with the Morath brothers, Fred Barr, Willis Magee and Harry Standley. (summary unchecked)
• Another Sergeant O'Keefe story 2008-02-07 · 1870s-1890s
  Sergeant John O'Keefe of the Pikes Peak weather station claimed that in February 1880 he shot 17 deer near Minnehaha, then threw them to mountain lions to escape. He later worked for Wells Fargo and died in 1895. (summary unchecked)
• The Golden Cycle fire 2008-05-22 · 1900s
  The Telluride Mill, built 1904, was renamed Golden Cycle in 1906. In late summer 1907 a fire destroyed the roaster complex and ore tubs, sending a black cloud over Colorado Springs. Rebuilt, it outproduced all rivals combined. (summary unchecked)
• When the D&RG was built to Manitou 2008-07-10 · 1880s
  Palmer built the D&RG branch to Manitou in 1880 after dropping an 1873 survey up Ute Pass. A July 1880 flash flood washed out the grade; crews worked overnight so former President Grant could ride the first passenger train. (summary unchecked)
• My dad's first car 2008-10-16 · 1940s-1950s
  In 1940s Old Colorado City nobody needed a car. After a 1948-49 mill layoff McFarland's father got hired at Camp Carson and bought a used Chevy traded in by the Cripple Creek police, before he had a driver's license. (summary unchecked)
• The cowboy and his elephant 2009-03-12 · 1990s
  Review of the book A Cowboy and His Elephant about Bob Norris of the T Cross Ranch south of Fountain, who hosted Amy the elephant; the book wrongly places Colorado Springs north of Denver. (summary unchecked)
• Two No Man's Lands 2009-07-02 · 1880s-1940s
  Two Westside No Man's Lands: the Midland yards, off Colorado City tax rolls from the 1880s and unannexed until the 1960s, and land between Adams Crossing and Manitou. Blind broom seller Keith James lost guide dog Buddy in the 1940s. (summary unchecked)
• The railroad man called 'Finder' 2010-01-28 · 1890s-1900s
  A Midland track-crew worker from Montana in the 1890s, nicknamed Finder and also Tree, collected arrowheads and railroad scrap, built an outdoor stove and brass forge from scrap in his Colorado City yard, later worked in the shops. (summary unchecked)
• General Grant comes to town 2010-04-01 · 1880s
  Ulysses S. Grant arrived July 17, 1880 on a D&RG train, rode the first train to Manitou, stayed at Dr. Bell's Mansions Hotel, then Leadville. Manitou passenger service began July 27, 1880; the depot was designed as a chapel. (summary unchecked)
• Funny thing the conductor said 2010-09-09 · 1910s-1950s
  Conductor jokes: in 1914 a streetcar conductor said the peak was painted white against insects; a cog conductor called snow whipped cream; a Midland conductor said coke ovens heated Glenwood's hot springs; a tour driver invented the Manitou Volcano. (summary unchecked)
• Women on Midland train engines 2010-10-28 · 1900s-1910s
  Miss Elizabeth O. Healy of London, 75, who had circled the globe six times, rode a special Colorado Midland engine from Hell Gate through Leadville to Buena Vista, arranged by ticket agent S.N. Drew. Other women rode cabs too. (summary unchecked)
• All he wanted was a train to Divide 2011-06-02 · 1930s-1940s
  In the 1930s or 40s a broke old man asked a Midland Terminal yard crew for a ride to Divide to find farm work; the conductor quietly let him board the caboose. Years later he returned to thank them. (summary unchecked)
• Different ways up the Peak 2011-06-30 · 1880s-1920s
  By 1891 three routes were building: a Cascade carriage road backed by the Midland, Hook's Ruxton trail, and the cog railway started in 1889 under H.S. Cable with Rock Island money. The $5 cog fare matched the burro ride. (summary unchecked)
• More than one 'balanced rock' 2011-09-08 · 1900s-1910s
  At least five other Balanced Rocks exist in the region: one on Cameron's Cone four or five times bigger, one on Mount Manitou, and one near Divide on the old Skelton Ranch dude resort, which McFarland found still standing. (summary unchecked)
• The man on the horse 2012-03-08 · 1910s-1920s
  The Palmer statue at Platte and Nevada was installed in 1924 after a decade of committee plans. Palmer died in 1910, paralyzed from a horse fall, wanting no memorial. The spot was the highway junction. Pranksters paint part of it. (summary unchecked)
• A strange train wreck 2012-03-22 · 1880s
  In April 1887 the Rio Grande's Manitou passenger train, running downhill from 12th Street, smashed into a Colorado Midland construction train near Eighth Street. The engine Uncle Sam rolled over; no one was hurt. (summary unchecked)
• Communicating from the Peak 2012-05-31 · 1870s-1880s
  Pikes Peak weather soldiers relayed readings by mirror flash; in 1884 storms nearly starved five or six men with no way to call for help; a telegraph line with short poles followed, limited by lightning and permafrost. (summary unchecked)
• Fire in 1840s took most of area's trees 2012-06-28 · 1840s
