BOULDER’S MOUNTAIN RAILROADS

The stories of Boulder’s railroads are quite lengthy and complex. Over the decades different companies operated varying rail lines around the county. Because rail travel for both economic and recreational purposes affected a huge number of companies and individuals, the history of Boulder’s mountain railroads provided below is very brief. Due to its rich history there are a number of topics about the railroad that could be researched in more detail. Newspapers, diaries, and oral histories would be a great place to develop more personalized projects about what the railroad meant to those living along its route.

For additional reading about the companies and people of the Boulder’s mountain railroads, along with the death and rebirth of the trains after the 1894 flood, see Forest Crossen’s book The Switzerland Trail of America.

In 1873, fourteen years after the founding of Boulder, train service arrived in town by means of the Colorado Central, Denver and Boulder Valley railroad. While Boulder benefited from the trains, the mountain towns continued to rely on horse-drawn freight wagons to haul ore and supplies to and from Boulder.

Gold and silver booms quickly made Colorado the leading ore producer in the country bringing “railroad fever” to Boulder County in 1881. Work began on the county’s first narrow-gauge railroad, the Greeley, Salt Lake and Pacific (GSL&P) with a proposed route up Boulder Canyon, north along Four Mile Canyon to Salina, then west to Pennsylvania Gulch (later renamed Sunset). Plans stated that on the route up the trains would deliver coal to mining towns to replace the expensive wood burned in the mill boilers. Then on the return trip ore would be transported more cost-effectively down the mountains to the processing mills.

It took workers almost one year to grade the railroad bed up the canyons from Boulder to Sunset. Materials for building bridges and the tracks arrived in June of 1882 and in November the line’s first narrow-gauge engine arrived, but the tracks were not close to being ready. Waiting for the workers to lay track just in front of it, the engine gradually moved up the mountain. Five months later, almost two years after it began, the first train of the GSL&P traveled from Boulder to Pennsylvania Gulch (Salina) on April 6, 1883.

Noting the train’s increase in passengers, the small mining communities along the route quickly began catering to tourists, businessmen, and overnight visitors. Businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores, and boarding houses opened up near each station hoping to cash in on the train’s popularity. The following year the little rail line proved a success and there were hopes of the line continuing to Caribou, across the Continental Divide, and on to California, but those dreams were never realized.

Despite periodic train derailments and rumors of the line shutting down, the GSL&P continued its daily routes until the spring of 1894. After experiencing a snowy winter and enduring a wet spring, the mountains above Boulder could not accommodate the sixty hours of continuous rain. During the early morning of May 31 a wall of floodwater rushed down many of the canyons around Boulder, destroying nearly everything in its path, including the railroad tracks of the GSL&P up Four Mile Canyon.

Railroad activity in the canyons remained quiet until another gold mining boom in the mid 1890s. Once again railroad executives were inspired to look at Boulder’s canyons. It took four years before another train chugged up Four Mile Canyon, this time under the company name of Colorado and Northwestern (C&N). June 1898 marked the opening of the new railroad, with one exception, an additional 12.8 miles and nearly 2,000 feet in elevation to Ward. The C&N Company quickly adopted a Switzerland theme for their newspaper advertisements inviting the public to experience the “Switzerland of America.” Reaching Eldora in 1904 the “Switzerland Trail” was finally complete.

Once again becoming the key source of transportation for ore to the mills, the C&N trains also became a very popular tourist attraction. Chautauquans organized daily excursions into the mountains with routine stops at the Mount Alto pavilion for lunch, snowfields for summertime snowball fights, and upland meadows for wildflower picking. Railroad handcars for six people were also available for rental. Although a strenuous job, men took turns working the handcar up the tracks for the ultimate payoff of the fast coast down at the end of the day.

Even with the success of the Switzerland Trail’s tourism, the railroad faced financial challenges, and a 1907 railroad switchmen strike compounded what was already a difficult situation. During the strike a freight car filled with 2,400 pounds of dynamite was left at the freight depot at 10th and Water (Canyon) streets. A drunk and disgruntled striker set fire to some of the freight cars eventually causing the dynamite-filled car to explode, killing three men. The blast was so strong that it flattened the freight depot leaving a large crater, blew out many windows around town, and damaged near-by buildings.

Two years later continued financial pressure forced the Colorado and Western to reorganize as the Denver, Boulder, and Northwestern Railroad. For nearly ten more years the trains continued operations while company managers debated its fate. Despite a tungsten boom during the mid 1910s, discussions of shutting down the railroad were an ongoing process until the summer of 1919. A heavy July rainstorm caused a flash flood down Four Mile and Boulder Creeks, ripping up significant portions of tracks and bridges between Boulder and Crisman. The following month the company ordered the Switzerland Trail to permanently stop all operations and all rails to be scrapped. The Switzerland Trail would be no more.

For more information railroads check out:

Boulder County Railway Historical Society

Colorado Railroad Museum

National Railroad Museum

Railroad Maps
at American Memory/Library of Congress

Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum