Climbing the Mountains on the Colorado Midland

By Arlene Lanman

It was February 6, 1949 when the last passenger train ran on the historic Midland Terminal. The train was filled to capacity – 169 passengers. One could not have asked for a better day. A bright sun shone down out of an almost cloudless sky making perfect visibility for photographs. One would never forget the people along the line who waved at the passengers while taking a final look at "their train." Or the many motorists who paced the train on the adjoining highway (US-24 and SH 61).

I have no recollection of this memorial event; I was three years old. What I do remember is that our home in Old Colorado City was less than three blocks from the abandoned railroad bed and five blocks from the abandoned roundhouse and machine shop. As youth, we "toured" the inside of the abandoned buildings and walked the "line" to nearly the town of Cascade, over the "double-dare" Crystal Park Trestle/Viaduct (93x19 Frame, 151x46 Frame, 64x46 Deck Girder, 95x18 Pile) and through the eight tunnels in Ute Pass. The remainder of the "line" was viewed from my parent's car; they, too, where remembering their past.

As a structural engineer, I have been captivated by the many engineering feats accomplished by the Colorado Midland design engineers. Over the last several months I have studied and visited many of the railroad sites and, in doing so, I recall things that I knew and many things that I did not know were revealed by my study. My emphasis was to tell the story from an Chief Design Engineer's perspective and to learn why the train stopped at the many towns along the way – what were the people doing there and how did the stops get their names – this was a fascinating step into the past and early history of Colorado as a Territory and then as a State. The quest was to answer my many questions, including:

• Why the CM started with Palmer & the Kansas Pacific

• Why Colorado City was chosen as a Division hub

• Why J.J. Hagerman had a grudge against Palmer and the D&RG

• Why the CM committed the railroad equivalent of "claim-jumping"

• What station was named after a political cartoonist

• What was behind the major search for coal (Jerome Park, Coal Basin, South Canyon, New Castle) and why each of three mines in Jerome Park produced a different grades of coal

• How did the stations get their names - station history

• Who was Samuel S. Sands, why was a station named in his honor, why did S.S. Sands Company buy all of the Collateral Trust Notes in 1891, essentially owning the CM for a short period of time

• What part did the Grand River Coal and Coke, and the CF&I play - who was Charles Osgood

• Why the Midland was called the "Cattlemen's Railroad"

• Why the CM hauled load after load of gold ore and how the gold ore was processed at both the Mine and in Colorado City

• Why the D&RG seemed to always get the better route for their railbed

• Why were J.J. Hill (Great Northern and Northern Pacific, as well as the Chicago Burlington and Quincy) and Henry Thumbull (Consolidator/Receiver for the Union Pacific Denver & Gulf and the Leadville & Gunnison) interested in the Colorado Midland (and the D&RG/D&RGW)

• Who were the primary players

• Who was supported by the Colorado Midland

• Who were the competition

• Which CM President inadvertently built a haunted house - the inspiration for the "Changeling"

• Why did the CM go to Aspen and took the "hard way"

• What part did Rathbone & Brothers Co. of Liverpool & London play in the routes to Glenwood Springs and Aspen

• What bankrupted Jerome Wheeler and what saved J.J. Hagerman

• What indirect part did the Gould's play in the ownership changes – who was really "pulling the strings"

• Why are there many locations named "Hayden"

• Who was Henry Wigglesworth and what did he do

• How was the route chosen - who said to cross the Continental Divide more than once

• What was Carlton's plan, in May of 1917, to extent the line to Salt Lake City to connect with the UP; a plan preempted by the US

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098383008

Book preview

PART 1 – THE COLORADO MIDLAND & THE ASPEN SHORTLINE

ARTICLE 1

THE STORY OF THE COLORADO MIDLAND BEGINS WITH TWO PARALLEL PATHS THEN CONNECTED BY J.J. HAGERMAN

FIRST IS WILLIAM JACKSON PALMER - In 1853, at age 17, William Jackson Palmer went to work for a railroad building company working near Washington, Pennsylvania, on a line to Pittsburgh. He was sent to England and France to study railroad engineering and mining. Upon his return, in 1856, Palmer went to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), where he rose to the position of Private Secretary to PRR President John Edgar Thomson. With the PRR, Palmer was exposed to the inner workings of the railroad empire and learned the state of the art of railroading in general. Young Palmer explained to Thomson that, from his observations in England, coal could replace wood as the railroad's fuel source.

Palmer’s railroad career was interrupted by the American Civil War (1861–65). He served in colorful fashion as a Union Army colonel and was appointed to the grade of brigadier general. Palmer survived a stint in the notorious Castle Thunder Confederate prison in 1862. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1869.