  Written during the Waldo Canyon Fire, the column recalls an 1840s fire that burned from Manitou Park to the Royal Gorge and out near Palmer Lake over 13 months. Early settlers found young trees; Palmer shipped in trees. (summary unchecked)
• Big snows in 1899 started in January 2013-01-24 · 1890s
  The Winter of '99 (1899) brought daily snows up to two feet by February, closed Ute Pass and every mountain rail line by April, 20-foot drifts in Aspen, five to six feet in Leadville, then spring floods. (summary unchecked)
• Teddy was a fan of the region 2013-03-21 · 1900s-1920s
  Theodore Roosevelt visited from 1901 as vice president, dedicating the YMCA and hunting via the Colorado Midland to Rifle, returning in 1902 for Cripple Creek. Also Grant in Manitou 1880, Harding 1920, Wilson's 1919 Pueblo stroke, Truman by rail. (summary unchecked)
• The big storm in May of 1904 2013-05-16 · 1900s
  A May 1904 storm put 100 feet of Midland track into Fountain Creek, washed out the Rio Grande bridge over Camp Creek, stranded a Chicago excursion at Manitou, collapsed the Short Line bridge over south Nevada injuring five men. (summary unchecked)
• The saga of Stratton 2013-06-13 · 1890s-1900s
  Winfield Scott Stratton arrived nearly broke, worked as a carpenter, and sold the Independence Mine for $10 million. He bought the failing streetcar line in 1900 and rebuilt it as the Colorado Springs and Interurban. He died September 14, 1902. (summary unchecked)
• A tough storm for the Midland 2013-09-19 · 1900s
  In a spring 1900 storm the Midland's rotary plow fought drifts above Manitou while six feet of snow lay at Divide. Two Midland Terminal trains met head-on near Gillett. Passengers arriving at 3 a.m. ate chickens cooked in the firebox. (summary unchecked)
• A visit from a Vanderbilt 2013-10-24 · 1900s
  Cornelius Vanderbilt visited in October 1901 with Rock Island officials on a seven-car special parked at the Grier House; he rode the Pikes Peak cog locomotive, studying its mechanics; officials Flowers, Brewster and Seibert had towns named for them. (summary unchecked)
• Train wreck near the Rock Island station 2013-10-31 · 1900s
  On October 11, 1901, a D&RG freight derailed past the Rock Island's Roswell station; the engine nosed into the ditch, 13 cars piled 30 feet high and burned. A brakeman set too few brakes. In 1941 cattle roamed loose. (summary unchecked)
• A Pueblo-to-Springs track record 2013-11-07 · 1890s-1900s
  In October 1901 a Colorado and Southern special ran a Woodmen party from Pueblo to Colorado Springs in 42 minutes, hitting 70 mph; the old record was 55 minutes by a D&RG train rushing firemen to the 1898 Antlers fire. (summary unchecked)
• The Balanced Rock 'war' winds down 2013-12-05 · 1890s-1920s
  By 1920 the 30-year Balanced Rock war was nearly over. Paul Goerke had earned fees from photographers William Hook and Joseph Heistand, but hotel tours began skipping the rock and Kodak cameras let tourists shoot their own. Toll road flopped. (summary unchecked)
• What goes up comes down... another way 2013-12-12 · 1900s
  A 1909 Cripple Creek newspaper reported a prosperous four-person auto party from Colorado Springs, one woman called Mrs. Du Pont, who refused to drive back down the rough mountain road and paid cash to charter a private train home. (summary unchecked)
• The 1921 storm 2014-01-27 · 1920s
  A mid-April 1921 wet snowstorm closed every unpaved road out of Colorado Springs; Manitou was reachable only by train. Mail, milk and coal deliveries stopped and streetcar plows ran nonstop. June rain then brought major flooding. (summary unchecked)
• A few driving rules 2014-02-24 · 1920s
  Local papers in summer 1921 published driving rules: 15 mph in business districts, 10 at intersections, 35 rural, $25 fine and possible 30 days jail for repeaters. Cars needed a drip pan, a gong, and a padlock and chain. (summary unchecked)
• How high? 2014-03-24 · 1880s-1910s
  Pikes Peak height changed with surveys: 14,908 in the 1880s, 14,147 in 1910, 14,109 in 1913, 14,110 in 1948, 14,115 about 2005. 1913 papers joked the mountain was shrinking; the USGS issued a notice denying it. (summary unchecked)
• Stratton or Palmer - whose statue was first? 2014-06-02 · 1920s
  In 1922 the Stratton statue moved to Nevada and Vermijo. A committee under Oliver Shoup rejected Ann Hiatt Huntington's young Palmer with his dog, after Irving Howbert objected, and Leo Lentelli's design. The statue went up in 1924. (summary unchecked)
• The train wreck of August 1907... and poor Miss Fisher 2014-07-28 · 1900s
  Short Line passenger train No. 15, carrying 260, derailed 2.5 miles west of Fairview in August 1907 on a rain-loosened rail. The only injury was Maude Fisher, a teacher from Preston, Iowa, who jumped. Rerailing took 55 minutes. (summary unchecked)
• Chipeta was rare in her time as a female Indian leader 2014-08-11 · 1870s-1920s
