Print
E-mail
Comment
Parker's history includes a train that residents in 1903 called 'Polly'
In 1903, if you wanted to get beyond Parker, you had three choices: ride a horse and buggy, walk or ride the train. Yes, Parker had a train, and residents called it "Polly."
By By: Don Peitzman
In 1903, if you wanted to get beyond Parker, you had three choices: ride a horse and buggy, walk or ride the train. Yes, Parker had a train, and residents called it "Polly."
In the book "Parker Colorado - An Historical Narrative," published by the Parker Area Historical Society in 1996, late historian Ruth Miller, in collaboration with F.B. McLaughlin, Larry Smith and Lloyd Glasier, wrote that the first railroad that came to Parker was the Denver and New Orleans.
Trains began to roll through town May 11, 1882, thanks in part to James Sample Parker, who granted the railroad a 100-foot right of way.
They entered town on a standard gauge track, which are 4 by 8 1/2 feet wide, from the northwest over a 322-foot wooden trestle that crossed Cherry Creek near the Parker Recreation Center and Lincoln Avenue, which in 1882 didn't exist. A few of the trestle pilings can still be seen, as well as the railbed.
The track crossed Lincoln Avenue, also not there in 1882, and turned south running parallel to Dransfeldt Road. It crossed the road near Twenty Mile House, a portion of which has been restored as the Pine Grove Post Office on Mainstreet west of the Parker Library. Pine Grove was the first name for the town.
The track then crossed Parker Road north of present-day Mainstreet. A depot, brick well, watertower, maintenance shed and cattle pens were near the three-story Parker Station building at Mainstreet and Victorian Drive. A siding was built so those freight cars could be unloaded.
West of the former Parker Town Hall, the tracks turned southeast again and crossed Sulphur Gulch over a 378-foot wooden trestle. Three pilings and the railroad bed are still visible on the north side of the gulch.
Miller wrote that the railroad depot was named Springdale for a short time, then Parker's and finally Parker. The name of the town was changed from Pine Grove in 1882 because there was an identical town on the Denver, Leadville & Gunnison Railroad.
In his book, "Denver and New Orleans - In the Shadow of the Rockies," Sundance Ltd, 1997, author James Jones wrote that Parker, who owned the Twenty Mile House, which was a stage stop on the Smoky Hill Trail, deeded the right of way to the railroad for $1.
Former Colorado Territorial Gov. John Evans created the D&NO Railroad, Jones wrote Parker was one of 27 towns serviced on what was the Falcon branch, a line, which stretched 124 miles from south Denver to Pueblo. More than 700 laborers, who earned between $1.30- $1.50 a day, built the line in the early 1880s.
The track between Parker and Hill Top, which was a community seven miles southeast of Parker and formerly called Bellevue, featured not only the longest trestle on the line at Sulphur Gulch, but also the steepest grade. It was so steep, a helper engine was permanently stationed in Parker to push southbound trains up the track, Jones wrote.
Driving southeast on Hilltop Road, you can still see the raised railroad bed to the north as well as a few places where some trestles used to be.
The new railroad didn't last long and in 1885 it became the Denver and New Orleans Railway, Miller wrote. Five days later though, it changed again, this time to the Denver, Texas & Gulf.
In 1888, the line merged with the Denver, Texas and Fort Worth and the Fort Worth & Denver City to form one line, the Union Pacific Denver & Gulf.
The new railroad wasn't without some mishaps. Jones wrote that in April 1889, a flood at Sulphur Gulch damaged the bridge and delayed a train for almost 12 hours. On Sept. 25, two freight trains collided between Hilltop and Parker, severely injuring the conductor.
On Dec. 20, 1898, the railroad changed for the last time when the UPD&G became the Colorado and Southern Railway Company,
Around the turn of the century, Jones wrote, some residents began calling the railroad "Polly" or short of polliwog because the trains wiggled very slowly as they traveled up and down the line. In 1900, the U.S. Census for Parker was 253 people.
In August 1903, the C&S provided daily southbound service to Parker at 2:40 p.m. The fair to ride the train was low. It cost only 25 cents to travel the 10 railroad miles between Parker and Franktown. A Sunday excursion train ride from Denver to Parker cost 85 cents.
Colorado Railroad Museum librarian Kenton Forrest said fairs were reasonable, between two and three cents a mile and about $1 for a long distance train ride. He said though many people walked because even a dime was a lot of money at the time.
At various spots along the line, such as Hill Top and Pueblo, a wye was installed which allowed a train locomotive to turn around.
During the early part of the 1900s, trains carried products that were sold in the smalltown stores along the line such as in Bert Hall's mercantile in Parker. Goods such as lumber, coal, horses, hay, ice, potatoes, wheat, and beans were shipped to Denver, Miller wrote.
Creameries, where milk was separated into cream, shipped their product daily to Denver by train. A creamery known as the Littleton Creamery was built in Parker in 1897. In 1900, the Elbert Creamery shipped 200,000 pounds of cheese, Jones wrote.
