GC6DE9 Virtual Cache Back In Time - Monarch
Type: Virtual | Size: Virtual Virtual | Difficulty: 1 out of 5 | Terrain: 1.5 out of 5
By: The Meandering Monkeys @ | Hide Date: 07/06/2002 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N40° 06.250 W105° 44.729 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 9
Access or parking fee  Recommended for kids  Scenic view  Parking available  Camping available  Tourist Friendly 
 Cache photos

BIT Logo
KaRose 1920-1930
McDonald's Ranch 1909-1912
Monarch 1907
Monarch Lake


Go Back In Time

To

Monarch, Colorado

Virtual cache in the Arapahoe National Recreation Area on the shore of Monarch Lake.
Monarch Lake, at an elevation of 8337 feet, is a scenic gem with 12,000+ foot peaks for a backdrop and a "picture postcard" island in the middle.

Take a three-quarter mile hike over an easy to moderate trail to the cache. The trail meanders around Monarch Lake for a total distance of 4.5 miles. Parking waypoint below. A pass is required. One-day, three-day, or weekly passes may be purchased at an obvious kiosk. Federal land annual passes will also work.

A special thank you to The Lost Grasshoppers for originally placing this cache!

History:

Monarch was once a bustling town and the rail head of the Rocky Mountain Railroad. Boulder businessmen T.S. Waltemeyer, Frank Wolcott, and Charles A. Wolcott heard about traces of gold, silver, and mostly copper at the junction of the Arapahoe Creek and the South Fork of the Colorado River. In 1905 they established the Monarch Consolidated Gold and Copper Mining and Smelting Company and built their company on the assumption that a major belt of minerals extended east through the Continental Divide. The Monarch Company consisted of several subsidiary companies including lumber companies. With 1740 acres of placer and lode claims, the main objective of the company was to mine metal ores, but supplement it with timber and build a railway to benefit the whole company.

The Monarch Company shipped heavy machinery by flatbed cars to Granby on the new Moffat Road. They then put an ad in the paper asking for bids to haul heavy machinery 16 miles from Granby to Monarch. The machinery included "5 boilers (eight and a quarter tons each), one engine (over eleven tons), one flywheel (6 tons), other machinery (from 1 to 5 tons), a carload of nails, and several hundred pounds of miscellaneous supplies." The task of hauling the heavy equipment was made especially difficult by mud-holes and bridges not made for heavy loads. Denver hauling companies refused to take on the job and one logging company from Wyoming abandoned the challenge after the first wagonload stuck in a mud-hole. Finally Dick McQueary agreed to move the machinery. To accomplish the job, McQueary purchased several hundred feet of hardwood planks in Denver, 3 inch thick, sixteen inches wide and twelve feet long. Accompanying the heavy pieces up the mountain was a "4 horse team hauling hardwood plank, a 4 horse team pulling six inch pine poles, 10 feet long, and a four horse team pulling two ton large nails". The crew built temporary bridges across mud-holes by laying pine poles 3 feet apart with hardwood planks laid across the poles. Two light loads were driven across to test bridge followed by the heavy load pulled by 12 head horses. Finally the planks and poles were pulled up to be used at the next mud-hole. The heavy machinery was hauled in 2 weeks.

The town of Monarch included employee housing, business offices, a post office, and an assembly hall. Grand County's first hydro-electric generator was in Monarch. The waterworks system was created by piping water from the falls at Mad Creek and had pressure up to 300 lbs per inch. In 1907, the Monarch Box Factory and the Rocky Mountain Railway, a standard-gauge 16 mile line from Granby to Monarch, were constructed. The Monarch Company created Monarch Lake by damming the valley, at the junction of Arapahoe Creek and South fork of the Colorado River, for use with the saw mill and the box factory. A 2800 foot long chute carried tree trunks down the hillside to the lake where they hit the water and could bounce up to 50 ft high. Then a stern-wheel steamer pushed logs into a system of canals and flumes that led down to the saw mill and box factory. The box factory only operated for 2 or 3 months before it was totally destroyed by fire. In the fall of 1907, the Monarch Company declared bankruptcy.

The railway continued to be used for a number of years. Ed McDonald, a dude rancher, put a Cadillac touring car on flanged iron wheels to carry mail, supplies, and guests to his ranch. The center of town was preserved and developed by the Dierks as a summer resort called Ka Rose, after Katherine Rose Dierks, the owner's daughter. In 1912, the rail line was used for transporting fisherman along the river by Ernest F. Behr, a former Colorado and Southern engineman. Finally, in 1918, the rails were sold to a junk dealer in Denver to satisfy the World War I need for scrap metal.

