How exciting that Colorado Archaeology and Historic Preservation Month-May 2010 celebrates “Pathways to Colorado’s Heritage,” the Colorado Department of Transportation’s 100th Anniversary. “Efficient and reliable transportation has long been a critical element in the development of Colorado. From Native American trails, to wagon roads and railroads, to a formalized network of highways and airports, our state’s transportation system has evolved quickly and dramatically. The past 100 years in Colorado have seen some of the greatest transportation engineering accomplishments anywhere in the United States.”
The original “highway” through Eagle County was the Ute Trail, used by the Ute Indians as they moved from winter to summer ranges. Part of the trail has been identified over Cordillera (Squaw Creek and Bellyache Ridge), and was also used by the Redcliff to Dotsero Stage Line [Cultural Resource Inventory, Rocky Mountain Natural Gas Co.] The topology of the entire County presented challenges to those trying to get from here to there: from the first county seat, Red Cliff, to Dotsero, for example.
Men on wagons loaded with potato sacks lined up to load freight cars (Denver & Rio Grande Railroad) at the Eagle Depot (visible at far left).
For Eagle County, transportation was critical to development, as evidenced by the jump in population once the railroad made it through the Eagle River Valley and the Colorado River Valley in the late 1800s. The fact that train depots were from 7 to 10 miles apart so that a farmer could get his potatoes to the depot and get back home in one day by horsepower speaks to the importance of transportation to commerce. Another amazing feat given the geology of the area is the construction of Highway 6 and then Interstate 70 over Vail Pass. The success of the ski industry in Eagle County is directly attributable to the safe means of moving visitors from the front range to the slopes. It remains to be seen if transportation planning can improve the ski traffic gridlock getting to and from those slopes today.
Road Construction in Glenwood Canyon, 1936-1937. C. A. Switzer involved in the construction (Denver bridge builder who built the Dotsero and Eagle Bridges).
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