An eyewitness tale of riding the "Graveyard Run" in Clear Creek

In the June 1939 issue of Railroad Magazine a Burlington employee from South Dakota wrote an article describing a sad but historic ride he took on the Clear Creek Line. M.L. Hart saw a notice that the Colorado & Southern was going to abandon its narrow gauge line west of Idaho Springs including the Georgetown Loop. He asked and received permission to ride what he called the "Graveyard Run" on January 30th, 1939. 

Along the way, riding in the caboose and later a gondola of gravel, he chats with conductor Billy Maas who later pushes a caboose with his bare hands, interacts with famed railroad photographer Richard Kindig, watches the switching at Forks Creek, witnesses construction of Highway 6 in the canyon, and hears the annoyance of a workman in Empire complaining about the railroad's choice to cut the line farther east. Lastly, he takes a trip by car up to Georgetown just two months before the tracks will be torn up.

In the page below the author claims that the high bridge of the Georgetown Loop was originally built of wood. I've never heard that before. My guess is this is incorrect.

Thank you to Jim Reisdorff, publisher at South Platte Press, who graciously sent me any C&Sng articles that he came across while sifting through his old collection of Railroad Magazine. Jim is presently editing a book I wrote on C&Sng restorations.

Changes to Forks Creek 1870s to the present

The spot known as Forks Creek has changed many times over the years.

It went through numerous changes during railroad days, but also after the C&S abandoned the route in 1941.

Here are a few of the various looks of the spot when it served as the location of the railroad's diversion to Black Hawk and Central City and the other direction to Idaho Springs and Silver Plume.

The photo below show Forks Creek before the two segments were connected by the later wye track.

Forks Creek also saw changes after the railroad was torn up. Below is a Chris Walker photo of Forks Creek in 1982. You can see that the road from Idaho Springs at left crosses Clear Creek a bit farther downstream similar to the location of the railroad's ornate bridge.

Today's road alignment is different. The road from Idaho Springs now crosses both forks of Clear Creek at the location of the railroad's wye connection. A walking path now runs on the former rail and roadbed. This path does not cross the creek at this location like the railroad and road once did.

Finally, a while back I found a few "Then and Now" images of Forks Creek by someone who nailed the locations to a "T." Unfortunately, I don't recall who took the photos. I must give them credit because they took the risk of taking the shots from the road. So many railroad-era photos are taken from this side, but it is unfortunately difficult to access it on foot.

Forks Creek today (video)

My family and I had a chance to visit the site of Forks Creek for the first time. The trails in Clear Creek have made access to some of these areas very helpful. We parked our car near highway tunnel 5 and hiked the path which begins on the grade. The grade shortly after the start once crossed Clear Creek (the abutments are still there). We followed the trail around until we reached Forks Creek.

Most photos of the area in railroad times were taken from the water tank side, but the path is on the opposite bank. The only recognizable shape from C&S days is the rock/mountain between the divisions of Clear Creek. Using this, I attempted to match up a 1939 Jackson Thode photo of C&S 71 and two gondolas on the wye. The photo can be found in Tom and Denise Klinger's amazing book, Clear Creek District Memories and Then Some.

Enjoy!

Kurt

Below is Forks Creek today. We are walking roughly around the area where the section house and bridge to the other side once stood.

Below is a map showing Forks Creek today. It overlays the RR grade (solid line) and today's walking path (the dotted line).