GC1MBX1 Colorado Eastern Railroad
Type: Traditional | Size: Micro | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Grand High Pobah @ | Hide Date: 01/31/2009 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N39° 47.276 W104° 40.691 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
             

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A cache and dash in the railroad Fallen Flag series of caches

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The cache is a 35mm container. It is not winter friendly. Please try to replace it in such a way that it does not call attention to itself

This is the another cache dedicated to Fallen Flag railroads. Fallen Flags are those railroads that no longer exist either through abandonment or corporate takeover. With each cache will come a short history lesson explaining a little something about the railroad.

The Colorado Eastern Railroad was a narrow gauge line that ran from Denver out to a low grade coal mine just east of the cache location. Built by the Denver Land & Railroad Company in 1885 on the cheap, it lasted until 1915 when it was abandoned.

The coal that the railroad transported was of such low grade that one source reported that it had to be wrapped in straw to get it to burn. The condition of the rails was so bad that they could only be negotiated at a very slow speed. Certainly this railroad was not in any great shape, so why did it exist for 30 years? It turns out that it cost $25 a day to keep the railroad running and the total take was only $1 per day. How can this be? It sure sounds like the Federal budget to me. It turns out that what this railroad had was trackage rights into the city of Denver, something that other railroads that wanted into Denver would happily buy for a bucket full of money. But no deal was ever struck so the railroad just faded away. There is an interesting and humorous article that was published in the July 13, 1902 New York Times about the railroad.

Should you care to read the full New York Times article, follow this link http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=940CE0D9113BE733A25750C1A9619C946397D6CF

Time has not been kind to the physical evidence that the railroad left. The only physical evidence that it existed at all is a slight depression the rails were laid in to the west at about 290 degrees true from the cache location. I viewed aerial photographs and was able to see where the grade had been located to the west of the cache location.

06/02/2018 By Mc*2
Had to hike the last 0.1 mile but got the find anyway. Thx!

Mc*2

05/28/2018 By Karate Hiker
Went as far as the dip in the dirt road then walked the rest of the way. Found 2 old beaten up chairs and a kids hard hat on they way. TFTC

04/26/2018 By Brewman65
Had a nice visit to Colorado, and found a lot of caches

10/07/2017 By GanderGoose
My geocaching buddy, #1 Beefers, is out of town so I went on a solo cache drive today to find some that she has already found. Beautiful weather for a caching adventure. I was happy to get off of 56th Ave for this quiet drive. I don't think it gets much traffic although there was a pair of gym shorts laying in the middle of the road on the trek to the cache. I did not try to go past a deep dip in the geomobile so I enjoyed the short walk. Thanks for the neat historical description and placement, Grand High Pobah!

09/03/2017 By #1 Beefers
Out with muggle husband today. He wanted to go somewhere in the little yellow dunebuggy, so had to come along. He graciously stopped when I told him to. It's nice having a driver. Although I do miss my geocaching buddy GanderGoose. Thank you for this placement Grand High Pobah.