Repairing the Great Palisade Wall-Complete!

 Repairing the Great Palisade Wall:

A Lesson in Collaboration

By Kurt Maechner

In the 1880s, the Denver, South Park & Pacific created an engineering masterpiece along its route to the famed Alpine Tunnel by suspending a railroad grade along the sheer cliffs of a rock formation known as the Palisades. Italian stone masons used local stone to create a 33-foot-tall, 452-foot-long retaining wall without using mortar. Stones were cut and stacked in a jigsaw-like puzzle and then backfilled to create a level path for the railroad.

After service through Alpine Tunnel ceased in 1910, the rails were not removed until 1924. In the 1960s, the road was cleared for auto traffic. Generations of railfans, jeep enthusiasts, and many others began traveling the route and visiting the great palisade wall and the remains of the station complex at the west portal. All this ceased eight years ago.

In 2016, an avalanche started above the Palisades carrying huge amounts of snow, rock, and other debris crashing down the mountainside. When this raging mass crashed onto the old railroad grade it didn’t stop or even get redirected along the road and over the side of the stone wall. Instead, the force ripped away the grade, along with a massive 50-foot portion of the over 130-year-old palisade wall, barreling the work of the Italian stone masons down the rest of the mountain. The event eerily mirrored one in the same location in 1884 when an avalanche swallowed up the town of Woodstock on the lower level of the railroad. That one destroyed a town; this one destroyed the road.

In 2024, eight years later, the road over along the Palisades is finally open once again. The journey to this point, though, has been slow. During the author’s 2018 visit, discussion with some Pitkin locals revealed a good deal of pessimism as to whether repair might ever occur. 

Over the years, many wanted to see the palisade road open again, but none of these groups or individuals had the ability to do it themselves. Justin Kerns of the US Forest Service Gunnison District was one such interested party. He knew the USFS was supportive but lacked the means. While working on fixing the roof on the outhouse at Alpine Tunnel, he was introduced to Chuck Severance, president of a 4WD group, the Ute Pass Iron Goats (UPIG). Severance wanted to bring together all the various groups interested in the repair (railroad, historical, 4WD, hikers, and more). 

Severance, then, pursued those in his sphere of influence, while Kerns reached out to the historical community. He raised awareness and requested letters of support in many places including on sites like the Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum and the C&Sng Forum. Letters poured in from individuals and groups such as the DSP&P Historical Society, Buena Vista Heritage, and folks in St. Elmo. These were essential in attracting History Colorado’s interest in and funding of the project. 

In the end, the diversity of groups interested in this project greatly motivated the NFS which subsequently hooked the consequential Great American Outdoors Act grants.

The biggest obstacle in any historic preservation is funding. In 2019 Severance and his UPIG, a 4x4 club based out of Woodland Park, helped the National Forest Foundation (NFF) apply for grants from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) fund and History Colorado. UPIG and Colorado Off Road Enterprise (CORE) served as sponsors. In addition, three organizations filed applications for funds from the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA): Gunnison National Forest, Colorado Off Highway Vehicle Coalition, and National Off Highway Vehicle Coalition.

All of the work in time led to five grants: 

CPW OHV Grants for $100,000 for rock scaling

GAOA Grant for $50,000 for engineering

GAOA grant for $500,000 for reconstruction

History Colorado Grant for $250,000 for reconstruction

Polaris grant through NFF of $25,000 for reconstruction

Rock scaling began in the summer of 2022. The two-week project included three zones of work to target problem areas and create a safer site for upcoming work. The largest was above the Palisade wall. Four men did the work of hand scaling. This included hiking up above the scaling locations, hanging from ropes, and repelling down. From there, they would use a small rock bar to force loose stones to tumble down to the road below. Later the contract crew on the road moved the material over the other side of the railroad grade. 

Marcus Trusty, founder of CORE (Colorado Off Road Enterprise), a motorized advocacy group, who served as site supervisor for this project said, “We looked like little kids standing at the edge watching big rocks fall off the side of the mountain which never seems to get boring.” At the completion of the scaling, about fifteen feet of debris and 100 of tons of rock was piled up on the road. 

