Central Route

David Moffat was a wealthy Denver businessman who saw the need for a rail link between Denver and Salt Lake City. He funded the majority of the rail which went over the top of the Divide. This route over "The Top of The World" was an unbelievable feat for its day. It involved boring numerous tunnels through solid granite, as well as constructing precarious timbered trestles that bridged deep mountain gorges. The remains of the roadbed comprise most of the popular summer driving route called the Moffat Road. The Needle's Eye tunnel, along the Moffat Road has collapsed; therefore, this route does not provide a vehicle connection to Rollinsville, Colorado. The Moffat Tunnel, a 6.2 mile long tunnel beneath the Continental Divide, made the link to Salt Lake City possible. Although Moffat died before the tunnel was complete, it was his effort to provide the link that made the tunnel completion a reality. The west portal of the Moffat Tunnel can be seen from the Winter Park Resort.

Explore Fraser Colorado

ranby is located in Grand County in Middle Park and is at an elevation of approximately 8,000 feet. The town is surrounded by spectacular mountain scenery and is a recreation paradise. The population is approximately 1864. Denver, Colorado is a mere 80 miles away. The town was incorporated in 1905, and a new town hall was finished in February 2007. Our location is in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. It allows local residents and visitors to enjoy downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, gold-medal river and lake fishing, hunting, camping, hiking, biking, golfing, rafting, horseback riding and an array of other exciting outdoor activities. We invite you to come and share in our wonderful community!

Town of Granby Colorado

"A vice-president of the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors was riding in the cab of a Rio Grande diesel through this canyon in 1944," she explained. "The majestic scenery inspired him and challenged his inventive nature to provide for passengers the same unobstructed view he enjoyed from the locomotive cab." Cyrus R. Osborn, this man with a revolutionary idea, is said to have remarked at the time to the engineer that "a lot of people would pay five hundred dollars for the fireman's seat from Chicago to San Francisco if they knew what they could see from it." Accordingly, when Mr. Osborn arrived at his destination and was comfortably settled in Salt Lake's Hotel Utah, he sketched first drafts of upper-deck observa-tories. Thus the Vista-Dome was conceived. General Motors was enthusiastic about the idea and made it a part of their Train of Tomorrow, which toured the country in the late 1940's. The Burlington shared GM's excitement and built the Silver Dome in 1945. Within three months it was decided that the CZ, then in planning, would have domes.

Karl R. Zimmerman / The Story of the California Zephyr

Originally inhabited by nomadic Ute Indian tribes, this area of bubbling hot springs has long been a destination for the health seeker. In the early 1880’s, James Landis homesteaded the confluence of the Roaring Fork and Grand Rivers that would become Glenwood Springs. Early settlers Isaac Cooper and Walter Devereux saw the potential for Glenwood Springs to become a highly regarded destination and developed these amenities into a world-class resort. The arrival of the railroads in 1887 brought the first trainloads of tourists to enjoy all that Glenwood had to offer. The addition of the Vapor Caves, Hotel Colorado and Fairy Caves provided a total package for travelers. The local economy was not only fueled by tourism but also by coal mining, farming and ranching, commerce and outdoor recreation. A visit to historic Glenwood Springs will take guests back in time to enjoy all of the amenities that were formerly reserved for the well-to-do.

Glenwood Springs

he present Glenwood Springs depot officially opened on June 18, 1904 and was built by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW). It replaced an earlier, smaller structure located approximately three blocks west at the north end of Pitkin Avenue. The D&RGW began service to the young community in late 1887 and advertised its route through Glenwood Canyon as the “Scenic Line of the World.” Stretching for approximately 13 miles and with walls as high as 1,300 feet, the canyon is a famed natural wonder.

The Romanesque Revival style depot exhibits aesthetic similarities to the Hot Springs Lodge on the north shore of the Colorado River. Constructed of Frying Pan River red sandstone and reddish-brown brick, it has a prominent jerkinhead cross gable flanked by medieval-inspired towers sporting pyramidal roofs. Passengers entering from 7th Street descend an elegant staircase leading to the ticket office. From this lobby area, great arched openings originally led to two waiting rooms – one for women and children on the east side and one for men to the west. The far ends of the building housed the express office and baggage room. Interior spaces still feature rich wood wainscot on the lowest third of the walls. Through various restorations, most recently in 1990, architects restored the depot’s original tile roofing and retained the long oak benches.

Glenwood Springs was first settled by James Landis in 1879, and was platted and incorporated on August 25, 1885. With the completion of the first class Hotel Colorado and the growing fame of the town’s warm mineral springs, the community established itself as a resort destination. For centuries, the Ute people had used the springs for therapeutic and ceremonial purposes.

The Glenwood Hot Springs Pool remains the largest natural hot springs pool in the world, and has drawn visitors including presidents William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. John Henry “Doc” Holliday, the infamous gunslinger, is buried in Glenwood Springs. The town is also a gateway to the popular Aspen ski area, 40 miles to the south.