  Chipeta, wife of Ute chief Ouray, died in August 1924. The couple worked with General Charles Adams, who lived between Colorado City and Manitou, on the 1879 Meeker Massacre. Their widows last met at a 1913 Ute gathering here. (summary unchecked)
• An odd little neighborhood 2015-03-30 · 1920s
  In 1926 Benjamin Lefkowsky, a Russian fascinated by Holland, developed Zuider Zee street off North Cascade from James J. Hagerman's estate at 610 N. Cascade, starting with the Windmill House. His 1927 hotel became the Rus-Amer Apartments. (summary unchecked)
• Don't make fun of the tourists! 2015-06-22 · 2010s
  Since the 1890s newspapers warned locals not to mock tourists. McFarland, 16 years a Pikes Peak cog conductor, lists questions he heard: at what altitude deer turn into elk, is this the top or the summit. (summary unchecked)
• Why it's called Shooks Run 2015-08-10 · 1860s-1920s
  Shooks Run was once an open sewer and flooded in 1886 and 1913. Brothers Peter and Denton Shook drove cattle from Iowa in 1868, clashed with Utes in South Park, and sold cattle in Colorado City. (summary unchecked)
• Call General Palmer! But could you? 2015-09-21 · 1880s
  General Palmer had a private, unlisted telephone in his Antlers Hotel office by 1885 that only his secretary could use, and refused a phone at Glen Eyrie for years. W.S. Stratton changed numbers repeatedly to dodge money seekers. (summary unchecked)
• The end to the 1934-35 drought (Part 1) 2016-02-15 · 1930s
  In winter 1934-35 Colorado sat on the Dust Bowl's edge. Denver drained Eleven Mile into Cheesman, leaving Eleven Mile and Antero empty. April 1935 blizzards stranded 30 to 40 cars between Midland and Divide. (summary unchecked)
• When early snow left summit staff stranded 2016-06-06 · 1930s
  A late September 1936 storm trapped four cog railway employees and the highway summit house staff on Pikes Peak for three days; phone lines held; a rescue train took two days to clear track; the season reopened a week later. (summary unchecked)
• 1935 flood repairs remain with us today 2016-06-27 · 1930s
  After the Memorial Day 1935 flood destroyed every Monument Creek bridge except Bijou, crews in 1936 and 1937 dug the channel up to 20 feet deeper from Roswell to South Nevada; 364 WPA men lined it with concrete and rock. (summary unchecked)
• A train race to the silver mines 2017-08-07 · 1880s
  On June 8, 1889 the Colorado Midland and D&RG ran rival excursions from Denver to Aspen's silver mines, the Midland via Ute Pass and Hagerman Tunnel, the D&RG via Pueblo and Tennessee Pass. Both overnighted at Leadville; Midland arrived first. (summary unchecked)
• How Jim quit the Midland (and other stories) 2017-08-28 · 1900s
  Jim Reilly, hired by the Colorado Midland in 1902 to gauge wheel spacing, refused a faulty measuring bar; when the superintendent tried to pin derailments on him, he produced the correct bar and quit. He became the city's oldest fireman. (summary unchecked)
• May 1946 - the Springs' first parking meters 2018-04-30 · 1940s
  Colorado Springs installed its first 600 parking meters downtown on May 14, 1946, with 800 more ordered; 10 cents an hour, limits from 12 minutes to an hour. Collectors emptied them by 9 a.m. (summary unchecked)
• The post-World War II Goodyear homes 2018-07-02 · 1940s
  In 1947 Goodyear Tire and Rubber sold prefab three-bedroom model homes, furnished and move-in ready in one day; Colorado Springs had to relax codes; one opened on East Willamette; examples survive on Willamette and Buena Ventura. (summary unchecked)
• Introducing 'Cobweb Corners' 2004-02-05 · 1890s
  McFarland introduces the column: 27 years teaching, railroad books, cog railway engineer. Early 1890s El Paso County had 60 school districts, mostly one-room, under a county superintendent: District 1 Colorado City, 14 Manitou, 35 Glen Eyrie. (summary unchecked)
• Chasing your house 2004-06-03 · 2000s
  How-to guide for researching a house's history: legal description, abstracts, County Assessor, the downtown library's Carnegie local history room, city directories, Sanborn insurance maps for Colorado City, Manitou and Colorado Springs, and old newspapers on microfilm. (summary unchecked)
• Spanish names not easy for some 2004-07-08 · 1870s-1890s
  An 1873 Colorado Springs newspaper joked about mail addressed to Peabeilow, Publow and Peblow for Pueblo. Local names tourists mangle: Uintah, Saguache, Cuchara, Fruita, La Junta. McFarland's grandfather said Tea-john and Cass-ka-dee. (summary unchecked)
• What were they thinking? 2004-08-26 · 1880s-1950s
  Oddities: the Midland Trail follows the Rio Grande right of way, not the Midland's; the Manitou pool's opening roof broke from overuse; Colorado City street names changed five times from 1885 to 1917; Limit Street, Papetown's numbered streets, Maizeland town. (summary unchecked)
• Those changing street names 2004-11-18 · 1890s-1910s