Since 1947, the Monarch town site, mill site, and box factory have been under the waters of Lake Granby. In 2002, a year of low water, there were still a few signs of this town on the dried lake bed (see waypoint below). Today, at Monarch Lake, you can still see some of the original machinery as well the flume.

Information primarily taken from the Grand County History website.

Monarch about 1907 McDonald's Ranch dated 1909-1912
KaRose dated 1920-1930 Monarch Lake
Please take some time to reflect back on the lives of these pioneers and the effort it took to make Colorado such a great state!!

Email us either the (1) seven-character name and three-digit number cast(upside down) on the lake-side base of the machinery or (2) twelve-character name stamped into the side of a globe valve casing about 10 feet off the ground on the northwest corner of the machinery.

We'll verify and you can log the find.

Please do NOT put the answer (even encrypted) in the log.

Back In Time Series:

Back In Time is a series of caches placed near historic sites to remind us to remember our past. We can learn so much from studying the past. This series will provide a history tour of Colorado.

Their days are gone but not forgotten!!

Additional Waypoints

PK6DE9 - GC6DE9 Parking
N 40° 06.677 W 105° 44.836

RF6DE9 - Monarch Town Site View Point
N 40° 07.900 W 105° 46.400
Approximate viewing point for Monarch Town Site when Lake Granby water is low.
 Custom URLs

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 Additional Waypoints (2)

CodeNameTypeCommentsDateCoordinatesDistance
PK6DE9GC6DE9 Parking Parking Area  07/29/2011 N 40° 06.677 W 105° 44.836 0.81 kms N 
RF6DE9Monarch Town Site View Point Reference Point Approximate viewing point for Monarch Town Site when Lake Granby water is low. 07/29/2011 N 40° 07.900 W 105° 46.400 3.87 kms NW 

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Driving Directions

 Logs

14 Logs: Found it 14  

Found it 06/20/2019 By Machkele
Tftc

Found it 06/11/2019 By oldkingog
Just completed a backpacking trip in the Indian Peaks. Still a lot of snow! Checked out this virtual on my way out. Answers sent. Thanks for keeping this one going!

Found it 06/08/2019 By peakview
Cool

Found it 09/20/2018 By GrayFinders2
Found with lostandfound2, but pic to capture documentation for later log didn't turn out. attached pic shows us there without exposing the answers. Ran into others who saw moose at back end of lake, but we didn't make it that far.


Thanks for maintaining this historical old school virtual with extensive site background info. Much better than the earthcaches which generally tend to be over technical.

Found it 08/06/2018 By Lancerkath
Found with the family while out exploring the area. Thanks so much for the history of the town.

Found it 07/17/2018 By benandsandy

Staying in a rental on Lake Granby for the month of July. Found it while hiking with our daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids. TFTC

Found it 07/09/2018 By armjohnson
Thanks for the cache. It gave our hike a little adventure!

Found it 05/23/2018 By ladeedj
It started to rain pretty hard right when we got to the 1st big bridge and we went back to the car debating whether to wait it out. When the rain quickly subsided giving way to sunshine we decided to go for it. And I'm so glad we did! We did the whole loop and it was beautiful. We saw a moose munching on willow when we were about a mile from the cars by the avalanche area. Got great pics. Loved all the water crossings! Had the place almost all to ourselves. Amazing! Thanks for adding to the fun by placing this cache.
GC6DE9

Found it 07/31/2017 By Tick_Magnet
Thanks for getting back to me. I did enjoy this virtual cache very much. Had a nice hike in the rain and found the very interesting historic machine. Had to wonder how many loggers got torn up by the cables but it did do the job. Thanks for bringing me to this special place. I would never have come here if not for your cache. TFTFun!

Found it 07/31/2017 By Pixel Magic
This was a pleasant walk gradually hiking up and along the shoreline affording us a wonderful and breathtaking view of the lake and the hillsides surrounding us. The walk to the cache provided an incentive to get another cache a little further up the trail. Artifacts are a physical reminder of times past.

Found it 07/30/2017 By team tiger pride
Found this morning with pyrusticia, honey buzzed, pixel magic and Barasaur. Answer will be sent later. Thanks for the cache

Found it 07/29/2017 By Barasaur
Hanging out in Grand Lake area for the GCCO Campout. Caching the area and enjoying the beauty.

(8173)

Found it 07/29/2017 By Pyrusticia
A fascinating piece of history, thanks for sharing!

Found it 07/28/2017 By Honeybuzzed
Such a beautiful hike in. Loved the views of the lake. Thanks so much for the virtual