After the Civil War, Palmer was hired (1867) by the Union Pacific Railway Eastern Division, (formerly the Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western), founded in 1855, but never any construction and became the UPED UP Eastern Division) in 1863 - soon known as the Kansas Pacific Railroad (KP) in 1869 and then controlled by Jay Gould in 1874 before being incorporated into the Union Pacific in Feb 1880. While at the KP, Palmer was a surveyor in 1867 and explored the area south of Denver searching for possible railroad routes for the Kansas Pacific to strategically occupy. The surveys including routing the Kansas Pacific from Kansas City to Pueblo with a spur northward to Denver, staying a few days in Colorado City (founded 1859). It was during this period that he fell in love with the Pikes Peak region. However, the Kansas Pacific chose a route from Kansas City to the mouth of the Kaw River and then directly to Denver instead of Pueblo. Later, he became the construction manager for the Kansas Pacific.

With the change in routing by the Kansas Pacific and after Palmer pushed rail to Denver (the Kansas Pacific reached Denver on August 15, 1870), Palmer wrote a letter to his future wife (Queen Mellon) that his dream was to form his own rail company to extend south from Denver along the Front Range, eventually reaching Mexico City Palmer’s Denver & Rio Grande Railway Company was founded on October 27, 1870. Construction of the first section of the D&RG began in 1871; the new railroad was known as the Baby Road, due to its used of narrow gauge construction. The fledging railroad obtained a 200-foot right-of-way and 20 acres of land every 10 miles for watering stations through federal land grants.

The D&RG reached Milepost 74.9 on October 21, 1871; this was the watering station that would become Colorado Springs. The purchase of the town site of Colorado Springs occurred as part of Palmer’s plans for a railroad and a grand estate for his associates. Land acquisition was to be financed with U.S. Government Agriculture Script, which was a financial device used by the federal government to aid in the development of agricultural colleges. Some States, which contained substantial amounts of federal land, were given grants by Washington, D.C. then were sold to raise needed capital to establish the schools. States lacking surplus federal land received script that they could sell for cash to individuals. Individuals could then use the script to purchase unoccupied federal land. The desirability of this method was that the script was so plentiful that it was sold at discount. Howbert was the County Clerk (EL Paso County) at that time, assisted Palmer’s partner, A. Cameron Hunt, then the ex-Governor of Colorado, in assembling the town site purchase. Roughly 10,500 acres were obtained in this fashion.

In addition, Palmer and Dr. Bell, Palmer’s associate, envisioned a resort destination at the mineral springs at Manitou, which was founded by Dr. Bell. The first hotel, the Manitou House, was built in 1872. The building of Manitou and Colorado Springs was interrupted by the silver panic of 1873. A narrow gauge spur of the D&RG was constructed in 1880 between Colorado Springs & Manitou, later 3-rail, and then Standard Gauge.

Palmer became involved with the Rush to Leadville due to the metals found there. In 1867, Georgetown & Clear Creek County passed a bond issue ($200,000) to aid in the construction of the Denver, Georgetown & Utah. Other counties (Arapahoe, Jefferson, Gilpin, Boulder, Weld, Larimer) also passed bond issues in varying amounts and various restrictions for various railroad construction projects that benefited their County. For the Arapahoe bonds, Gov. Evans, with a suspicion that Loveland and his railroad associates attached a provision that the line must follow down the east side of the Platte River directly to Denver. The Bond expired without the road being built. The line from Denver to Colorado Springs opened for members of the press on October 26 and 27, 1871. The Colorado Springs Union Depot was built in 1887 and served the Rio Grande, Rock Island, and the Colorado Midland.

In 1873, John Evans proposed, with support of the Denver Board of Trade, to transfer the bond to DSP&P, but the bond money would be needed before the DSP&P was built. This was opposed by William J Palmer of D&RG, who would build through Platte Canyon and would not accept any bond money until construction was complete. But this would shift profits from the road away from Denver. If D&RG won, DSP&P would be blocked.

A newspaper campaign and political maneuvering followed by both John Evans and Palmer.

Right before the County Commissioners were to vote, John Evans published, in the Denver News, a survey map with the below description, a plan which Palmer had stated he had no plan to build west from the north- south line of the D&RG (Denver to Mexico City). This release turned the commissioner’s vote to the DSP&P.

The survey listed that the road was to be known as the Pikes Peak & Salt Lake Railroad (perhaps, one will see the similarity to the then future Colorado Midland):

Commencing at a point not to extend one mile from the junction of Cascade and Pikes Peak Avenue in the town of Colorado Springs, and running from thence up the valley of Fountain Creek, thence in a generally westerly direction to the Platte River, thence up the valley of the Platte to the town of Fairplay, thence through Hamilton or other suitable pass and across the Snowy Range to the headwaters of the Blue River, etc. ….

Palmer envisioned an integrated industrial complex based on steel manufacturing in which all necessary resources were controlled by one company.[ In 1879, as Palmer's railroads were expanding, he noted the demand for steel for rails was high in Colorado. This prompted him to construct Colorado Coal and Iron Company's steel mill south of Pueblo.

His dream became a reality when, in 1892, CC&I merged with the Colorado Fuel Company to form Colorado Fuel and Iron, but CF&I was not the source of CM rail due to the competition between D&RG and the CM, but it was the source of rail for many, many others.

