My oldest daughter, Mia, a senior in high school, got very interested in a Bible-based gap-year program based in Canon City, Colorado named Worldview at the Abbey. My wife and I loved the vision of the program and our daughter’s excitement about the possibility. Still, sending our oldest across the country by herself without having made a personal visit as parents first seemed a bit intimidating so we signed up for a preview weekend in October.
The main point of this trip was, of course, for me to check out the program with our daughter, but the chance to visit Colorado, even for a mere two and a half days set my mind ablaze with what C&S visits I could make! I got to work checking out the routes we could travel via the DSP&P Historical Society’s Google Earth overlay and corresponding with the ever-helpful Tom Klinger, co-author with his wife Denise of five stellar C&S books.
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| Map of ROW and new walking trail |
Because our flight was to arrive in Denver around 1pm on Thursday, we basically had Thursday afternoon and evening and Friday morning for C&S adventures before the Abbey preview weekend program began Friday afternoon in Canon City. Tom Klinger helped me work out an itinerary for my available time. This itinerary began with a visit the Colorado Railroad Museum Thursday afternoon and even a possible short hike on one of the new walking trails built partially on the old C&S line up Clear Creek Canyon. After this, the Klingers had graciously offered us dinner at their place in Wheat Ridge, just next to Golden. For Friday, our plans included getting to Canon City by the back route via Route 285 in Platte Canyon, as I had never been east of Kenosha in past Colorado visits.
Disappointingly, our first plans were blown off the track like a boxcar in the South Park when our plane to Denver was delayed a frustrating three hours. By the time we at last landed and got our rental car (which required another hour of waiting in line), we were at least glad we could visit with the Klingers whose hospitality and company were simply a delight. As I am in the process of writing a C&S book, it was a joy to hear Tom and Denise relate their completely unplanned foray into becoming authors after A.A. (Brownie) Anderson’s son shared his family photo albums with Tom and kept saying, “Tom, I want you to write a book.”
My daughter and I woke up Friday morning to a dreary day. On our way south to catch 285, there were times we could barely see the car in front of us through the fog. This was not an encouraging prospect for sight-seeing! When we later crested the mountains, the misty, foggy morning finally gave way little by little and the sun came out. Our sights were stunned to see the Rockies awash with a mix of deep green pine trees juxtaposed by stunning yellow aspen leaves. For us flat landers, it was an act of spontaneous praise to the Creator as we barked one “Woah!” and “look at that!” after another.
Due to our need to arrive in Canon City by 2:30pm, we had to make a few cuts or short visits along the way. I wanted to visit Pine to see the two gondolas on display, but since I could not figure out a way to get from Pine, which required a drive down Pine Valley Road off of the highway, to Bailey without backtracking to 285, we skipped it.
Bailey
With anticipation we entered South Park railroad country at last as 285 makes a sweeping right hand curve in the old town of Bailey. We pulled off to the left in the center of the curve. Helen McGraw-Tatum Memorial Park was easily visible straight ahead of us behind a shop bearing a William Jackson photo of a Mason Bogie and a coach near the Alpine Tunnel. The first sight to see was an old South Park railroad bridge across the North Fork of the South Platte River leading to a footpath.
We rolled over the gravel, parked on what was likely the South Park right-of-way, and walked over to a delightful small park dedicated to an adventurous woman who loved the history of this area. Helen McGraw-Tatum is known to many C&S fans for her film recording of C&S No. 9 hauling the last passenger train in April 1937.
Spanning the creek is the old Mill Gulch bridge from Platte Canon. We walked across the ornate bridge several times with it’s ornamental “Keystone Bridge” sign high up on top. A note in the November 1977 Rocky Mountain Rail Report gives a little background on the structure.
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| Mill Gulch Bridge |
THE HISTORIC MILL GULCH BRIDGE, or as it is now referred to, the Keystone Bridge, (it was built by the company of the same name) will have a new resting place near downtown Denver if all goes as planned. The Denver Water Board has offered to dismantle and move the old DSP&P bridge from the canyon, and reassemble it across the South Platte River near Denver's Mile High Stadium.
A permanent bridge is needed at the location to provide fans attending events at the stadium, a way in which to cross the river from certain parking areas. The Water Board has to replace the bridge in the canyon with a stronger one (which will use the same abutments) to allow movement of heavy construction equipment. It was the intention of the Board to disassemble the bridge anyway, and store it until a worthy recipient could be found. So it will now be preserved and used, although not in quite as picturesque a setting.
The bridge was taken apart in the summer of 1978. In the November Rocky Mountain Rail Report the following was explained, along with a new plan for the bridge’s use.
The Denver Water Department is in the process of widening the narrow gauge roadbed farther into the canyon, to permit access by heavy construction equipment, so the bridge had to be replaced. The large girders at the top were used to support the structure as it was carefully taken apart. They were then lowered onto the abutments to become the main supports for the new bridge. The old bridge is now in storage, and is to be given to the Forest Service, who has indicated it will be used near the Keystone Ski Area.
The bridge was never used in Denver or the Keystone Ski Area, but was instead put back together and placed in Bailey in 1985.
Glen Isle and Grousemont
Next, we visited the old Glen Isle way station to the left of the Keystone bridge. Originally located at the Glen Isle resort just a bit west of this spot, the open air station had been restored in 1994 by combining it with another way station from Grousemont. Inside, one can look up and see signatures of passengers who put their names here while waiting for trains. Unfortunately, it is a bit hard to decipher which are original as many recent visitors seem to have kept up the tradition of adding their names. Still, some are dated from the 1920’s and ‘30s.
From there we hopped back onto 285, now a two-lane highway and right on top of the former C&S roadbed. We passed Glen Isle where the old hotel with its rounded front, dating from railroad days, still stands on your left. Of many resort hotels along the South Platte River, it is the only one still standing and serving vacationers in the canyon.
Maddox
Our next marker was to look for Fitzsimmons Middle School and Platte Canyon High School on our right as a marker to remind us to look for the old Maddox Ice Pond on our left, where scores of C&S cars were loaded with ice on a siding that could accommodate 48 cars. Once we passed the school, we easily
identified the large square, man-made lake still glistening in the fall sunshine. We pulled off onto a left hand driveway and took some photos of the lake, and then ran across the street to a gated driveway. This path was a rutted dirt road which connected with the old right-of-way where it veered to the right away from 285, leading to a ranch called Mile High Anglers, a provider of guided fly fishing tours.
Cassells
We headed back on the road, this time with the roadbed on our right. It was hard to see traces of it, especially as the driver! We made two quick stops near what was called Cassells in early railroad days. The site once hosted a resort built and operated by the Cassells family and it also sported a siding large enough for five cars. In 1930 the property was sold and given to Catholic Charities and rechristened “Santa Maria,” a camp for underprivileged children. Today it is a YMCA camp, where one can still see the enormous, 55-foot tall 1930s-era statue of Jesus with outstretched hands named “Christ the King” on the side of a mountain rising above the North Fork of the South Platte. We made a quick stop to snap a photo of this at a turn off in the road.
We made another short stop in the Cassells area to find where the railroad’s roadbed crossed 285 from right to left. The ROW runs through a property on the right, passing a shed and then a house. The roadbed seems to be used today as the driveway. We photographed and filmed that, but when we crossed the highway, we were unable to find any roadbed traces easily visible from the road.
Grant
While I wanted to stop in Grant where a bridge that was part of the end of the wye is still in use for a road, I decided to skip it, knowing it was on private property, and I was not sure how close I could get.
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In part 2, I'll continue our trek onto Webster and over Kenosha Pass to the great South Park.
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