On Dec. 18, 1910, the line carried a special excursion train from Denver to Parker for the funeral of Parker who died of pneumonia at 69 on Dec. 15, Jones wrote.
A major disaster struck the railroad on July 14, 1912 when Sulphur Gulch once again flooded, damaging several of the 23 spans of pilings and shutting the line for several days. Large parts of Parker were flooded and Miller wrote that only two houses survived undamaged.
The advent of the automobile and trucks in the early part of the century slowly began to erode the dependence on the railroad. Jones wrote that during the late 1920s, Parker resident Hall competed with the C&S by trucking milk to Denver, as did several other trucking companies along the line.
In May 1930, the railroad asked the Colorado Public Utilities Commission for permission to discontinue regular train service between Elbert and Falcon, Jones wrote. On Nov. 5, the C&S asked permission to close the depot in Falcon, Parker and Eatonville. On April 10, 1931, permission was granted to close the Parker depot. By 1933, the train made many trips with no riders.
In the early hours of Aug. 3, 1933, another disaster struck when the Castlewood Canyon dam, built in 1890 near Franktown, gave way after heavy rain fell that sent a wall of water down Cherry Creek. Several bridges were destroyed and two lives were lost, as parts of Denver were flooded. The remains of the dam are still visible at Castlewood Canyon State Park.
Three sets of pilings were washed out at the C&S trestle north of Parker.
Two years later, another devastating flood was the straw that broke the railroad's back.
On May 30, 1935, another flood damaged large parts of the line so significantly that the line between Elizabeth and Elbert didn't have train service for six months, Jones wrote. The railroad didn't have the money to make repairs and was losing much of its business to trucking companies. Jones wrote that during the first eight months of 1935, trucks had carried 10 times more freight than the train.
On Sept. 13, 1935, daily service between Denver and Elizabeth was changed to tri-weekly. The mail, once carried by train, was sent by truck after the C&S surrendered its mail contract with the government in December.
In June 1936, the United State Interstate Commerce Commission gave the railroad the OK to abandon most of the Falcon branch. By the fall, more than half a century of train service came to an end when crews began tearing up the track and selling them and other railroad property for scrap. Jones wrote Ed Patterson, a janitor at the Parker Consolidated School bought the depot, maintenance shed, two bunk cars and the water tank in October for $175. He turned the maintenance shed into a residence.
The most visible remnants of the railroad in Parker, the depot and the section house survived, Jones wrote, into the 1960s when they were burned in a fire-fighting exercise.
Two copies of In the Shadow of the Rockies can be checked out at the library. The book is also in print and can be purchased from the publisher. The book Parker Colorado, An Historical Narrative, can be found at the library and is available from the Parker Area Historical Society.
In the book "Parker Colorado - An Historical Narrative," published by the Parker Area Historical Society in 1996, late historian Ruth Miller, in collaboration with F.B. McLaughlin, Larry Smith and Lloyd Glasier, wrote that the first railroad that came to Parker was the Denver and New Orleans.
Trains began to roll through town May 11, 1882, thanks in part to James Sample Parker, who granted the railroad a 100-foot right of way.
They entered town on a standard gauge track, which are 4 by 8 1/2 feet wide, from the northwest over a 322-foot wooden trestle that crossed Cherry Creek near the Parker Recreation Center and Lincoln Avenue, which in 1882 didn't exist. A few of the trestle pilings can still be seen, as well as the railbed.
The track crossed Lincoln Avenue, also not there in 1882, and turned south running parallel to Dransfeldt Road. It crossed the road near Twenty Mile House, a portion of which has been restored as the Pine Grove Post Office on Mainstreet west of the Parker Library. Pine Grove was the first name for the town.
The track then crossed Parker Road north of present-day Mainstreet. A depot, brick well, watertower, maintenance shed and cattle pens were near the three-story Parker Station building at Mainstreet and Victorian Drive. A siding was built so those freight cars could be unloaded.
West of the former Parker Town Hall, the tracks turned southeast again and crossed Sulphur Gulch over a 378-foot wooden trestle. Three pilings and the railroad bed are still visible on the north side of the gulch.
Miller wrote that the railroad depot was named Springdale for a short time, then Parker's and finally Parker. The name of the town was changed from Pine Grove in 1882 because there was an identical town on the Denver, Leadville & Gunnison Railroad.
In his book, "Denver and New Orleans - In the Shadow of the Rockies," Sundance Ltd, 1997, author James Jones wrote that Parker, who owned the Twenty Mile House, which was a stage stop on the Smoky Hill Trail, deeded the right of way to the railroad for $1.
Former Colorado Territorial Gov. John Evans created the D&NO Railroad, Jones wrote Parker was one of 27 towns serviced on what was the Falcon branch, a line, which stretched 124 miles from south Denver to Pueblo. More than 700 laborers, who earned between $1.30- $1.50 a day, built the line in the early 1880s.
The track between Parker and Hill Top, which was a community seven miles southeast of Parker and formerly called Bellevue, featured not only the longest trestle on the line at Sulphur Gulch, but also the steepest grade. It was so steep, a helper engine was permanently stationed in Parker to push southbound trains up the track, Jones wrote.