Leadership in rail industry of Colorado Springs in the next decade passed to Irving Howbert and Benjamin Crowell, and later J.J. Hagerman with the construction of the Colorado Midland Railroad. Contemplated by both Howbert and Crowell in 1883 to access the silver mines in Aspen while Palmer’s railroad was busy attempting to survive the stock manipulations of Wall Street magnate Jay Gould, little was done until Hagerman developed an interest in 1885. Hagerman enlisted the assistance and money of Jerome Wheeler and other Aspen investors to build the first standard gauge railroad across the Colorado Continental Divide.

HOMER FISHER - Homer D Fisher (1846-1890), a Chicago lumberman, came to Colorado for health reasons. He was about 32 years old in 1878. In an 1880 census he listed his first name as ‘Heymer’. He became the private secretary of Dr. William A. Bell, a homeopathic doctor from England who was the founder of Manitou Springs. Dr. Bell and his friend, General William J. Palmer, Colorado Springs founder, were also joint owners of Manitou Park, a resort area about ten miles north of present-day Woodland Park.

Massive fires in the 1860’s, devastated the forest areas between Denver and Canyon City, causing Dr. Bell and General Palmer to venture up Ute Pass to find good trees for limber to build their cities. They purchased 26,000 acres from the Government in 1870, where Dr. Bell established the Manitou Park resort and fish hatchery. Fisher was made the general manager of the logging operations for Dr. Bell, providing lumber for the building of Manitou and Colorado Springs.

In 1880, Fisher borrowed discarded narrow gauge rail and a small Baldwin engine (a 0-6-0 Engine No. 5, built in 1871) from General Palmer and built an 8-mile railroad from Manitou Park to a sawmill north of Crystola – since this road was never named, it became known as the No Name Railroad. Eventually the sawmill had a capacity of 70,000 board feet of lumber a day, using two shifts.

Lumber was hauled by wagon from the sawmill to a transfer station at Crystola. At Crystola, different mule teams were hitched to the wagons for the haul down Ute Pass to Manitou and Colorado Springs.

Lumber operations in the area were sharply curtailed after 1892 when a timber reserve was created by the U.S. Government to halt the devastation of the watershed.

ORIGINAL UTE TRAIL – The trail is one of the oldest migratory routes in the U.S., dating back 10,000 years ago. Ute Indians used the trail to travel to rich hunting grounds in South Park, trade with other tribes, and for spiritual pilgrimages to the sacred Manitou Springs.

Part of the original Ute Indian Trail exists today. This portion of the trail begins near the base of the Manitou Incline, and your footsteps may fall on the exact spots where Ute Indians once tread.

The original trail ran along the north side of Pikes Peak and is believed to have first been a buffalo trail that delivered buffalo from the milder winter pastures of the eastern plains to the lush, grassy" meadows of South Park, Colorado during the summer months. Joel Palmer wrote in his 1847 Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains: These (buffalo) paths are remarkable in their appearance, being about 15 inches wide, and four inches deep, and worn into the soil as smoothly as they could be cut with a spade.

Ute trail became a wagon road in the 1860s providing transport to Leadville mining camp.

One of the first toll roads into the gold fields was the Apex and Gregory Road, constructed in the winter of 1859-60, which lead to the gold fields of Black Hawk and Central City. The second toll road was the Denver, Auraria, and South Park Road and then proceeded into the mountains. The toll from this road as $1.50, equivalent to the wages from a day and a half of work for the average man.

Ute Pass Trail into South Park therefore became the favored route for prospectors headed for the gold camps primarily due to the other two main roads into the gold fields were toll roads. Ute Pass Trail was very difficult and at the time, and most supplies had to be packed on a mule. Gold seekers had to leave their wagons and teams in Colorado City, then buy mules and supplies before heading up the pass to the goldfields. As a result, Colorado City experienced an economic boom. Gold strikes in Colorado’s central mountains netted between 50,000 to 70,000 prospectors along the Ute Trail in 1859 alone.

In the summer of 1860, the Colorado City Town Company appointed Mr. Bott to build a new wagon road. He was asked to build the road as straight as possible, as it took as many as twenty yoke oxen to pull a single wagon over sections of the original Ute Trail. In the fall of 1860, Governor Denver of the Kansas Territory (which included Colorado) decreed that Ute Pass would also be a toll road. A cabin and toll gate were built (some reported it was staffed by the famous Uncle Dick Wotten) and travelers were charged one dollar per team. The citizens of Colorado City were enraged and a group of vigilantes soon ran the would-be toll keepers out of town. Colorado pioneer Irving Howbart and his father improved the road in 1861 and named the route Ute Pass Wagon Road.

The Ute Pass Wagon Road was narrow and the traffic was so heavy that only west bound horses and wagons were allowed out of Colorado Springs up until noon each day, when the directions were reversed. It was estimated that 12,000 horses and mules transported freight through the pass to the gold fields each year.

