DESIGNATION BOUNDARY
The designation boundary for each of the three Railroad Resources only includes the structures, and does not extend beyond the structure.
A train easement was created by the City of Boulder in 1998, defining the area where the rolling stock were displayed within the boundaries of Central Park (Figure 1-2). The Railroad Resources are currently on loan to the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado.
HISTORY & SIGNIFICANCE Historic Context Statement of Context
The three railroad resources within Boulder’s collection include a locomotive, caboose and coach: Colorado and Northwestern Railroad Locomotive No. 30, Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Coach No. 280, and Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Caboose No. 04990. All operated on the narrow-gauge Switzerland Trail and other narrow-gauge mountain railways in the Rocky Mountains. Originally built in the late 1800s, these resources are significant for their role in the expansion of transportation with Colorado and the Rocky Mountains. They are associated with the theme of transportation within the area of significance in rolling stock. Two are associated with the theme of engineering — Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Coach No. 280 and Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Caboose No. 04990. All three were acquired by the City of Boulder in 1953 in recognition of Boulder’s connection to the Switzerland Trail and to late nineteenth-century and early twentieth- century mining. The three were placed in Central Park within a historic easement as railway lines passed through the park at one time. Now housed at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado, the three resources are rare extant examples of narrow-gauge rolling stock associated with the unique mountain railways of Colorado and the West. Background History By 1881 when the first of Boulder’s historic rolling stock, Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Coach No. 280, was built, railway development in Colorado had been underway for several decades. Discovery of gold in Colorado in 1858 spurred campaigns to expand the nation’s railways westward, building upon an already growing desire for a transcontinental railroad. As steam revolutionized transportation technology in the 1850s, the railroad became the nation’s preferred major transportation choice. Thousands of miles of line were laid in eastern states, surpassing canals and rivers as the dominant means of transportation. However, the possibility of a transcontinental railroad stalled until the 1860s. In 1863 Union Pacific Railroad Company laid track west from Omaha, Nebraska, made possible by the Pacific Railway Act of 1862 and generous bond subsidies and land grants. While eastern railroads had been developed with private funds, western efforts relied on federal dollars and subsidies. Colorado’s first tracks of the transcontinental line were laid in 1867 when Union Pacific extended the route through the state’s northeastern corner. 6 Colorado boosters championed for rail lines to connect the state with the rest of the country, and to connect with its growing mining industry high up in the Rocky Mountains. Efforts to build rail lines in Colorado faced many hurdles—from business rivalries to challenging mountain topography to physical challenges of circuitous routes, and potential mountain tunnels. By the 1870s it was clear the national companies would not be building rail in Colorado. Rail boosters moved to build railways without them and sponsored expeditions to find a favorable mountain route. Several separate groups, including those from Denver, Golden, and Loveland organized independent Colorado railroad companies, including the state’s first—the Colorado Central (CC)—and others who partnered with Union Pacific. 7
6 Ibid. 7 Clayton B. Fraser and Jennifer Strand, “Railroads in Colorado 1858 - 1948,” National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1997).
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Railroad Resources
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