Driving southeast on Hilltop Road, you can still see the raised railroad bed to the north as well as a few places where some trestles used to be.
The new railroad didn't last long and in 1885 it became the Denver and New Orleans Railway, Miller wrote. Five days later though, it changed again, this time to the Denver, Texas & Gulf.
In 1888, the line merged with the Denver, Texas and Fort Worth and the Fort Worth & Denver City to form one line, the Union Pacific Denver & Gulf.
The new railroad wasn't without some mishaps. Jones wrote that in April 1889, a flood at Sulphur Gulch damaged the bridge and delayed a train for almost 12 hours. On Sept. 25, two freight trains collided between Hilltop and Parker, severely injuring the conductor.
On Dec. 20, 1898, the railroad changed for the last time when the UPD&G became the Colorado and Southern Railway Company,
Around the turn of the century, Jones wrote, some residents began calling the railroad "Polly" or short of polliwog because the trains wiggled very slowly as they traveled up and down the line. In 1900, the U.S. Census for Parker was 253 people.
In August 1903, the C&S provided daily southbound service to Parker at 2:40 p.m. The fair to ride the train was low. It cost only 25 cents to travel the 10 railroad miles between Parker and Franktown. A Sunday excursion train ride from Denver to Parker cost 85 cents.
Colorado Railroad Museum librarian Kenton Forrest said fairs were reasonable, between two and three cents a mile and about $1 for a long distance train ride. He said though many people walked because even a dime was a lot of money at the time.
At various spots along the line, such as Hill Top and Pueblo, a wye was installed which allowed a train locomotive to turn around.
During the early part of the 1900s, trains carried products that were sold in the smalltown stores along the line such as in Bert Hall's mercantile in Parker. Goods such as lumber, coal, horses, hay, ice, potatoes, wheat, and beans were shipped to Denver, Miller wrote.
Creameries, where milk was separated into cream, shipped their product daily to Denver by train. A creamery known as the Littleton Creamery was built in Parker in 1897. In 1900, the Elbert Creamery shipped 200,000 pounds of cheese, Jones wrote.
On Dec. 18, 1910, the line carried a special excursion train from Denver to Parker for the funeral of Parker who died of pneumonia at 69 on Dec. 15, Jones wrote.
A major disaster struck the railroad on July 14, 1912 when Sulphur Gulch once again flooded, damaging several of the 23 spans of pilings and shutting the line for several days. Large parts of Parker were flooded and Miller wrote that only two houses survived undamaged.
The advent of the automobile and trucks in the early part of the century slowly began to erode the dependence on the railroad. Jones wrote that during the late 1920s, Parker resident Hall competed with the C&S by trucking milk to Denver, as did several other trucking companies along the line.
In May 1930, the railroad asked the Colorado Public Utilities Commission for permission to discontinue regular train service between Elbert and Falcon, Jones wrote. On Nov. 5, the C&S asked permission to close the depot in Falcon, Parker and Eatonville. On April 10, 1931, permission was granted to close the Parker depot. By 1933, the train made many trips with no riders.
In the early hours of Aug. 3, 1933, another disaster struck when the Castlewood Canyon dam, built in 1890 near Franktown, gave way after heavy rain fell that sent a wall of water down Cherry Creek. Several bridges were destroyed and two lives were lost, as parts of Denver were flooded. The remains of the dam are still visible at Castlewood Canyon State Park.
Three sets of pilings were washed out at the C&S trestle north of Parker.
Two years later, another devastating flood was the straw that broke the railroad's back.
On May 30, 1935, another flood damaged large parts of the line so significantly that the line between Elizabeth and Elbert didn't have train service for six months, Jones wrote. The railroad didn't have the money to make repairs and was losing much of its business to trucking companies. Jones wrote that during the first eight months of 1935, trucks had carried 10 times more freight than the train.
On Sept. 13, 1935, daily service between Denver and Elizabeth was changed to tri-weekly. The mail, once carried by train, was sent by truck after the C&S surrendered its mail contract with the government in December.
In June 1936, the United State Interstate Commerce Commission gave the railroad the OK to abandon most of the Falcon branch. By the fall, more than half a century of train service came to an end when crews began tearing up the track and selling them and other railroad property for scrap. Jones wrote Ed Patterson, a janitor at the Parker Consolidated School bought the depot, maintenance shed, two bunk cars and the water tank in October for $175. He turned the maintenance shed into a residence.
The most visible remnants of the railroad in Parker, the depot and the section house survived, Jones wrote, into the 1960s when they were burned in a fire-fighting exercise.
Two copies of In the Shadow of the Rockies can be checked out at the library. The book is also in print and can be purchased from the publisher. The book Parker Colorado, An Historical Narrative, can be found at the library and is available from the Parker Area Historical Society.
Submit a Comment
|
You must be logged in to post a comment.
|
Not yet a registered member?
Click here to become one. |