In addition to the use as a freight road, the Ute Pass Wagon Road was also heavily used by stagecoaches. There were at least three coaches each week that traveled the road from Colorado Springs to Fairplay in the 1870s. Among the companies operating their stage lines were the McLaughlin’s, the South Park Stage Company (Spotswood and McClelland’s) and Wells Fargo and Company. Stage stops for these lines were located twelve to fifteen miles apart to allow for changes of horses. (The stage stations also served as polling places during elections).

A new wagon road was built in 1872 that bypassed much of the original Ute Trail for the first 13 miles. The reroute started at the northwest end of Manitou Springs, near Rainbow Falls (0.3 miles up Serpentine Road). If you proceeded to Rainbow Falls, one can view the original road cut into the cliff face. The traffic on the original Ute Trail declined precipitously when the reroute was completed. When the DSP&P reached Leadville in 1880, the Ute Pass Wagon Road traffic was virtually nil, except for lumber transport and local traffic. With this change of events, Homer Fisher saw an opportunity to use the Ute Pass Wagon Road as a railroad bed.

ARTICLE 2

VERY BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE COLORADO MIDLAND

Before delving into the political, financial, and construction details that formed the railroad, it might be best to start with a very brief overview.

The last railroad to penetrate the central mountains, the Colorado Midland Railway, was a relative latecomer onto the railroad scene, but unlike the earlier Denver & Rio Grande and Denver, South Park & Pacific, the Midland was a standard gauge railroad.

Organized in November 1883 by a group of Denver and Colorado Springs businessmen, the Midland Railway envisioned a line linking Colorado Springs with Leadville and Aspen. The Midland’s incorporators reasoned its broader gauge would give it an operational advantage over its narrow gauge competitors in securing a share of freight traffic from eastern points, which also used standard gauge. Construction on the line did not occur until mining magnate James J. Hagerman became involved with the project in 1885. Hagerman had made a fortune in northern Michigan iron ore and came to Colorado Springs for his health. He invested in silver mines near Aspen and coal deposits near Glenwood Springs, and the Midland’s projected route coincided with his property interests. Hagerman became president of the Midland in June 1885 and raised $1.3 million in eastern capital in early 1886.

In 1886, construction started on the Colorado Midland, including work on the difficult Hagerman Tunnel under the Continental Divide west of Leadville and on grading and track laying activities between Colorado Springs and Leadville. The route of the Midland extended west from Colorado Springs over Ute Pass, up Eleven Mile Canyon, into South Park, and then over Trout Creek Pass. The Midland crossed over the tracks of the Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad on an iron bridge just prior to Hill Top at the summit.

Descending into the Upper Arkansas Valley, the Midland’s route paralleled the Denver & Rio Grande northward, with the line reaching Buena Vista in late July 1887. The narrowness of the canyon north of Buena Vista prevented laying a line adjacent to that of the D&RG and necessitated a series of short tunnels to carry the Midland tracks. The Colorado Midland began service to Leadville in late August 1887. The railroad completed the Hagerman Tunnel in June 1887, and service to Glenwood Springs began in December 1887, followed by the opening of a branch to Aspen in February 1888 and an extension to New Castle that October.

The 2,161 foot-long Hagerman Tunnel, built at an elevation of 11,528 feet, was regarded as one of the world’s greatest feats of railroad engineering.

Freight operations, particularly the shipping of mining equipment and supplies to Leadville and the transport of Leadville ores to Denver and Pueblo, were important components of the Midland’s traffic. The line also carried large amounts of coal from Jerome Park and New Castle and coke from Cardiff. Midland trains also hauled hay, livestock, and ice. The Midland developed an important business transporting livestock, Thanks to vigorous solicitation by traffic men, plus fast, yet careful handling of stock trains, the Midland quickly became known as a ‘stockmen’s railroad.

The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad purchased the Colorado Midland Railway in September 1890, and the line’s name was changed to the Colorado Midland Railroad. Faced with continuing financial problems, the

Midland went into receivership in February 1894 and was sold at foreclosure in September 1897 to a bondholders committee. The line was reorganized as the Colorado Midland Railway and continued operating.

Control of the Colorado Midland passed to a Colorado & Southern and Rio Grande Western syndicate in July 1900. The Midland, which had been in financial difficulty since the 1890s, was again placed in receivership in 1912 and sold in foreclosure in 1917.

The U.S. Railroad Administration, which operated the nation’s railroads during World War I, rerouted all traffic on the Colorado Midland to the Rio Grande in May 1918 and ceased all Midland operations in August. The railroad’s lines west of Divide were abandoned in 1919 and dismantled in 1921.

Colorado Midland Where it Went

Colorado Midland Grade Profile

Map and Profile copied from August 1957 Trains Magazine - The Colorado Midland Story by Morris Cafky.