  Traces Colorado City street names from 1890: Cucharras was Washington, Pikes Peak was Lincoln, Kiowa was Jefferson, Bijou was Monroe; 25th was West Street; renamed in 1902, 1905 and 1917; the History Center keeps the 1917 list. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado City's first park 2004-12-23 · 1900s
  Thorndale Park was given by George Thorne and his wife; General Palmer gave $2,100 to clear trash and old cabins; it bordered breakaway Ramona and the El Paso Canal, which ran from Fountain Creek along Uintah to Prospect Lake. (summary unchecked)
• Ute Pass: From trail to 4-lane road 2005-05-26 · 1850s-1960s
  The Ute trail ran up Ruxton past the cog depot and above Fountain Creek to French Creek. Palmer financed road work in 1873 for Manitou Park timber; improvements came for Leadville and Cripple Creek. First four-laning came in the mid-1960s. (summary unchecked)
• A quiz on local history 2005-06-09 · 1890s-1950s
  McFarland poses ten local history questions: Adams Crossing, 2902 W. Colorado Avenue, a railroad-started hospital, an industry with its own airport, the Nevada and Vermijo statue, two coal towns inside the city, the Ribbon of Death road, a fenced landmark. (summary unchecked)
• Colorado Springs in films 2005-07-14 · 1920s-1990s
  Films shot locally include Tom Mix's silent Great K&A Train Robbery in the Royal Gorge, The Incident at the Pioneers Museum, Switchback (museum passed off as Amarillo), The Lawyer downtown, and One Minute To Zero with Robert Mitchum. (summary unchecked)
• Save your old pictures! 2005-07-28 · 1900s
  A plea to keep old photographs: backgrounds reveal lost buildings, such as Cucharras Street between 24th and 26th, known only from dimension records, and a hotel near the Colorado-Philadelphia Mill that burned. Label photos; offer them to museums. (summary unchecked)
• Along the Avenue 2005-11-10 · 1890s-1930s
  Colorado Avenue, once Huerfano (orphan) Street downtown, became the Avenue when the towns merged and street names aligned. West of Monument Creek flooded until WPA walls in the 1930s. Colorado City began at 23rd until 1890. (summary unchecked)
• On the lookout for twins 2005-12-08 · 1900s
  The Westside has twin houses: identical plans, like four built by one builder near the 2300 block of West Pikes Peak, and a 1904 pair on Colorado Avenue near Goodwill; also mirror-image pairs, including three downtown. (summary unchecked)
• When Christmas started in December 2005-12-15 · 1910s
  In 1919 Colorado City papers made no Christmas mention until December; merchants urged early shopping as the Colorado Midland shops closed. Whittier, Midland and Buena Vista classrooms strung 24 homemade stockings; the best speller got the lone gift. (summary unchecked)
• Street names, again 2006-01-12 · 1900s
  A 1905 official proposed aligning Colorado City street names with Colorado Springs: Huerfano to Colorado Avenue, Washington to Pikes Peak, Lincoln to Kiowa. Numbered streets did not line up. Council consulted General Palmer; Colorado City refused. (summary unchecked)
• Bargains in the baggage 2006-03-30 · 1890s-1900s
  Rio Grande and Midland stations auctioned unclaimed baggage and freight after about six months; one sale included a crate labeled drugs holding perfumes, barrels of crockery, a steam pump, tanned leather and a spinning wheel; buyers resold outside the depot. (summary unchecked)
• The problem with reading! 2006-04-06 · 1900s
  About a hundred years ago railroads ordered station agents to police dime novels sold in depot stores, fearing patrons would learn how to hold up trains; stories of Indian fighters and crime fighters were deemed acceptable. (summary unchecked)
• The many Pike's Peaks 2007-05-31 · 1800s-1920s
  Colorado restored the apostrophe in Pike's Peak in the 1920s. Other Pike's Peaks exist in Pennsylvania, a ski area with more snow, Iowa, Texas, Louisiana and Indiana. Zebulon Pike saw the peak in November 1806 and died in 1813. (summary unchecked)
• Movies that were filmed here 2007-07-05 · 1920s-1990s
  Movies filmed locally: Tom Mix's silent The Great K&A Train Robbery in the Royal Gorge; The Incident at the Pioneers Museum; Switchback; The Lawyer downtown; One Minute To Zero with Robert Mitchum at Camp Carson; The Cowboys near Canon City. (summary unchecked)
• Remembering ol' Bill 2007-07-19 · 1950s-2000s
  Tribute to Bill Henderson of Pike's Peak Photo, a founder of Pike's Peak National Bank 50 years ago, collector of Cripple Creek mine stock certificates, Westerners member from 1976, whose Mississippi accent grew with age. (summary unchecked)
• Another look at 'The Incident' 2007-07-26 · 1980s-1990s
  Readers respond on The Incident, a WWII prisoner-of-war movie with Walter Matthau: some 50 locals had roles, Pioneers Museum staff appeared, the camp set was built behind the Alexander plant on north Nevada after Fort Carson refused. (summary unchecked)
