Royal Gorge Route Railroad History & Heritage

During the glory days of railroading, two railroads fought for control of the challenging route through the Royal Gorge.

by Kathryn Retzler
Photos © Denver Public Library, Western History Collection. (see below for complete citation)

RAILROADS CAME TO COLORADO in the187Os, mainly to serve the burgeoning mining industry. Between 1870 and 1880, about 1200 miles of track were laid, much of it through rugged territory and often under nearly impossible conditions. The route through the Royal Gorge posed particular challenges. Not all of them were caused by Mother Nature, although geology and weather were definitely major players. It was the bitter battle between two railroad giants that kept rail crews barricaded in makeshift “forts” and newspaper readers titillated by their nefarious activity.

Two railroads, the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe (AT&SF) and the Denver and Rio Grande (D&RG) fought for the route though the Gorge and beyond to serve the lucrative mountain mining communities. Both contenders won. And both lost. Subsequent years were more subdued. But for two years, from 1878 through 1879, the battle raged.

Three hundred thirty-seven miles of track were in dispute, much of it fortified by one side or the other and augmented by outrageous schemes and downright skulduggery. The “Royal Gorge War” saw gun toting crews (one of them led by the infamous Bat Masterson of Kansas City), barricades and stone forts (from which rock and debris were thrown down upon opposing crews), desperate midnight rides, intercepted telegraph messages and sabotaged construction. At one point, a D&RG conductor, realizing the enemy had boarded his train, refused to allow his train to leave the station. The AT&SF men promptly detrained, hopped aboard hired buggies and high-tailed it to the construction site — where they got a head start on their erstwhile rivals.

Meanwhile, newspapers gleefully reported the antics of both sides. For a while, the only winners were the lawyers. Each side charged the other with sabotage. Both were correct in their assertions of nefarious activity. Eventually, the legal battle wound up in the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the D&RG. But the winner didn’t really win, since lower courts, some in the pocket of the AT&SF, implemented and enforced decisions that overturned the Supreme Court’s decision. Court battles are costly. By 1879 the D&RG was in dire financial straits. They decided to lease trackage to their rival. A formal agreement was drawn up, and the AT&SF agreed to play fair.

But they didn’t. Acrimony prevailed. Meanwhile, many railroad barons siphoned off profits and poured them into high-risk projects. Matters continued to worsen and the D&RG was hurting. (Robber baron Jay Gould had dumped some money into the AT&SF, so on the whole they did better than their rival.) Then came the Silver Panic of 1893 when the U.S. abandoned the Silver Standard and returned to the Gold Standard. Mining tanked, and along with it, the railroads, which began an irreversible decline. By 1929, the railroad boom ended with onset of the Great Depression. The Royal Gorge War was but a distant memory.
One thing that miraculously survived it all, including disastrous floods in the mid-1900s, was the ingenious Hanging Bridge designed by C. Shaler Smith. Suspended between the steep canyon walls and hanging lengthwise above the river, the 300-foot long bridge traverses the narrowest (only 30-40 foot wide) and deepest part of the Royal Gorge. The goal was to keep the waterway open while providing track for the trains to travel through the canyon. Smith accomplished this by “hanging” the bridge from supporting A-frames, their ends embedded into the rock on either side. The bridge cost $30,261 to build and was completed in 1879.

Since then, pasenger trains have always stopped here. The tradition continues today — highlight of a truly memorable journey, allowing passengers to “ooh” at the bridge and “aahh” at the steep, scenic canyon.

CENTER. Excursion train Royal Gorge, Hanging Bridge,
Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, George L. Beam. 1905. GB-7599

BOTTOM. Left: Chicago White Sox baseball team and special five-car Pullman train on the Denver & Rio Grande main line through the Royal Gorge.
Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, George L. Beam. Feb. 1910. GB-8343.

Royal Gorge Route Gourmet Lunch & Dinner Trains depart from the Santa Fe Depot, 401 Water St., Cañon City. 888-RAILS4U. www.royalgorgereservations.com. Gourmet dining aboard the train as it travels through the spectacular Royal Gorge. Reservations required.