Happy Easter! Born Again on the C&S

 In 1972, the song that would later become one of the state songs of Colorado, hit the airwaves. John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” was a biographical tune containing the lines, “He left yesterday behind him; you might say he was born again.”

Denver’s reference to “born again” was a tip of the hat to what came to be called the Jesus Movement, a generation of young, often long-haired hippies who eschewed both the sex and drugs culture of the 60s and 70s as well as the stodgy nominal church life of many of their parents. Instead, they discovered that to follow Jesus was a radical new life, akin to begin “born again,” a phrase Jesus Himself used when he explained to a seeker that eternal life is life that begins not in Heaven, but now, at the point of following Him.

On this Easter Sunday, when many of us celebrate that Jesus conquered death, making a way for us to be “born again,” it is a delight to see a symbol of this new life in a tiny railroad that has been experiencing many rebirths lately. It might be a stretch to call it a symbol, but I’d like to believe the Lord looks kindly on a our meager attempts to resurrect that which was lost.

One can't think of the C&S these days without considering the resurrection in Como. The Como depot, as just one example, was long dead not that long ago. The only thing left was to finally fall over in one of those characteristic South Park winds. 

But death was not the end-of-the-line for the depot. 

I took this photo in 2004 (with a superimposed image of a train at the same location in operation days). I never would have believed that this historic station would rise again. 

But here it is. Alive again. A foretaste of the Day when He will make all things new.

Happy Easter! He is risen!

I made the following video in 2018, so much, much more resurrection has happened since then, but it's still a great testimony to the hard work of the DSP&P Historical Society and the South Park Rail Society (and all the countless volunteers)

Check out my book Colorado & Southern Narrow Gauge Revival.