Trusty and CORE have adopted several trails including Hancock and Williams Passes. They have built a strong relationship with the two national forests (San Isabel and Gunnison National) that span both sides of Alpine/Altman Pass, doing much needed maintenance work on the trails. Their commitment to the area helped build more steam behind the initiative to fix the road along the Palisades.

In 2023, work was done to create new replacement stones for the Palisade wall. 70 cap stones plus 50-75 rocks for the wall itself were made. Thaddeus Hust, a historic stone mason from Salida who runs Agave Landscapes & Masonry, headed up the work. Some good rock that had fallen from the Palisades was used, but most stones were made from what some believe to be the original quarry site for the walls, tunnel entrance, and engine house: the huge rock field at the intersection of Williams Pass and the railroad grade (east of the Palisades). Many granite stones found here still bear old drill marks.

Granite is very hard which makes the splitting process easier and cleaner. While some modern technology
was used, the process is similar to how it was done in the 1800s. Using a Bosch hammer drill, workers punched holes into the rock and then pounded wedges to get the stone to crack.

The final and major process of rebuilding the road happened in large part due to the acquisition of $500,000 from the Great American Outdoors Act. Districts identify potential projects for GAOA funding and then send that list to the regional office. One key to success is to have projects already in motion or “shovel-ready”. The regional office, with the Alpine Tunnel road reconstruction listed, then went out for public comment, asking, “Which projects matter to you?” They gathered many comments from various sources expressing advocacy for the restoration of the road to Alpine Tunnel. The project consequently made the final list and received GAOA funding.

At last, in 2024 with funding in hand, work on the road began on June 18th, 2024. Workers excavated a ramp to 18-20 feet below the top of the wall. This allowed removal of loose and damaged stone. They excavated 12 feet of dirt back from the wall and laid a type of mesh fabric or grid for six feet. Rocks in the wall were stacked up 2 ½ to 3 feet, and then back fill was added. At this point, another layer of grid was added and the process was repeated roughly 8 times all the way up.

Workers acquired the fill dirt from a spot west of the Palisades which is believed to have been an original source for the DSP&P’s construction crews. In addition to this dirt, some stone from the rock scaling process was mixed in as well.

During the excavation process a few artifacts came to light. A few spikes turned up. A piece of rail surfaced. It was taken down to the Pitkin guard station with plans to put it on display in a museum. Other treasures included a “train brake” and small nails from dynamite crates.

A large concern for the reconstruction was drainage. The design included making the wall the high point so that water drains away from the wall and toward a newly constructed ditch on the hillside portion of the road. However, the new capstones have gaps, just as the originals did, in case water overflows the drain.

Once work wrapped up, an uninterrupted row of capstones lined the historic palisade wall once again for the first time in likely over a century. And, to boot, repair was done on several of the other smaller rock walls along the roadbed as well.

In the end, the work required roughly a million dollars to complete. Unlike the 1984 reconstruction of the Georgetown Loop’s Devil’s Gate Viaduct, which got the money from one Boettcher Foundation donation, the palisade wall reconstruction followed the path of most other restoration projects: the collaboration of a diverse group of individuals and organizations working together to get the job done. 

The surprise to those of us whose hearts are with railroad history is that a great deal of this collaboration was from those with other interests. There are always competing topics, goals, and methods between organizations, but the story of the reconstruction of the damaged palisade wall and the DSP&P roadbed is evidence that we owe a great deal of gratitude to these non-railroad-centered groups for their tireless efforts.

One honor worth mentioning is that Chuck Severance and the Ute Pass Iron Goats received the 2024 Colorado Off Highway Vehicle Coalition of the Year award for their work on restoring the road to Alpine Tunnel.

Amidst the joy of hearing that the closure order on the road to the west portal had been lifted, a literal road block popped up. Close to the Alpine Tunnel station complex, a large boulder, fell onto the roadbed. CORE and UPIG have the equipment, expertise, and motivation to remove it, but red tape with the forest service stands in the way of the work. As before, Severance is working to get the permission to forge ahead once again.