Despite the heavy grades, the numerous trestles, bridges, iron viaducts, rock cuts, fills, and sidehill construction, this was the easier route of those surveyed – the route chosen had over 250 trestles, bridges, viaducts, and notable fills, excluding the Midland Terminal and the Rio Grande Junction Railway. It was like building a roller coaster over the mountains, through the forests and across the valleys.

Largest metal structure on CM was the Maroon Creek Viaduct on Aspen Branch – 90 ft. high, 651 ft. long.

Numerous Timber Truss Bridges

Numerous Hillside / Shelf cuts

18 tunnels were constructed along the line

ARTICLE 3

ADMINISTRATIVE DESCRCRIPTION of the MIDLAND

COLORADO MIDLAND RAILWAY COMPANY - It is said that Homer Fisher came up with the idea of building a standard gauge railroad that would follow the 1872’s wagon road up through Ute Pass into Hayden Divide, across South Park into Leadville and then over the Continental Divide.

The Author believes when Fisher was the Private Secretary to Dr. Bell, Dr. Bell was the catalyst that brought Palmer’s idea to route a railroad up Ute Trail (Palmer’s idea occurred circa 1873) and arranged for the Baldwin 0-6-0 to haul lumber from Manitou Park to Crystola.

Colorado Midland Incorporated Nov. 23, 1883, Fisher took the first steps toward turning his dream into a reality when the Articles of Incorporation for the Colorado Midland Railway Company were filed with the Secretary of State’s office.

1884 - Articles of Incorporation Amended to Build Branches to Aspen, Fairplay, Alma and the western border of Colorado through Hagerman Tunnel.

CMRR – The Years Before Hagerman - The railroad would remain just an idea on paper for the next two years, despite the Amendments made in 1884, due to lack of funding, even though the Capital Stock was listed at $2,500,000. Finally, Capital Stock was purchased in the summer of 1885 with the election of James J. Hagerman, as President.

However, it seems that just maybe part of the driving force to form the Colorado Midland Railway was that the Fisher/Bell believed that their sawmill would provide the needed ties, at a profit.

Midland Construction Company Incorporated July 10. 1885 to build the railroad, Fisher and some associates (Irving Howbert and Henry T. Rogers – the three were the listed Directors) resigned from the Colorado Midland to run the construction company; Article of Incorporation was filed July 10, 1885. Fisher was the first President. Fisher died in 1890 at the age (about) of 44 - perhaps, due to consumption, the illness that first brought Fisher to Colorado.

Colorado Midland Construction Company - An agreement was signed 24 June 1887 between the Colorado Midland Construction Company and the Colorado Midland Railway Company to:

•Construct the mainline from Section 103 to Leadville and to complete this work prior to 1 Oct 1887.

•Furnish six Consolidations, eight Ten Wheel Engines, Three 6-Wheel Engines, and one Switch Engine.

•Furnish 210 flat cars, 175 box cars, 10 coal cars, 25 stock cars, and six caboose cars.

•Furnish 22 Passenger Cars, one Combination Car and Baggage, six Baggage Cars, and two Suburban Cars.

•All to be paid by Certificates of Capital Stock paid through Frederick D Tappen, New York Trustee and distributed upon written demand of the Midland Construction Company.

The first President of the Colorado Midland Construction Company was H.D. Fisher. Other officers were, also, Capital Stock Holders of the Colorado Midland Railway. The CM Construction Company officers had resigned their Board positions with the Colorado Midland Railway Co. prior to becoming officers of the Colorado Midland Construction Company

An Agreement of Settlement between the Colorado Midland Railway and the Colorado Midland Construction Company occurred 31 Dec 1887.

1885 –

•In June 1885, Hagerman gained control of the Colorado Midland Railway.

•At the invitation of J.J. Hagerman, Jerome Wheeler invested in the Colorado Midland Railway and in 1885 became a director of the organization. Wheeler brought the monies needed for future growth and placed emphasis of having the CM service his productive mines in Aspen and Leadville, Within Aspen, Wheeler purchased mines and built a tramway to bring ore down the mountain where it was processed in a smelter he built at the base of the mountain. The smelter was owned by the Aspen Smelting Company. Wheeler was president of the Croseus Gold Mining and Milling Company.

1886 –

•Leadville was served only by two narrow gauge carriers - the Denver & Rio Grande and the Denver, South Park & Pacific. The D&RG only had service to Leadville via its circuitous narrow gauge Royal Gorge Route. The DSP&P had an even longer and far more difficult route, reaching Leadville via the South Platte Route over Kenosha Pass, then over Boreas Pass into Frisco, and finally over Fremont Pass into Leadville. A standard gauge railway could haul much more, and could interchange cars with the rest of the US rail system without transloading. The idea of standard gauge competition so scared the two incumbents that they immediately doubled their rates on shipping rail to Leadville.

•Seeing the stranglehold that Jay Gould's railroads had on Leadville (the D&RG was directly controlled, whereas the DSP&P was owned by Union Pacific, which in turn was controlled by Gould), Eastern financiers were convinced to step in and immediately fund the connection with Colorado Springs and thus the direct connection with the standard gauge US rail system.

