Summit County's Narrow-Gauge Railroads

by Bob Schoppe, Sandra F. Mather Ph.D.

Overview

Summit County's Narrow-Gauge Railroads tells the story of the two railroads that fought for dominance in Summit County, Colorado, during the late 1800s and early 1900s: the Denver, South Park & Pacific and the Denver & Rio Grande. The two railroads developed an intense rivalry as they sought to monopolize the county's economic potential. Altitude, heavy winter snow, and rugged mountainous terrain combined to provide a unique set of challenges to company management as well as to the crews as they battled to lay the tracks and provide much-needed rail service to the residents and businesses of the county. Intimately tied to the mining economy, the fortunes of the railroads plummeted when the mining economy collapsed. Although poorly financed and poorly built, the railroads changed the living conditions for county residents. Without the railroads bringing the necessary equipment and lumber, nine huge gold-dredging boats would not have scoured the county's major waterways between 1898 and 1942.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467116855
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	11/07/2016
Series:	Images of Rail
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	1,024,908
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Authors Bob Schoppe, president of the Denver, South Park & Pacific Historical Society, and Sandra F. Mather, PhD, professor emerita of the Department of Geology and Astronomy at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, combine to bring the stories to life with text and unique photographs, some never before published, from local collections and archives.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 7

1 Como 9

2 The High Line to Breckenridge 19

3 Breckenridge, North to Dickey 47

4 Dillon and Keystone 65

5 Frisco and the Ten Mile Canyon 71

6 On to Leadville 111

7 Preserving the Legacy 119

About the Organizations 127