Central City - Denver. Day Two

We woke up this morning wanting to explore a bit, so around the hill and down into the town of Central City we went.

Central City is in the heart of Colorado Mining Country, where "busts" and "booms" have left a honeycomb of underground tunnels, shafts, and timbers. Many abandoned mining operations still exist and visitors are warned to be careful. Central City was founded in 1859, and lies at an elevation of 8496. With an average population of 663 (who, it's claimed by a sign at the edge of town, have an average IQ of 101), it has "3 houses of worship, 7 gambling halls, 4 bears, 19 bars, 1 face on barroom floor, 1 opera house, 5 museums, 1 newspaper, 1 brewery, 3 troublemakers and no big shots". Central City and neighboring Blackhawk now survive on casinos, bringing in visitors from metro Denver.

Women played a huge part in the mining operations back in the day, with the most famous mine in the area being operated by women: The Coeur d'Alene. The building is maintained but not in operation.

Downtown Central City is a snapshot of life 150+ years ago.

A fire in the 1870's destroyed most of the town, but, as with so many towns of the era, was rebuilt with brick and stone. Almost all of the building in Central City and Blackhawk are essentially original with updated interiors.

After a tour of town, we took US6 east toward Golden, Colorado. Our destination was the Capitol Building downtown, but we got sidetracked by a sign pointing to Lookout Mountain and the grave of Buffalo Bill Cody. Eight miles of narrow, twisting road, complete with scores of hardy bicycle riders, brought us to the top of the mountain.

 

The town of Golden is in the center, with Denver over the hill.

Buffalo Bill and his wife are buried on top of the mountain at his request. Buffalo Bill Cody's will specified a site near Cody, Wyoming, but as he lay dying at his sister's house in Denver in 1917, he requested burial on Lookout Mountain. And so he lies today.

Surprised people in Cody began a controversy and so, several tons of concrete ensure that he stays exactly where he asked to be buried.

A custom of placing nickels on the grave began in 1923 when a group of Lakota Sioux, led by Spotted Weasel, a former performer with Buffalo Bill's Wild West, visited the grave. They put Indian head nickels on the grave to honor Buffalo Bill, The image on the nickel was that of Iron Tail, a long time friend of Cody and a performer in the Wild West. The tradition continues, however, we didn't participate (didn't have a nickel to our name).

Next on our tour of Denver was the State Capitol. The dome is covered with gold leaf donated by miners and is decorated inside with brass, onyx, marble and granite.

A statue of a Union Civil War soldier and his horse was defaced and toppled last year. Irate legislators immediately funded repairs. It remains to be seen if the statue will be returned to it's traditional place.

A medallion on the thirteenth step of the west entrance to the Capitol Building designates a unique location.

Twas getting late in the afternoon, and we had forty miles to drive home, so we made one more stop before heading west. A distant look at Mile High Stadium, where the Denver Broncos play football.

Back in Central City, dinner downtown was calling, so Yelp led us to Millies, upstairs in the Easy Street Casino. Decorated in the fashion of a bordello, we were the only patrons. Dinner was delicious, however, but we certainly felt strange. Had great service, though!

Leaving Millies, we looked up and saw a retaining wall made from mine timbers. It appears to be holding back a mountain that threatens to engulf Central City!

We have a couple of things on the agenda for tomorrow to wrap up our stay in Colorado.

Palisade, CO to Central City, CO. America's Most Decorated Highway

 We shared dinner Wednesday night with our friends Brian and Kristina. Being working people, they only had a brief time in the evening to visit with us, so we met them at Taco Party, a downtown Grand Junction, "upscale taco joint" (doesn't sound right, does it?). A dozen tacos, soft drinks and two orders of guacamole later, we convinced the server to the our picture!

Brian has too much time on his hands! He has lifted, wheeled and tired, and push barred his Dodge to the point that law enforcement officers often do a double take. As they should, since his latest claim to fame is an almost 900 mile trip, completed in 15 hours without a break except for gas! 

Leaving Palisade on Thursday morning, we were treated to a trip through Colorado's, and probably America's, most beautiful canyon road: the Glenwood Canyon Highway. I70, between the town of Glenwood Springs and Dotsero follows the Colorado River through a narrow canyon twelve and a half miles long. This crown jewel of the interstate system was held up for decades because of environmental concerns, but eventually a plan was developed to cantilever large portions of the highway above the river. It has become one of the most beautiful stretches of highway in the country, and, without a doubt one of the most highly acclaimed engineering feats as well.

Eventually, we began to get into red rock formations, and we thought we had it made through the Rockies.

But, off in the distance....

Eagle, Beaver Creek, Vail, Copper Mountain, and Brekenridge. All with ski-able snow on the 6th of May!

Just east of Frisco, I70 enters the Eisenhower Tunnel under Loveland Pass. The 1.693 mile long tunnel passes beneath the Continental Divide at an average elevation of 11,178 feet above sea level and is listed as one of the highest vehicular traffic tunnels in the world. It was completed in March of 1973 at a cost of 108 million dollars, roughly 675 million today. It provides a faster and safer alternative to US6, the "Old Road".

Just before arrival at our destination, we passed a partially frozen lake near the town of Silverthorne.

Turning off of I70 at exit 243 got us on the Central City Parkway. In about eight miles we pulled into site 9 at the Denver West/Central City KOA. It's a nice site and overlooks the towns of Central City and Blackhawk. This site has a concrete pad, fire pit, grill, and table.

We can look out the front window down into Central City.

Stay with us.....

Helper, UT to Palisade, CO - 186 Miles of Good Road

We left Helper this morning about 10:30, because we knew we wouldn't have far to go. Two hours later we were in Colorado.

We're spending the next two nights in Palisade, Colorado, just 14 miles east of Grand Junction. We have friends here and are trying to set up a lunch date. One family is down with the Rona, so we can only wish them well and hope to catch them next time. Most businesses and restaurants are open in the area, so we're hoping for some "catch-up" time at a restaurant or coffee shop.

Palisade is peach and wine country. Maybe both at the same time, who knows. Our last visit was at the end of the fruit season, so we missed a lot, and this time we're too early! Acres and acres of vineyards dot the countryside, so, with the peach orchards, there's a whole lot of green!

Palisade is correctly named. Surrounded by Bookshelf cliffs and shaded by clouds, the mild climate is a natural hothouse. Interstate 70 winds through the area before climbing into the rockies on the way to Denver, but we didn't find that the rv parks in the area were busy.

We settled this time on Basecamp Palisade RV Resort as our home for awhile. Last year we stayed at Monument RV and it was nice, but we wanted to try something different. Site 31, one of their "premium" sites is very nice, level with full hookups and distant neighbors. We were assigned and paid for a "deluxe" site, which is quite a bit cheaper, but when they saw the motorhome pull up next to the office, they allowed as how we needed the bigger and wider site!

The park is right next to the Colorado River, with a view of mountains and peach trees.'

There's a short trail that skirts the park and follows the river. Sasha and I walked up and down it until she had sniffed every blade of grass and every tree!

The river is still muddy from spring rain in the mountains. I'm told that they had a lot of rain yesterday. Tomorrow some errands and some good visiting. Then a few days of high adventure......

 

Brigham City, Utah to Helper, Utah, plus updated Golden Spike

 If you've already checked out the Golden Spike post, go back and see the new pictures that I added. Somehow the photo transfer did not complete properly. Also, forgive my forgetfulness for leaving this post as a draft yesterday and not pushing the “publish” button!

Today, the 3rd, we slid south on I15 and US6 168 miles to the little town of Helper, Utah. Helper was a huge coal mining area back in the day, and in fact, is named for the little "helper" steam engines that were temporarily attached to trains to "help" them pull coal cars up steep grades. Main Street in Helper is a living, breathing mining museum, and showcases a mining museum detailing the hard life miners endured underground, including this story about the Loma family that lost 9 family members in one single mine disaster.

In 1920, narrow canyon roads near unstable rock formations sometimes meant disaster for motorists!

The Mining Meseum on main street houses an organ brought overland to Utah on a Mormon handcart.

And an early "skateboard".....

At Kenilworth Mine, miners would descend the steep tramway by way of small metal boards that gripped the tramway rails. Controlling their speed with their feet and traveling with a friend for stability, they made it to the depths of the mine much quicker than the cable driven trams.

At one point this area was known as Castle Gate, named for the abrupt rock formations north and south of the valley.

One of the six largest coal mines was also named for the entrance to the valley.

Helper is also the home of two completely restored gas stations. One was unavailable, but the Sinclair station on the north side of town was interesting, not only for the neat old gas pumps, but also for the collection of vintage vehicles stored "out back".

Along with it's coal mining history, and historical buildings and gas stations, Helper also has another claim to fame: On April 21, 1897, the payroll for the Pleasant Valley Coal Company was stolen in broad daylight by Butch Cassidy and Elza Lay! As the story goes, two cowboys were loitering near the train station when the train from Salt Lake City rolled into town carrying three bags carrying $7,000, mostly in gold and paper money. Before the paymaster and two guards could reach the company office 75 yards away from the train, one of the cowboys held the three at gunpoint and took the largest bag. The other cowboy relieved them of another bag. The two robbers had horses nearby and escaped, followed by townsfolk on foot and in buggies who soon were lost in the dust. The two "cowboys" rode south into Robbers Roost, cutting telephone and telegraph wires as they went. The Wild Bunch was hard to track in such hostile country, partly because they didn't put shoes on their horses, thereby blending their tracks with those of wild horses in the area.

In most Februarys these days, Helper holds a commemorative Sundance Film Festival in honor of Butch.

We have settled in space 116 of Castle Gate RV Park, a very nice place. While the sites are not very level, they are surfaced in asphalt grindings, which makes the surface extremely solid.The spaces are far apart and the roads easy to maneuver.  We haven't hooked up the sewer hose tonight, primarily because the connection is 20 feet back of the motorhome. We're only here for one night, so not a huge deal.

Looks like it’s going to be a windy, chilly night in Helper. We decided to have dinner at the only restaurant in town that is open: The Balanced Rock. Donna put away a nice taco salad, and I treated myself to chicken fried steak! Time to go sleep off a great meal!

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