•The first construction contract was let in April of 1886 to begin construction of the grade over the Continental Divide at Hagerman Pass via the Hagerman Tunnel but it did not last long since the Denver & Rio Grande and the Denver, South Park & Pacific charged the CM high prices to transport equipment (rails, ties, and other equipment).

•By July, construction commenced from the Colorado Springs end.

•Three miles of track were laid to Colorado City and eight tunnels were completed on Ute Pass. (Author does not question the 3-mile build toward Colorado Springs but believes that the bridge across Monument Creek and the viaduct over the D&RG were built and the tracks extended to be adjacent to the Santa Fe yard, but were blocked by the Denver, Texas & Gulf (D.T. & G) to traverse the yard and directly connect to the Santa Fe mainline. The reasoning, CM did not directly connect to the Rio Grande was due to the adverse experience with the Rio Grande charging exorbitant rates to transport rail supplies to continue CM development of the trackage from Leadville. The question remains why is the CM well known for routing passenger trains to the D&RG depot in Colorado Springs and not well known for routing their Denver passenger trains to and through the Santa Fe/C&S depot on the eastern side of Colorado Springs. Even the Santa Fe referred to their Depot in Castle Rock as the Santa Fe, Colorado Midland and C&S Depot.

•Work started on Hagerman Tunnel.

1887-

•The first trains reached Leadville on 31 Aug 1887 and facilities were built, including an 8-stall roundhouse, a depot, and other service facilities.

•Hagerman Tunnel was completed and rails were extended to Glenwood Springs.

•Midnight Acquisition – This Section was extracted from a historic paper published by the Denver Westerners in January 1962, written by John J. Lipsey about the railroad’s predicament in Colorado Springs that occurred in 1887. Note from the drawing (right) the position of the D. T. & P. trackage (along El Paso St, then turns west across Morero Ave and then turning north onto Swatch St. to its station near Chucharras St. and ending by abutting Huerfano Ave (renamed Colorado Avenue in 1917). (Drawing extracted from the Directory of Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs and Colorado City for 1886, S.N. Francis Printer and Publisher). In June of 1887, J.J. Hagerman, president of the Colorado Midland, announced that regular passenger trains would soon be running between Colorado Springs and Buena Vista.

He had one fairly large problem, however.

He had bought a site for the Midland station near the Santa Fe tracks, but he had no means of getting his trains directly from the Midland’s eastern end of the track, near the D. & R.G’s (Denver & Rio Grande’s Railroad) line, to his depot’s location. In a note Hagerman wrote to one of the Midland’s directors (Busk) in New York On Aug. 15, 1887: ‘I tried to make arrangements with Evans for use of the street (Moreno Avenue) occupied by the D. T. & G. (Denver, Texas and Gulf Railroad) across this town and made him a liberal offer, but in vain. Therefore we had to ‘jump’ him."

Following will help the reader understand the Denver, Texas & Gulf routing. At the urging of Governor Evans and the backing of David Moffit, the Denver and New Orleans (D&NO) was founded in 1881 to build a railway from Denver to the Gulf of Mexico. The charter was later changed to connect Denver with Fort Worth; the name was changed to Forth Worth and Denver City (FW&DC). Construction began in March 1881 building north from Fort Worth. The FW&DC reached Pueblo on Apr 29, 1882 and pushed on to Jimmy Camp, 9 miles east of Colorado Springs and then forged north to Denver. An extension was constructed from Jimmy Camp (near Hwy 94 and US 24, north of what is now Peterson AFB) to Colorado Springs, completed by Dec. 1, 1882. Jimmy Camp was later named Manitou Junction. In 1883, due to financing problems, John Evans was not re-elected as director, when the investors selected General Greenville Dodge. However, Evans courted the new Colorado Midland RR and signed and operating agreement in mid-1886. The FW&DC was reorganized on March 1886 as the Denver, Texas & Fort Worth Railroad. The DT&FW was consolidated with other Union Pacific owned railroads as the Union Pacific Denver & Gulf on 13 October 1893. The routing avoided, to its detriment, the major business centers of the State in order to not confront the D&RG and split the Treaty of Boston of March27, 1880 between the D&RG, Santa Fe and Union Pacific. (Tripartite Agreement was signed later to settle trade rates). The routing was along the east bank of Fountain Creek, past Fountain, to Jimmy Camp Creek and then followed the old Smoky Hill Trail and Cherry Creek into Denver.

The nid-1886 Operating Agreement with the Colorado Midland soured and Jumping the DT&G within the Morero Yard in Colorado Springs was determined by the Colorado Midland to be the only option to connect the Colorado Midland with the Santa Fe.

Jumping, in railroad terms of the times, was the practice of — when negotiation and law suits were determined to take too long, or not likely to succeed — laying track in the middle of the night. Tracks were installed before a court could grant an injunction prohibiting the action. Once the track was down, it seemed to settle the matter and was rarely ripped up.