• No year-round tourism in old days 2008-01-31 · 1890s-2000s
  Manitou and much of Colorado City once closed for winter; tourism was summer only, with warnings about Gold Camp Road and Rampart Range Road. Ski areas at Pikes Peak and Broadmoor failed. Railroads once ran special excursion offers. (summary unchecked)
• Thanks for readers' ideas 2008-05-29 · 1900s-1950s
  Readers gave McFarland boxes of clippings, an old Colorado City Independent, and 60-year-old Denver papers found as floor padding. The first Safeway was in a 25th Street storefront before the 23rd Street store, now Goodwill. (summary unchecked)
• Remembering Paul Idleman 2008-08-07 · 1890s-2000s
  Tribute to Paul Idleman, who researched photographer William Hook of Artist Glen, built the Hook photo display at the Pikes Peak summit, and worked at the History Center. Hook fought the cog railway then sold views to its tourists. (summary unchecked)
• High ball, Johnny! 2008-08-21 · 1940s-1970s
  A tribute to Johnny Taggart, a cog railway man in his 90s from three generations of railroaders, leaving for Utah. For the 1976 Bicentennial he came out of retirement to show crews how to run a steam cog engine. (summary unchecked)
• How it can get hot in winter 2009-01-15 · 1890s-1950s
  Winter was fire season in old Colorado City: both railroad stations, mills, the glass works and the Ute Pass Paint factory burned in winter. Coal doors, ash pits, backyard trash burners and old dumps now inside city limits. (summary unchecked)
• In the papers 2009-01-29 · 1900s
  McFarland reads the old Colorado City Iris at the library; only two to four pages were local news. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, relief trains left Colorado City on the Midland. A 1908 item notes lawless tourist drivers. (summary unchecked)
• A last visit to Whittier Elementary 2009-06-18 · 1940s-1950s
  McFarland revisits Whittier, where his grandmother enrolled him in kindergarten in 1949 under principal Richard Ragsdale; he attended five grade schools; the 1901 building's janitor house was torn down; Pike School's farewell; the Bristol Boys Choir. (summary unchecked)
• Names connected with the Mountain 2010-02-25 · 1870s-2000s
  A roll call of Pikes Peak names: Pike, Edwin James, Julia Holmes, Katharine Lee Bates, cog owners Simmons, Sells and Penrose, runner Matt Carpenter, Craig Burbank who walked up nearly 100 times in a year, Fred Barr, O'Keefe. (summary unchecked)
• Diner stories and the wrong-way ride 2010-03-18 · 1910s-1940s
  A short-lived diner in the 600 block of Colorado Avenue; a 1940s North Nevada diner run by a railroad widow; and a 1913 traveler who boarded the wrong train section and rode to Pueblo. (summary unchecked)
• The General Palmer movies 2010-05-06 · 1950s
  Two movies feature General Palmer: Kansas Pacific with Sterling Hayden, and Denver and Rio Grande, filmed early 1950s near Durango with Richard Jaekel as Palmer. Night Passage cast Governor Ed C. Johnson, a former Midland telegrapher, as a telegrapher. (summary unchecked)
• So how tall IS it? 2010-05-13 · 1880s-1960s
  Pikes Peak measurements: about 14,200 in the 1880s, 14,147, 14,109 in 1913, 14,110 in the 1940s, 14,115 by GPS. Jokes blamed tourists taking rocks. Dozens of spots have been marked as the summit; two summit houses stood 1916 to 1960. (summary unchecked)
• A Midland engineer's house 2010-08-12 · 1880s-1920s
  The house at 2522 Bott Ave. was home to William Walker, one of the first Colorado Midland engineers; descendants include Ed Crow and Art Crawford. Bott, Hagerman and Robinson houses were Midland family homes whose attics yielded artifacts. (summary unchecked)
• Our wildlife visitors 2011-01-27 · 2000s
  Bears, deer, elk, mountain lions and bobcats now visit Westside yards. McFarland recalls porcupines as a childhood novelty, buffalo escaping an Old Colorado City slaughterhouse, a llama on Pikes Peak in 2009, and a lion at Kiowa and 28th. (summary unchecked)
• The Denver, Texas and Gulf 2011-04-14 · 1880s
  Governor John Evans and banker David Moffat's Denver & New Orleans Railroad followed Cherry Creek, naming a siding for Albert Bierstadt. From Jimmy Camp it laid a crude track into Colorado Springs under dark of night, finished October 1882. (summary unchecked)
• When cars were hot stuff in high school 2011-04-28 · 1960s
  Westside teen car culture, 1960s: Don Parker's Ford F-100, Reo Zentz and Bob Reinfred's 1932 Ford cabriolets, Ron Cogdill's Model A pickup in a magazine; car magazines bought at 20th and Pikes Peak and Hathaway's; McFarland pinstriped cars like Ladybug. (summary unchecked)
• The Templeton Building 2011-07-07 · 1890s
  Henry Templeton's three-story building opened September 1891 at Colorado and West, now 25th. Contractor Albert Allen used 250,000 bricks, 75,000 feet of pine and a 10 ton iron front. Dry goods below, boarding house, Masonic Lodge on top. (summary unchecked)
