Tracking Colorado's Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Stations

Explore the history of Colorado’s iconic D&RG Railroad, its daring high-mountain routes, profits, and the historic train stations that shaped the West.

Affectionately nicknamed the “Baby Road,” the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad nevertheless became Colorado’s most well-known historic railroad. Reaching from Denver to Grand Junction, and from Pueblo to Silverton, General William Jackson Palmer’s railroad sought to extend its tracks to every new mining camp in the state as quickly as its location became known.

Building its tracks through seemingly insurmountable Rocky Mountain passes such as Tennessee Pass, Marshall Pass, and La Veta Pass, and through the incredibly narrow canyons of Royal Gorge, Black Canyon, and canyons of the Colorado River, the D&RG reached those mining camps and made great profits. Profits were also realized from the sale of land the D&RG purchased with its sights set on selling the land back to town developers who would then host its railroad stations. Although often beset by bankruptcy and reorganization plans, the D&RG persisted from 1871 until it merged with the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1988.

When it absorbed the Denver & Salt Lake Railroad in 1934, it gained use of the Moffat Tunnel and trimmed 176 miles off its route to Salt Lake City by completing the Dotsero Cutoff. The train stations along all these routes of the D&RG offer the stories of this volume.