Hageman had tried to get Dr. John Evans, M.D., president of the Denver, Texas, and Gulf Railroad (one of the predecessors of the Colorado and Southern), to allow the Midland to use the D. T. & G. tracks or to lay a Midland Track on Moreno Avenue in Colorado Springs. At that time, the area was then used as a yard by C. & S.

At the crux of the matter was regionalism. The Colorado Midland was a Colorado Springs railroad. The D.T. & G. was a Denver outfit that diverted mountain traffic to Denver and away from Colorado Springs. Evans, former Governor of Colorado and founder of the Colorado Seminary (now the University of Denver), interests were aligned with that effort. So it is not surprising that the Colorado Springs City Council at the time was willing to help counter.

Hagerman persuaded them (Colorado Springs City Council) to call a secret meeting of the council on Saturday night, when no court was sitting which would issue an injunction. At this meeting and ordinance was quickly passed granting the Colorado Midland a right-of-way across the city on Moreno Avenue, wrote Lipsey.

Hagerman was ready. With no publicity he had assembled men, mules, horses, ties, rails, engines, cars, spikes, plates, switches, tools, food, coffee and lights. Plenty of lights — torches, flares, lanterns, and fuel for bright bonfires. The six blocks of Moreno must have looked like a World’s Fair Midway."

The moment that the ordinance passed, horse-drawn scrapers began working on the elevations and smoothing a roadbed. Ties were placed at measured intervals, rails followed and were bolted together and spiked down. Ballast was added and tamped to secure positioning. Engines pushed forward a supply of ties and rails. Teamsters shouted, rail-toters groaned, sledges rang on spikeheads.

D&RG Depot in Colorado Springs, built 1875

•Note the drawing indicating the routing of the Colorado Midland down the six blocks of Morero and connecting to the Santa Fe trackage, south of the Santa Fe Station (drawing courtesy of Mel McFarland, as shown within his book Colorado Midland Guide Book , Colorado Midland Quarterly; pencil track route added by the Author of this Article). Pencil drawing added by the Author to indicate D&RG and CS&CCD trackage.

Also note: The Santa Fe extension from Pueblo to Colorado Springs was completed just prior to when Hagerman jumped the Denver Texas & Gulf trackage on Moreno Avenue.

Before John Evans, a faithful Methodist, was ready for church on the Sunday morning that followed, he must have been notified by his agents that the Midland track was laid on Moreno, and that Midland trains were able to load passengers at the Midland depot and depart for Buena Vista. It was no doubt an unhappy Sabbath for Dr. Evans. No court would sit on Sunday. Neither then, nor later, was he able to undo what Hagerman and the Midland had done that Saturday night. And very probably he regretted his refusal to take money for the right-of-way the Midland got for nothing, wrote Lipsey.

Building a railroad across town in Colorado Springs could be kept secret, at least long enough to get the job done.

ATSF Station @ Castle Rock built 1875

Author believes that the Colorado Midland ran passenger engines to Denver over Santa Fe trackage, much more than over the D&RG trackage to Denver. The Colorado Midland did operate on the D&RG Manitou Branch and D&RG mainline from the Manitou Branch crossing (near 8th Street) to the D&RG Depot in Colorado Springs.

D&RG Depot in Colorado Springs, built 1875

1888 –

•Aspen Short Line, a Colorado Midland Company, was incorporated and included construction of a 6.5 mile cutoff from Crystal Lake to Arkansas Junction, bypassing Leadville.

•Colorado Midland reaches Aspen by 4 Feb 1888. For a short time the Aspen Short Line railroad was consolidated with the Colorado Midland (1893-1897).

•Surveys were made for a new route and tunnel under the Continental Divide which bypasses Hagerman Tunnel, providing a shorter route and lower grades.

•Completed 222 miles from Colorado Springs to Newcastle on 20 Oct 1888.

•Completed 17 tunnels and several trestles.

1889 –

•Aspen Short Line completes cutoff between Crystal Lake and Arkansas Junction.

•Colorado Midland leases the Aspen Short Line.

1890 – The Midland as built was problematic and expensive to operate, so immediately upon completion to Newcastle an effort was made to improve the situation. The chief pain point was Hagerman Pass. High on the Main Range, its steep grades, large trestles, sharp curves, and susceptibility to blizzards and avalanches made it a pricey maintenance nightmare. Plans for a lower, longer tunnel were started in 1888, but the Midland was so far in debt that no capital was available to make the improvements. So, in 1890 the Busk Tunnel Railway Company was incorporated to build it instead, with the Midland paying a fee for each ton of freight or passenger that it hauled through the new Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel. The route was completed in December 1893, and operations over the old line ceased a month later. Busk Tunnel Railroad Company (BT) was incorporated to build Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel lower and longer than the Hagerman Tunnel but at significantly reduced grade and trestles.