Sources:

“Alpine Tunnel Palisade: Multi-Year Project Completed” Colorado High Trails, Fourth Quarter 2024. Colorado Four Wheel Drive Association.

“Alpine Tunnel Palisade Wall Rebuild I Project Overview I Funding I Tomichi I Williams I Hancock” Keeptrailsopen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS8GUm6LVUM, posted 17 Aug. 2024.

Correspondence with Justin Kerns and Chuck Severance

5 Sections of Relaid C&S Track in Platte Canyon and South Park

Here is a look at 5 places you can find C&S rails relaid on the original roadbed in Platte Canyon and South Park. Since the line was abandoned in 1937 and the rails pulled in 1938, a few spots of relaid rails have sprung up. There are five:

5. A stretch of track underneath two gondolas in Pine Grove. Pine Grove History Park was created on Feburary 11, 2020 to memorialize the former railroad servicing location. The town once sported a tall coaling platform that serviced the line's steam engines. The track is on the original roadbed. The gondolas are former Denver, Rio Grande and Western cars, but are painted to honor the Colorado & Southern and the Denver, South Park & Pacific (the C&S' predecessor).

4. A stretch of track underneath a caboose in Helen McGraw-Tatum Memorial Park in Bailey. The caboose is a standard gauge C&S car resting on standard gauge rails, though they are laid on the original narrow gauge roadbed. Near the caboose is the old C&S Mill Gulch bridge and Glenise Way Station, both moved from their original sites in the canyon. Click here to see a video I made of this unique park.

3. A rebuilt portion of the wye on top of Kenosha Pass. The railroad crested Kenosha Pass to enter into the South Park. Helper engines were required for trains to reach the summit. In order to turn the helper engines around, a wye was constructed. One leg and part of another leg of the wye have been rebuilt, the first stretch being constructed in 1998.

2. A small segment of track underneath a caboose in Jefferson. The first depot in the South Park (westbound) is the town of Jefferson. The depot still stands and can be rented by vacationers. The owners, who also operate the excellent Hungry Moose Caboose restaurant next door, also acquired and refurbished a Burlington Northern caboose as a rental. The track under the caboose, though standard gauge, is on the original narrow gauge roadbed.

1. A lot of track at the old division point of Como. A book could be written about the restoration of this former railroad town. The old stone roundhouse, the depot, and the railroad hotel survived the line's abandonment, but since roughly 2016 the entire complex has been undergoing a rebirth. The turntable and tracks into the roundhouse have been restored, along with several other tracks, including stubs representing the mainline east to Denver, west over Boreas Pass to Leadville, and west to the Alpine Tunnel and Gunnison. My video here is a mixture of footage from 2018 and 2022. Much more has been done since. Check out the South Park Rail Society's page for more info. 

3 Sections of Relaid C&S track in Clear Creek Canyon

 Here is a look at 3 places you can find C&S rails relaid on the original roadbed along the Clear Creek Line. Since the line was abandoned in 1941 a few spots of relaid rails have sprung up. Some were laid and then removed, but in 2025, there are three:

1. A short segment constructed for a proposed tourist route out of Central City. The rails were laid starting in 2021. A good amount of rolling stock is on site and a locomotive was purchased (though I don't know of its whereabouts) There is a lot of mystery as to what became of this attempt.

2. In Idaho Springs a curved section of track rests on the roadbed (or awfully close as someone has pointed out) to display C&S 2-8-0 No. 60 and coach No. 70. Coach 70 is presently up at Silver Plume for cosmetic restoration work. This piece of track was laid in 1987 when the train was moved from its original 1941 display spot very slightly east.

3. Between Georgetown and Silver Plume, the famous Georgetown Loop was entirely rebuilt between 1973 and 1984. This successful tourist line has been hauling passengers since 1975.

DSP&P 191 in the roundhouse in Golden

 Someone posted a photo of DSP&P 191 in the roundhouse at Golden at the Colorado Railroad Museum. Not sure what she's in for.

Here she is back in 2023 when I last visited.

