The Animas Canyon Toll Road was built in 1876–78 to connect the mining town of Silverton to the coal beds and agricultural produce of the Animas Valley near what is now Durango. The roughly thirty-mile wagon road operated for about five years before it…

Conejos County covers 1,287 square miles of the southern San Luis Valley and eastern San Juan Mountains in south central Colorado. It is bordered by Archuleta County to the west, Rio Grande and Alamosa Counties to the north, Costilla County to the east,…

The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) built the Creede Railroad Depot in 1893 to handle freight and passenger traffic in the historic mining town of Creede. Located on the north end of town near the corner of Loma Avenue and Wall Street, the…

Rising about 2,800 feet over its famously scenic forty-five-mile route, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad was originally built in 1881–82 as part of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway’s effort to reach the mines of the San Juan Mountains…

With a population of nearly 60,000, Grand Junction is the largest city on Colorado’s Western Slope. The city takes its name from its location at the junction of the Gunnison and Colorado (formerly the Grand) Rivers, in the heart of the Grand Valley…

William Jackson Palmer (1836–1909) was a military general, railroad tycoon, and founder of Colorado Springs. Though a Quaker from Delaware, Palmer fought for the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war, he moved west and became a civil engineer…