Introduction
The railroads were life changing across North America in the early to mid 1800s, and sparked a new wave of settlers and commercial enterprises. They connected regions and towns, improved accessibility to the trade of goods and raw materials, and also enabled everyday citizens to travel more quickly and further than ever before. In Colorado, “[t]he impact of the railroads was immediate. They lowered the costs of everything, brought new mines and mining towns into being, and sparked booms in Denver and Pueblo, which became ever more important transportation and distribution centers for the mines and mining towns in the central Rockies.”[1]