The tales of C&S boxcars 8308 and 8310

 There's an odd, hard-to-see narrow gauge car at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden. Surprisingly, it is a combination of two former Colorado and Southern Ry. boxcars, one of which also served on the Rio Grande Southern. While one car was rescued from demolition while being a shed, the other was rescued, sold, became a tourist car, served as a food stand, and finally came back to her rescuer. C&S boxcars 8308/8261 and 8310 now rest together at Golden's museum. This video tells their meandering histories.

C&S Baggage Car No. 2 in 1978

 The only known surviving C&Sng baggage car is in Nebraska. It resides at the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie in Grand Island. I had a unique chance to visit the museum and baggage car No. 2 last May. You can see photos from that trip here.

Recently Ken Martin reached out when he found the photo below.

Ken Martin photo / August 1978

Ken took the photo in August of 1978 when the museum was rebuilding the car, most recently used as a farm shed, into an operating car for the museum's loop railroad. He also remembered that one of the workers commented on how difficult it was to rebuild the roof ends.

To see the car today and get a bit of its history, watch the video below made using photos and video from my visit to Stuhr.

St. Patrick, Trains, and Beer

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!

I was going to name this post “A Tale of Two Beers,” but one tale involves a lot more than two beers, a lot more, and the other tale, while being heavily associated with beer, has in fact nothing to do with beer at all.

These two tales both have rumbling, disasters, and returns.

Rumbling Rail Cars

Imagine a train falling off of the Georgetown Loop high bridge. It almost happened.

August 21st, 1907 started off as a day of reveling. 400 German veterans piled into a Colorado & Southern excursion train at Denver Union Station. The destination: 13,594 foot Mount McClellan. The narrow gauge excursion train left Denver and made a stop in Golden to get some beer. I told you there was beer involved. Yes, indeed. The eight-coach-train curiously included a baggage car. One doesn’t need a baggage car for a one-day excursion, right? Nope, this car wasn’t there to carry baggage at all. A local committee gifted these German vets with more than a few six-packs. Oh, no, the generosity manifested itself in 20 barrels (that’s usually 31 gallons a per container) of beer loaded on the baggage car. And, not just any beer, but the beverage produced in Golden itself since 1873: Coors Beer. 

With refreshments now sloshing in barrels in the baggage car, the excursion train wound itself up through Clear Creek canyon, where it took the left fork at Forks Creek, passing Idaho Springs and Georgetown before it began its slithering route along the famed Georgetown Loop where the railroad swings over itself in a canyon on the massive Devil’s Gate Viaduct to gain elevation. Here is where this escapade got a little interesting.

After the train made the first crossing of Clear Creek, it made the complete reverse curve as it continued its ascent on the north wall of the valley, steaming toward the towering 75-foot-high viaduct. At 11:40am the train crew and passengers noticed a rumbling. With the viaduct coming closer and closer, the engineer and fireman, scanned for the problem. The violently vibrating baggage car, behind the locomotive tender, now askew, had left the track, its wheel rolling over wooden ties and ballast rock. Within moments the train would scale the bridge. That errant car would likely take a good portion of the train off the bridge and plummet into the valley below. The engineer called for brakes. 

Rumbling Raiders

Over 1600 years earlier, a teenager heard a surprise rumble as well. That teen would later become the namesake for St. Patty’s Day, a holiday now inextricably tied to beer in popular consciousness. You may be disappointed to find out that while the holiday is now, for many, an Irish-connected beer fest, its origin has nothing to do with beer nor an Irishman.

Patrick, or Maeywn Succat as his parents named him, was neither an Irishman, nor did he chase snakes out of Ireland. Despite legends that today surround him, we know his actual story because he wrote it down in what is known as the Confession of St. Patrick. 

Patrick grew up a country boy in a Christian family in what is today England. He did not take the faith of his parents with much seriousness. He noted, “I did not then believe in the living God, not even when I was a child. In fact, I remained in death and unbelief until I was reproved strongly.” That reproof began with a frightening rumbling. At age 16, Irish raiders roared into his village and abducted many, including Patrick. The scared souls were then sailed to Ireland to be sold on the slave market. Patrick became a slave to an Irish pig and sheep farmer.

