The Rail Lines
The DSP&P railway was founded in 1872 by Colorado Governor John Evans hoping to capitalize on the mining settlements that had sprung up throughout the Colorado mountain towns and needed to be connected to Denver. DSP&P was later reorganized as the Denver, Leadville, Gunnison line of Union Pacific Railway, and stayed in operation until 1937.[1]
Constructing the rail lines through the mountain terrain of Colorado was an exceptional engineering triumph, but challenges and setbacks were constant, and the railroads struggled to remain financially stable.
“The DSP&P railway was built with narrow gauge tracks that were easier to construct with the tight turns and narrow passageways in the mountainous terrain because the tracks were 3 feet apart, compared to the standard gauge’s 4 feet, 8.5 inches apart.”[2] In the spring of 1879, the DSP&P completed the lines over Kenosha Pass (10,000 ft.) and into Park County, with Como being the central depot. From Como there were two branches. One line traversed the Boreas and Fremont Passes (both over 11,000 ft.) and were routed to Leadville. The second line continued on to the town of Garo and through the Alpine Tunnel (over 11,500 ft.) towards Gunnison.
At 11,524 feet the Alpine tunnel was the highest railroad tunnel in the world, and was both a marvel and an expensive challenge for the DSP&P. The tunnel was constructed between 1880 and 1882, underneath the Continental Divide, connecting South Park to Gunnison. It was a massive structure equal to the size of six football fields! Due to its size, the tunnel had consistant issues including cave-ins, runaway trains and derailments. DSP&P went bankrupt in 1893 in part due to the high costs of construction and severe weather conditions begetting inefficient operations. The company was then reorganized as the Denver, Leadville and Gunnison Railway Company under Union Pacific Railway, but the Alpine Tunnel continued to be problematic, eventually leading its closure in 1890.
The tunnel was later dug out and re-opened in 1895, and “[the railroad] tried to make the tunnel work - both in terms of keeping it open from the forces of nature and in terms of finding enough traffic to justify its existence. Fate wasn't on their side, however. The repairs following a small cave-in in 1905 caused the death of four men, asphyxiated from locomotive exhaust while trying to syphon water out from behind the rock fall.”[3]
DSP&P primarily exported ore and coal out of the county. In exchange, the railway would deliver mining machinery and everyday living supplies for miners and their families. Trains also began transporting hay and livestock (mostly sheep and cattle) for grazing in South Park during the summer.[4]
There was one other prominent railway in Park County called the Colorado Midland Railroad founded in 1883. Four years later in 1887, this line was the first to travel from Colorado Springs to Leadville, stopping in South Park along the way.[5] Much like the DSP&P, this line also had trouble remaining financially viable and was bought and sold multiple times until it finally ceased operations in 1918.