Great American Stations

he Denver & Rio Grande Railroad’s original wooden depot was constructed on the corner of Seventh Street and Pitkin Avenue in 1887. Although adequate to handle the passenger traffic of the day, this small depot did not provide travelers with a good first impression of the elegant resort and health spa that was Glenwood Springs. Citizens demanded a new train station be built. However, the poor economic conditions combined with some public resistance to the idea postponed the depot’s replacement until 1903.

As the gateway to Glenwood Springs, the depot through its architectural design and construction materials complemented the architectures of the Hotel Colorado and of the stone bath house at the Glenwood Hot Springs Pool. The new Denver and Rio Grande train station experienced its first mass arrivals and departures of visitors on Strawberry Day, June 1904. From that moment on, the depot has directed the comings and goings of numerous passenger, military and ski trains. The depot has also welcomed the “Red Express“ of Socialist Eugene V. Debs in 1908; presidential train of William Taft in 1909; train of spiritual leader Abdul’-l-Baha in 1912; and provided a whistle stop platform for President Harry Truman in 1948 and 1952.

Today, AMTRAK passengers arrive and depart Glenwood Springs through the depot that architecturally has remained unchanged from its construction of one hundred years ago.

Glenwood Springs Historical Society

o the northeast, the weathered Little Bookcliffs cut across the skyline. To the southeast soars the Grand Mesa, the world's largest flat-topped mountain. The photogenic canyons and monoliths of the Colorado National Monument form a western wall. In between the three natural barriers sprawls Grand Junction. Cut out of the rugged terrain by the Colorado and Gunnison rivers, the valley was also one of the last locales in the lower 48 states to be settled by pioneer Americans.

Until 1821, the Grand Junction area was part of the kingdom of Spain. And during the early and mid 1700's, hardy Spanish and Mexican soldiers, explorers and priests poked and prodded through the region. Some were looking for gold, others seeking new trails to Spanish California. Most were not too successful.

At first, trail-blazing American mountain men weren't very successful either. Hoping to trap valuable beaver or trade with Ute Indians, most of the Americans were kept out of the territory by jealous Spanish officials. However, when Western Colorado became part of Mexico in 1821, the mountains were suddenly wide open to trappers, traders and wandering buck-skinners of the U.S.

A few of the same mountain men to first see Colorado's Western Slope later helped guide U.S. Army expeditions and Government Surveying parties through the region. Some of the Old West's best known explorers - Kit Carson, John Charles Fremont and Capt. John Gunnison - all passed through the Grand Junction area in the 1840's and 1850's.

In spite of anti-Indian politicians, a large part of Western Colorado remained Ute Indian Territory until September 1881. The region was opened to homesteaders, ranchers and town builders the very day the Utes were being forced out by Army troopers. By the time Kansas politician and real estate developer George Crawford decided the unclaimed Grand Junction area would make a good town site, Denver, Colorado already had a population of 50,000. And Grand Junction, Colorado was just being born!

Grand Junction, Colorado

rand Junction is named for its location at the junction of the Gunnison and Colorado Rivers. The Colorado River, originally known as the Grand River, gives the city the other part of its name. Originally inhabited by the Ute Indians, farmers began to settle the area in the 1880s. For it initial 80 years, the town subsisted mainly on farming and cattle, though it was rumored to sit near large oil deposits. With the oil embargoes of the 1960s, the city was made a center of the oil industry and profited throughout the next two decades due to rising oil costs and the business in oil shale.

The current station, originally built in the 1970s as a restaurant, is constructed of cinder blocks and wood. In the late 2000s, building owner Geoff Leany undertook renovations that included replacing sections of flooring; improving bathrooms; applying stucco to the back wall; mounting new railings; and installing granite countertops at the ticket counter.

In 1992, Amtrak moved out of the adjacent historic station due to its continued deterioration. Designed in the French Renaissance style and constructed of buff brick with terracotta detailing, the older depot opened in 1906 under the ownership of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the historic station changed hands numerous times, but none of the owners were able to raise enough funds for a full rehabilitation. In 2009, a local bank foreclosed on the property. In response, a group of civic advocates and preservationists formed the “Friends of the Grand Junction Depot” to promote restoration and reuse of the building. While the station was under bank ownership, the Friends helped repair holes in the roof, held open houses so that the public could view the interior, and hired a landscape architecture student to prepare a study of the depot to explore how it could be better integrated into the downtown.

Most importantly, the Friends assisted the city and the Grand Junction Development Authority in winning two important grants: $10,000 from the Colorado Historic Society for a structural feasibility study and $135,000 from the Colorado Historic Fund for the rehabilitation of the station exterior. When taking into account local matches, the total potential investment amounted to $285,000, but a committed developer was needed in order for rehabilitation work to move forward. In October 2011, the former station was purchased by Grand Junction Railroad, Inc., which plans to eventually renovate the structure although a timeline has not been set.

Great American Stations