1889 – 1890 - Disturbed by the heavy deficit in 1889 and the extremely small surplus in 1889 and 1890, Hagerman, no longer the President but still a director, decided to attempt to sell the Midland to a large connecting railway as a way to secure a good return on investment for the roads financial backers. The Santa Fe was greatly interested in the Midland.

1890 - The railroad was sold to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in September 1890. The board felt that the sale to a larger parent would help protect the shareholders from the Midland's huge debt load, and the Midland fit into the Santa Fe's plan of competing with the Rio Grande in Colorado. With the sale, the line took a minor name change and became an independent subsidiary known as the Colorado Midland Railroad. The Santa Fe took over control of the Colorado Midland. The Santa Fe operated the Midland as an owned subsidiary with only a small name change to Colorado Midland Railroad (from Colorado Midland Railway).

From a financial standpoint, Santa Fe ownership and control of the Colorado Midland was an unmitigated disaster. Whence came this disaster? First and foremost from the crushing fixed charges which ate up all net income until the Midland's ledgers showed nothing but red ink; secondly from the effects of a great local and regional business depression.

Transcontinental bridge traffic in both directions between Colorado Springs and Grand Junction poured dollars into the Colorado Midland coffers. Even more so did traffic in ore, coal, livestock, lumber, mining machinery and merchandise for local consumption. Passenger revenues further swelled gross income. But neither dollars earned nor dollars saved stayed in the treasury very long when bond interest came due.

The Midland was unable to earn surpluses in times of prosperity and then the great financial and industrial panic of 1893 struck. On June 26, 1893, the mints of India, the world's most important silver market, closed to the coinage of silver. America's monetary was then based both on gold and silver. Now with silver bullion glutting the world markets and gold being hoarded, depression struck America. Since Colorado was largely a silver mining state at the time, the great panic's effects were especially cruel here.

With national business activities partially paralyzed, through freight traffic dropped off. Closing of mines at Leadville and Aspen slashed ore and bullion tonnage. Coal mines in the Glenwood Springs area curtailed output because of reduced demand from mining and smelting interests. Mine timber production at Norrie and Thomasville dropped to a trickle. With so many people without funds, passenger revenues declined. Only the Cripple Creek gold traffic, interchanged between the Colorado Midland and the Midland Terminal held up as gold mining was unaffected.

The Midland stocks were held in a voting trust (F.P. Olcott, Henry T. Rogers, A.H. Joline, William Lidderdale, Cecil W. Boyle were the trustees).The Midland Trust thought it prudent to take steps to protect their investment and organized a committee who on May 1, 1894, had George W. Ristine appointed receiver of the Colorado Midland Railroad Company and had the Santa Fe receivers discharged. Frederick P. Olcott, New York, was the chairman of the reorganization committee and Central Trust Company was the depository.

Due to the Leadville miners’ strike and the small surplus, Ristine felt that the Colorado Midland could not meet the coupons due on the Busk Tunnel and Aspen Short Line bonds. Already unpaid since 1894 was interest on both the First and Consolidated Mortgages so the U.S. Circuit Court of Denver on May 4, 1897 ordered foreclosure of the railroad under both mortgages.

Receiver and General Manager George W. Ristine applied for and received permission to purchase five Baldwin 2-8-0 freight engines, numbers 49 to 53, 180 Pullman-built box cars and 20 Hanrahan refrigerator cars. Reduced gross income resulted in a foreclosure sale of the Colorado Midland.

1897 - The foreclosure sale was held at Colorado City on September 8, 1897. The minimum acceptance bid was set at $290,000 and by bidding just $5,000 more Henry T. Rogers secured the entire Colorado Midland system. The Denver attorney was acting as agent for the bondholder reorganization committee.

On October 11, 1897 the Colorado Midland Railway Company was incorporated under Colorado law, it stated purpose being to:

… purchase, maintain, operate and extend the lines of the Colorado Midland Railroad Company.

Ristine was a professional railway administrator and the result was another promise to pay the bonds but the Santa Fe would no longer have management control of the Colorado Midland.

On October 30, 1897, George W. Ristine, receiver issued a circular stating that the Circuit Court of the United States issued a decree, as approved, on October 26, 1897, by the Colorado Midland Board of Directors elected George W Ristine, president; B. Aymar Sands, vice-president; Oscar Burke, secretary and treasurer’ Henry T. Rogers, general solicitor; L.G. Cannon, assistant to the president; Lewis R Johnson, assistant secretary; B.H. Bryant, general superintendent; A.P Tanner, general freight agent; W.F. Bailey, general passenger agent; W.S. Wing, auditor; W.R Freeman, cashier and tax commissioner; A.L. Humphrey, superintendent motive power; C.N. Davids, general storekeeper; H.B. Moore, chief surgeon; and Central Trust Company of New York, registrar.

The Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe no longer was represented on the Midland directorate, nor did it have any interest in the new company. Now reincorporated, reorganized, and with a more realistic financial