• Palmer's Ute Pass upgrade 2011-08-18 · 1870s
  In 1871 Colorado Springs and the Leadville Wagon Road over Hayden Divide threatened Colorado City. Palmer's Central Improvement Company blasted a new road along Fountain Creek above Manitou, shorter but a one-wagon ledge. In 1873 the county seat moved. (summary unchecked)
• A new railroad for Colorado City 2011-10-20 · 1880s
  In summer 1880 the Colorado Springs and Manitou Railroad was built through Colorado City along today's Cucharras Street to Manitou. Fifteen hundred workers graded it in camps. Dr. Bell's stone church near his home was made a station. (summary unchecked)
• Questions of 'Mr. Conductor' 2012-09-20 · 1900s-1910s
  Midland Pullman conductors fielded odd questions: one told a lady with underweight baggage to gather 75 pounds of stone at Cascade; another said Glenwood's smoky coaling facility heated the hot springs. McFarland hears odd questions as cog conductor. (summary unchecked)
• 1890: Bridging the tracks 2012-09-27 · 1890s
  In 1890 Colorado Springs and the Rio Grande debated bridging the tracks west of downtown; businesses backed Huerfano, now Colorado Avenue, and a compromise bent Kiowa and Bijou to share a second bridge. Both were built. (summary unchecked)
• The storm of 1894 2012-11-29 · 1890s
  The 1894 wet season: Cripple Creek got over two feet of snow, June 6 brought rain and snow, Fountain Creek flooded from Ute Pass to Fountain, streetcar track from 30th to Manitou was gone, Manitou's rail branch out four weeks. (summary unchecked)
• Driving a car 100 years ago 2013-03-14 · 1910s
  McFarland walks through driving a Model T era car: draining radiators since antifreeze was unknown, hand cranking, no doors, starter or battery, three pedals, hand-operated wipers, gas bought in cans at general stores. Keys, plates and licenses came later. (summary unchecked)
• Summer months, then and now 2013-08-01 · 1840s-1950s
  Summer hardships and fires: three Mount Herman fires, Hayman in 2003, Cheyenne Mountain in 1953, and an 1840s burn from Manitou Park to the Royal Gorge; households kept winter ice in cellars and burned trash in backyard burners. (summary unchecked)
• More on the balanced rocks 2013-10-03 · 1910s
  A 1919 newspaper story led McFarland to other balanced rocks: a motor-home-sized one on Cameron's Cone, one west of Woodland Park, a 65-foot nose-shaped one near Palmer Lake, and one near Red Rock Canyon knocked down 75 years ago. (summary unchecked)
• A parade for Whittier's cornerstone 2013-10-17 · 1900s
  In May 1901 Police Chief Birdsall led a parade with the Colorado Midland band and nearly 1,000 children from Bancroft School to lay Whittier School's cornerstone at 29th and Kiowa; 200 Cripple Creek Masons came on the Short Line. (summary unchecked)
• Stretching The Season 2014-01-13 · 1920s-1950s
  Before World War II tourist towns closed in winter. The cog railway opened in spring and sometimes ran into December. Year-end storms stranded live-in summit house crews until a plow and train rescued them. (summary unchecked)
• Year 1925 - sculptor chosen for Palmer statue 2014-06-16 · 1920s
  In March 1924 Nathan D. Potter of New York was chosen over candidates including Gutzon Borglum to sculpt the General Palmer equestrian statue, due August 1, 1925 at Platte and Nevada. Palmer's friends checked accuracy; District 11 students donated pennies. (summary unchecked)
• Early 1900s driving rules varied from town to town 2014-06-30 · 1910s
  Colorado driver's licenses started about 1910; oral exams began October 1918 by a police chief, city clerk and Automobile Club member. Minimum age 16 though ten-year-olds drove. Hand signals differed by town; police often had only bicycles or horses. (summary unchecked)
• 90 years ago - the opening of West, North and South 2014-09-22 · 1920s
  In fall 1924 District 11 opened its first junior highs: South, North, then West. West opened four weeks late on Oct. 6, 1924 to just over 400 students with gym, auditorium and halls unfinished. West alone was red brick. (summary unchecked)
• The hydroelectric power plant at Ruxton Park 2014-10-27 · 1900s-2000s
  Ruxton Park, three miles up the cog railway, houses a Pelton-wheel hydro plant feeding Manitou; automatic control never worked so a caretaker ran it; nearly closed, it was upgraded for green power; said to have the world's highest head pressure. (summary unchecked)
• A royal visitor... on iron wheels 2015-12-14 · 1930s
  In October 1933 the English Royal Scot express train, touring the US and Canada, stopped an hour at the Santa Fe station in Colorado Springs before hundreds of people, then paused at Palmer Lake for water. (summary unchecked)
• This model has wooden looks, but that's OK 2016-08-08 · 1940s-2010s
  Emma Sweeny, a mostly wooden locomotive model built for the 1949 film Ticket to Tomahawk and later used on Petticoat Junction, rotted at a restaurant until Durango men bought it in 2010 and began restoring it in Santa Rita Park. (summary unchecked)
