IN previous
installments we have followed the building of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad from
Denver to Canon City, and in the preceding installment were given a glimpse of the
physical property as it was turned over to the railroad by the contractors on January 1st,
1873, as well as its financial status, and the favorable outlook for future business that
would come from the territories along the new line under the stimulus of adequate railroad
transportation facilities which were afforded them by the enterprise.
The carrying of emigrants, their household and business plants, their first necessary food
and other supplies, we learned, had already begun to furnish enough immediate traffic to
fully justify the enterprise. While in addition to this the rapidly increasing trade in
the new region, the building up of towns, the development of mines and manufactures
throughout the territory served, was beginning to yield a permanent and lucrative
transportation that far exceeded General Palmer's expectations.
In a report which he published before work was started on his road, General, Palmer had
estimated that the railroad would carry about 13 passengers each way daily, or 182 weekly,
between Denver and Colorado Springs. He based this estimate on the business being done by
the tri-weekly stage coach which was then operating between these two points. This
stage-coach was handling (according to the company's own prospectus) an average of five
passengers per trip, or 30 both ways, weekly.
During the year 1872 the railroad carried over the same route, 25,168 passengers, or an
average of 484 weekly, both ways, an increase of 1500 per cent, and more than two and
one-third times Palmer's original estimate. The little narrow gauge passenger train which
made the round trip between Denver and Colorado Springs daily from January 1, 1872, was
always taxed to capacity, and as the trains were operated farther south to Pueblo the
business increased. Traffic, freight, passenger and express was handled to the end of the
track, as the tracklaying progressed, where it was transferred to connecting stage and
trucking lines.
FREIGHT traffic was also far in excess
of General Palmer's expectations. Before the railroad was built, all the tonnage into and
out of this region was handled by a few Mexican and other teams. The actual commercial
freight handled by the railroad during 1872 (an average distance of 61 miles) was 34,892
tons. Despite the fact that the road was still under construction during the entire year,
and its resources subordinated to the requirements of extending the road-bed and track,
and putting them in good condition, so that the company's commercial business was not
fairly organized, the earning from transportation for the year was $281,400.29. Operating
expenses were $175,206.32, which left a, net, earning of $106,193.97.
Besides passengers, United States troops, mails and express matter, the road handled
during the first yearof operation, the following commodities:
Forest products-14,185 tons.
Merchandise and sundries-6,558 tons.
Wood-5,758 tons.
Coal-4,065 tons.
Grain, flour and feed-3,319 tons.
Stone and lime-786 tons.
Wool and hides-399 tons.
Wagons and agricultural implements -294 tons.
Livestock-189 tons.
Government stores-719 tons.
Bridge timbers, cross-ties, telegraph poles, iron rail and general supplies11,326 tons.
Total-47,598 tons, or an average of 152 tons daily, carried an average of 61 miles.
RAPID GROWTH OF TERRITORY
THUS General Palmer's earlier
convictions that the line would settle up the country and stimulate its rapid growth and
development were coming to be realized far in excess of his greatest expectations.
Denver, by the United States census, taken immediately before the commencement of the
Denver & Rio Grande Railway, had a population of but 4800. By April, 1873, this
population had increased to 15,000. As a part of General Palmer's plan of territorial
development incident to the railroad, Colorado Springs was laid out and the first house
built by him in August, 1871. Through his colonizing activities at this point, and the
development of the soda, iron and sulphur springs at Manitou nearby, where baths and
hotels were constructed, good roads, paths and other improvements made throughout the
entire Pikes Peak region, its growth was rapid.
By April 1st, 1873, the population of Colorado Springs had reached more than 1500 people.
It had more than 350 houses, twenty miles of irrigating ditches had been constructed,
several hotels built, school houses, churches, telegraph offices, a newspaper and printing
plant, planing mill, several banks and other businesses established. Thousands of trees
had been planted, parks laid out, and all the elements of an orderly and wellestablished
society introduced.
Thousands of tourists were being brought into the region by the advertising of the
railroad, and it was already becoming noted as a favorite summer resort, both for pleasure
tourists and invalids.
As a result of this, Manitou and Colorado City began to take on the aspects of cities in
proportion to the larger growth of Colorado Springs, and the foundation was laid for the
unbounded development of this region that has since come to pass.
More than twenty saw mills sprang up on the Colorado Divide between Colorado Springs and
Denver, on both sides of the railroad. Their produce found a ready demand which was
rapidly increasing in the requirements of the new country on the plains which was without
trees. Lumber, timber, ties and other building materials were being shipped in great
quantities both ways over the railroad.
Littleton, Fountain and other lesser points between Denver and Pueblo which scarcely
existed before the railroad was built, were growing into important country towns, and the
farming population along the line was increasing rapidly.
Several quarries of superior lime and stone were opened up at various places on the line
and furnished a large and permanent traffic. Stone was being transported from Plum Creek
(now known as Castle Rock), from two localities on the Arkansas between Canon City and
Pueblo, and from Colorado Springs, in great quantities to Denver and Pueblo for building
purposes.
THE gold and silver mines in South Park,
west of Colorado Springs, began earnest production. Several new mines were opened up near
Fairplay, and two mills were built there for the reduction of ores.
South Pueblo, which the Central Colorado Improvement Company- one of General Palmer's
auxiliary organizations -had started in November, 1872, had grown to a town of nearly 100
houses and a population of over 400 people within five months after the railroad reached
that point.
The old town of Pueblo, on the opposite bank of the Arkansas river, had increased in
population more than six times what it was when the construction of the line began at
Denver, or more than 3000 people.
The Improvement Company had constructed here an irrigating canal of 20 miles in length,
had made roads and bridges, graded streets, set out thousands of trees, and otherwise
prepared the foundation for an attractive and busy city.
These two new towns may be cited as examples of the policy of General Palmer in promoting
traffic for his railroad, and were the first of a series of similar towns and colonies
which were built up as the road extended.
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 Colorado
Springs Pike's Peak Ave. in 1885 (above) and 1925 (below).
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