Disaster Averted

The passengers of the eight-car train lunged forward from their seats as the train came to a screeching halt. 

When the train finally ceased motion, it was so close to the towering bridge that the pilot stuck out onto trestle. 

Disaster had been averted. Had the derailed baggage car made it onto the bridge, it could have easily slid off of the side and pulled the engine and some of the coaches down the mountainside 75 feet below. 

What was the culprit of this nearly fatal accident? You guessed it: beer. 

The best conclusion the crew could come up with is that, as the train rounded the curve at the first creek crossing in the Loop, the 20 barrels of festive liquids shifted to one side, throwing the car off balance and, in time, off the track. The reasoning seems a bit odd. The train had to have been moving at a good clip to slide those barrels over. And even if that did happen, rail cars are designed to carry heavy loads. Whether the beer-barrel-accusation is accurate or not, it made for entertaining Denver Post journalism where the event hit the news.

Disaster Converted

In Ireland, Patrick’s disaster was not averted, but it was, in time, converted. The young slave, stripped from his homeland and family, fed pigs and worked for his master. In his loneliness he began to call out to the Jesus of his childhood even, according to Patrick, praying 100 times a day. He wrote, “the Lord opened up my awareness of my lack of faith. Even though it came about late, I recognised my failings. So I turned with all my heart to the Lord my God, and he looked down on my lowliness and had mercy on my youthful ignorance.” 

After six years of forced labor, one day he believed God told him to go to a ship waiting for him. He managed to escape and walk 200 miles to the coast where he boarded a ship sailing for his beloved homeland.

Frustratingly, the ship was blown off course and landed in an uninhabited area. As the crew and Patrick wandered, they ran out of food. At the request of the crew, Patrick prayed for sustenance, and they miraculously came upon a herd of wild pigs and survived. At last the ship set sail again and Patrick made it back to his shocked and overjoyed family in England.

Return Home

It took two hours to re-rail the baggage car on the cusp of the Loop high bridge, but the German vets got on their way at last. At the end of the C&S line in Silver Plume, the Argentine Central took over the C&S train with one of its Shay engines. The Argentine Central was a mining railroad also popular with summer tourists built using switchbacks to climb the side of a precipitous mountainside. The Argentine engine hauled the veterans to the top of the nearly fourteen-thousand-foot Mount McClellan offering stunning views of the surrounding valleys. 

After their brief visit, the party descended back down the mountain, rode the Loop back, and returned to Denver by starlight singing old German war songs through Clear Creek Canyon (and likely emptying those pesky 20 barrels). The Denver Post noted that the vets expressed “appreciation of the courtesy of the Argentine Central officials.” No praise for the C&S, though. Something tells me the beer incident might have spurred a few bad reviews.

While our vets, like Patrick, made it home safely, Patrick didn’t stay.

Return to Slavery

Patrick, now back home, studied to be a leader in the Jesus-following community of his home. This is where he picked up the name Patrick. Yet, he had recurring dreams, including one of an Irishman saying, “We beg you, holy boy, to come and walk again among us.” Despite resistance from both family and friends, he made the trip back to the land of his slavery, risking his life repeatedly against hostile pagan priests and Irish leaders. 

Like that trusty derailed C&S train that pressed on despite the setback, Patrick took the danger in stride and persisted in his calling, noting, “I am greatly in debt to God. He gave me such great grace, that through me, many people [in Ireland] should be born again in God and brought to full life… How has this happened in Ireland? Never before did they know of God except to serve idols and unclean things. But now, they have become the people of the Lord, and are called children of God.”

Patrick spent the rest of his life sharing the story of God coming to earth in the form of a man, Jesus, who offered reconnection with God and forgiveness for our failures through trust in His death and resurrection. Many Irish people responded to this message and found themselves filled up, not with beer, but with the love of Jesus the Savior.

Beer?

So, how did beer get attached to St. Patrick’s Day? Beats me. That’s for some other historian to figure out. It likely has something to do with the evolution of the Irish-American version of an ancient Irish holy day. But, one thing I do know is this: if you’re riding a train to the St. Patty’s Day parade, keep an eye on those sliding barrels when the train rounds a curve.