• 'Which one is Pikes Peak?' 2016-09-19 · 1930s
  In 1937 local officials, tired of residents misdirecting tourists as a sport, posted mileage signs to attractions; the new Chamber of Commerce and newspaper issued map brochures; a photo shows the Midland bridge over Monument Creek in the 1935 flood. (summary unchecked)
• From radio to TV in early '50s Colorado Springs 2016-11-21 · 1950s
  Early 1950s Colorado Springs had two radio stations, KVOR and KRDO. KRDO's Yawn Patrol featured Wes Bradley and Kenny Randall; Bradley hosted KRDO-TV's first shows, a couple of hours daily, mostly test pattern. KKTV used the old streetcar building. (summary unchecked)
• A visit from the cog's 1st general manager 2017-06-05 · 1890s-1930s
  In early summer 1939 H.S. Cable, the cog railway's first general manager and son of Rock Island president Ransom Cable, visited from Santa Barbara to see new locomotives replacing the steam engines. He also saw the Rocky Mountain Rocket. (summary unchecked)
• The value in old pictures 2004-06-24 · 1900s-2000s
  McFarland urges readers to label, keep and store old photographs cool and dry; his grandfather's snapshots revealed houses, cars and trains. The Old Colorado City History Center seeks old pictures of the town and has volunteers to help donors. (summary unchecked)
• When postcards came into fashion 2004-10-21 · 1900s-1910s
  Postcards boomed after the post office allowed messages on the address side; a penny mailed them and Germany printed the color ones. One-off real photo cards are most prized. Colorado City cards are very rare. (summary unchecked)
• The smells of the holidays 2004-12-09 · 1950s
  A sensory reflection on holiday and small-town smells: baking bread and pies, cafe coffee and stew, lilacs, coal versus wood and cottonwood smoke, newspaper ink and press oil, barber shop tonics, school paste and shoe polish. (summary unchecked)
• Down at the post office 2006-02-16 · 2000s
  A personal piece on McFarland's post office habits: his favorite West End Station, Monday lines, postage rate changes, 37 cent stamps bought ahead, and badly packed holiday packages. Not a history column. (summary unchecked)
• Buena Vista School, after 50 years 2006-03-16 · 1950s
  McFarland revisits Buena Vista Elementary after 50 years. It began as cottage schools and the core survives. His fourth grade room, once with desks bolted down, is bright and modern. Principal LeRoy Ellinwood wrote the play Young '59ers. (summary unchecked)
• Tribute to Ol' Byron 2006-07-27 · 2000s
  A tribute to Byron Henderson, railroader's son, engineer and master mechanic at the Cog Railway, who helped get steamer number 4 running and was legendary with the snow plow. His ashes were scattered on Pikes Peak. (summary unchecked)
• My new answer 2006-08-17 · 1900s
  McFarland announces a booklet on Colorado City mills and railroads at the History Center, still seeks a stove company started about 1906 near the railroad on Cucharras, and mourns museum volunteer LaRue Ebersole. (summary unchecked)
• Have you been to Denver? 2006-10-12 · 2000s
  McFarland visited Denver, England, a village near King's Lynn with an 1835 windmill that ground grain until lightning struck it in 1941. Denvers exist in West Virginia and a dozen states, plus two other Cripple Creeks and eighteen other Victors. (summary unchecked)
• Where the ideas come from 2006-12-21 · 2000s
  McFarland's story ideas come from readers, breakfast talk at Bon Ton's, items brought to the Old Colorado City History Center, the editor, and old newspapers, especially the Colorado City Iris, which ran about 50 years though few issues survive. (summary unchecked)
• Old papers, old friends 2007-11-15 · 1900s
  McFarland meets readers on Pikes Peak and gets story ideas. Old papers show politics, 1906 San Francisco earthquake relief sent on Midland trains from Colorado City, generations of champions in sports, music and elocution, and want ads with surprising jobs. (summary unchecked)
• On the lookout for stories 2007-12-06 · 2000s
  McFarland explains where column ideas come from: his editor, local cafes, and the thousands of tourists he meets as a Cog Railway conductor; readers recognize him from his photo; one breakfast conversation yielded the plea not to write that story. (summary unchecked)
• History: Answers lead to questions 2008-02-21 · 2000s
  McFarland reflects on ten years of columns, local history teaching, reader comments, the Old Colorado City History Center, and the Golden Cycle mill smokestack at Gold Hill Mesa where his relatives worked until its last day. (summary unchecked)
• Small-town cafes 2008-04-03 · 1940s-1950s
  An imagined small-town cafe scene of eastern Colorado and Kansas farm towns before the interstate: counter stools, farm reports on KOA and KLZ radio, juke box, oilcloth tables. Colorado Avenue and Manitou once had such cafes. (summary unchecked)
• License plates and trains 2008-04-10 · 1920s
  Early motorists made their own license plates. By the 1920s Colorado had 420,000 plated vehicles and El Paso County needed 10,000 more in 1924. Some wartime plates dissolved in rain. Coal trains need over a mile to stop. (summary unchecked)
• Singing in the Bristol choir 2008-07-03 · 1950s
  In the 1950s Mrs. Goldsberry's Bristol School boys choir sang around town. Boys moved to Pike left 15 minutes early weekly and biked down Chestnut to Walnut for practice. Palmer's choir under Frank Gillis followed. (summary unchecked)
• How this region became part of America 2008-10-23 · 1500s-1800s
  Coronado reached the Arkansas River in 1540; the Spanish founded Santa Fe in 1598; the French named the Arkansas River. Napoleon sold Louisiana to a skeptical United States under Jefferson, doubling the country. Pike and Lewis and Clark explored it. (summary unchecked)
• A question about trees 2008-11-06 · 2000s
  Mountain Ash, or Rowan trees, with berries turning red grow at the Cog station in Manitou though native to England, where they were planted against witches and May 1 was Rowan Tree Day. Staff have failed to grow new ones. (summary unchecked)
• No 'X' to mark the spot 2008-11-26 · 1900s-1950s
  McFarland reviews subjects prompted by reader questions: gas stations where the Bon Ton and Old Colorado City Creamery stand, the Gillette house, a house with a streetcar inside, and a 31st Street farmhouse whose back faces the street. (summary unchecked)
• A page in history 2009-02-05 · 2000s
  Reflection on Colorado City's 150th year since 1859 founding; asks what today's children will remember. McFarland notes about 250 columns written as the Pioneer starts its sixth year. (summary unchecked)
• From trails to roads 2009-06-25 · 1900s-1950s
  Indian trails and even the Oregon and Santa Fe trails were up to five miles wide. Roads were ruts or mud holes until automobiles forced improvement; graders were horse-drawn into the 1930s. Westside side streets stayed dirt into the 1950s. (summary unchecked)
• Getting off the Interstate 2009-11-25 · 2000s
  McFarland describes a cross-country trip on old Route 66 sections in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, Jefferson Davis sites in Biloxi and Fort Monroe, and the Yorktown and Gettysburg battlefields, urging travelers to leave the Interstate. (summary unchecked)
• Old-style diners getting hard to find 2010-03-04 · 1950s
  Reflective column on small-town diners in Kansas and Nebraska farm towns, often in old rail or street cars, with EAT signs, long counters, typed menus and waitresses named Pam or Sue; McFarland rates diners by biscuits and gravy. (summary unchecked)
• Three cheers for Coronado 2010-03-25 · 1970s
  McFarland praises Coronado High School for restoring wood shop under Gary Hilty. He student-taught in Dan Johns' shop at Coronado's opening and taught industrial arts, drafting, art and math. Palmer High vocational classes once built houses around town. (summary unchecked)
• An English village like Manitou 2010-10-14 · 2000s
  McFarland compares Manitou to Hay on Wye, the English secondhand book capital he has visited for 30 years: hillside streets, a castle with a bookshop, warm beer, and cheap Colorado railroad books. (summary unchecked)
• Picnic trips when I was a kid 2011-08-25 · 1950s
  Memoir of 1950s family picnics: fried chicken, a Little Brown Jug cooler, Manitou water lemonade from the Ute Chief spring, roadside fires near Woodland Park where spots are now people's yards, Manitou Park, Eleven Mile Canyon. (summary unchecked)
• Your old photos could be historic 2012-02-16 · 1890s-1950s
  McFarland urges readers not to throw away old photographs or negatives. The Old Colorado City Historical Society museum next to Bancroft Park collects them. Keep them cool and dry. He seeks pictures of the mills, glass factory and railroad. (summary unchecked)
• The trucks take over 2013-07-25 · 1910s-1930s
  In 1918 farm hauling cost about 80 cents a ton mile by horse and 75 cents by truck. Plains farms lacked fuel stops and decent roads. A truck built in Colorado Springs for altitude soon failed. (summary unchecked)
• More about early school districts 2014-04-28 · 1900s-1920s
  El Paso County once had 60 school districts dating to 1874; records before 1900 were destroyed about 1907. That year 86 teachers served small districts, 63 in one-room schools. Colorado City was District 1; teachers averaged $50 a month. (summary unchecked)
• Old-time cafes getting harder to find 2014-10-20 · 1940s-1950s
  Reflection on 1940s and 50s plains-town cafes with EAT signs, counters of sun-tanned farmers, farm reports on KOA and KLZ radio, cellophane menus; McFarland paints such scenes and compliments a new business near the paper. (summary unchecked)