The Royal Gorge Route Railroad is a

heritage railroad A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

based in

Cañon City, Colorado Cañon City is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Fremont County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 17,141 at the 2020 United States Census. Cañon City is the principal city of t ...

. A 1950s-era train makes daily 2-hour excursion runs from the Santa Fe

Depot Depot ( or ) may refer to: Places * Depot, Poland, a village * Depot Island, Kemp Land, Antarctica * Depot Island, Victoria Land, Antarctica * Depot Island Formation, Greenland Brands and enterprises * Maxwell Street Depot, a restaurant in ...

through the

Royal Gorge The Royal Gorge is a canyon of the Arkansas River located west of Cañon City, Colorado. The canyon begins at the mouth of Grape Creek, about west of central Cañon City, and continues in a west-northwesterly direction for approximately until ...

along a famous section of the former

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south from De ...

History

In the late 1870s, miners descended on the upper

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...

valley of Colorado in search of carbonate ores rich in lead and silver. The feverish mining activity in what would become the

Leadville The City of Leadville is a statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 2,602 at the 2010 census and an estimated ...

district attracted the attention of the Rio Grande and Santa Fe railroads, each of which already had tracks in the lower Arkansas valley: Santa Fe in

Pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

and the D&RG near

Cañon City A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cu ...

, some west. Extending either of these lines to Leadville would require laying more than of track through the "Grand Canyon of the Arkansas," a mountain valley in length at a consistent and railroad-friendly water grade of one percent. For two railroads to occupy a river valley is not a problem in principle, but west of Cañon City the Arkansas River cuts through the

, a high

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...

igneous rocks Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or ...

forming a spectacular steep-walled gorge over deep and long. At its narrowest point, sheer walls on both sides plunge into the river, creating a nearly impassable barrier. So on this route, two railroads could not share the valley. On April 19, 1878, a construction crew from the Santa Fe's proxy Cañon City and San Juan Railroad,The CC&SJ had been formed by the Santa Fe in February 1877 and a board of directors selected from local businessmen to give the Santa Fe, which was not incorporated in the state of Colorado, standing in the Colorado courts. The directors then appointed the operating officers of the Santa Fe as its own operating officers. This legal fiction was common practice and was undertaken to allow the Santa Fe to stake a plat of the first of the canyon and file it with the

General Land Office The General Land Office (GLO) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department o ...

of the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

to comply with the provisions of the Right-of-Way Act of 1875, something the Rio Grande was tardy in doing for its 1871 and 1873 surveys of the gorge. hastily assembled from sympathetic local citizens, began grading for a railroad line just west of Cañon City in the mouth of the gorge. The Rio Grande, whose track ended from downtown Cañon City,This was the contractual terminus resulting from a $100,000 bond issue approved by Cañon City voters. The D&RG's refusal to complete a line to downtown Cañon City after coercing the bonds from the town was the source of widespread citizen resentment of the Rio Grande. raced crews to the same area, but they were blocked by Santa Fe graders in the narrow canyon. By a few hours they had lost the first round in what became a two-year struggle between the two railroads that would be known as the Royal Gorge War. Temporary

injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...

s forbidding further construction were filed in the Colorado courts and soon moved to the federal courts, each company claiming the right to use the gorge.

Royal Gorge War

On August 23, 1878, the

United States Circuit Court The United States circuit courts were the original intermediate level courts of the United States federal court system. They were established by the Judiciary Act of 1789. They had trial court jurisdiction over civil suits of diversity jurisdict ...

for the District of Colorado found in favor of the Santa Fe and its proxy, the Cañon City and San Juan Company, allowing construction of a railroad through the first of the canyon, which includes the Royal Gorge. The Rio Grande was given the right to lay track that did not interfere with Santa Fe interests, the right to use Santa Fe tracks where the gorge was too narrow to construct its own line. The Rio Grande promptly appealed the decision to the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

and began work to finish a line in the upper of the canyon. The Santa Fe opposed this move by attempting to lay track in the upper canyon for its subsidiary Pueblo and Arkansas Valley Railroad.The P&AV was an earlier Santa Fe proxy, with track that ran from

Dodge City, Kansas Dodge City is the county seat of Ford County, Kansas, Ford County, Kansas, United States, named after nearby Fort Dodge (US Army Post), Fort Dodge. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 27,788. The c ...

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, Pueblo County, Colorado ...

. The Cañon City and San Juan consolidated with it in September 1878. Santa Fe resorted to its larger corporate power and announced it would build standard-gauge tracks parallel to and in competition with existing narrow-gauge D&RG lines. The bondholders of the D&RG, fearing financial ruin from this threat, pressured Rio Grande management to lease the existing railroad to the Santa Fe. An end to the struggle appeared to be at hand when the companies reached agreement on the proposed lease to all of the D&RG tracks, equipment, buildings and employees to AT&SF for a 30-year period. The Santa Fe thus gained access to

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

in competition with its transcontinental rivals, the

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

and

Kansas Pacific Railroad The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. At a time when the first transcontine ...

s. The lease went into effect on December 13, 1878, and the Santa Fe soon increased freight rates south of Denver to favor shipping to southern Colorado over its lines to the east, to the detriment of Denver merchants using the leased D&RG lines. By March 1879, with allegations that all of its provisions were being violated by the Santa Fe, the Rio Grande sought to break the lease. During this period, Santa Fe moved to finish construction of the railroad through the gorge itself while the Rio Grande continued construction in areas in the canyon west of the gorge. Grading crews of both companies were harassed by rocks rolled down on them, tools thrown in the river and other acts of sabotage. Both sides began assembling armed groups of men again to seize and hold strategic points in the gorge in anticipation of a favorable judgment by the Supreme Court. Rio Grande crews built 17 stone "forts" (such as "Fort DeRemer"Named for construction engineer James Richard DeRemer, who had them built. at Spike Buck near

Texas Creek, Colorado Texas Creek, Colorado is an unincorporated community at the junction of U.S. Highway 50 and State Highway 69 in Fremont County, Colorado, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U ...

) to block the encroachments and keep the CC&SJ crews bottled up in the gorge.DeArment (2014), p. 150 After months of shrinking earnings from their leased railroad, Rio Grande management went to court to break the lease. While lawyers argued their case before the court, armed men hired by Santa Fe took control of Rio Grande stations from Denver to Cañon City, led by

Bat Masterson Bartholemew William Barclay "Bat" Masterson (November 26, 1853 – October 25, 1921) was a U.S. Army scout, lawman, professional gambler, and journalist known for his exploits in the 19th and early 20th-century American Old West. He was born to ...

, the sheriff of

Ford County, Kansas Ford County (county code FO) is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 34,287. Its county seat and most populous city is Dodge City. The county is named in honor of Colonel James Hobart Ford. G ...

, at the time, ostensibly hired to assemble a "posse" to defend their interests. Masterson enlisted the help of

Doc Holliday John Henry Holliday (August 14, 1851 – November 8, 1887), better known as Doc Holliday, was an American gambler, gunfighter, and dentist. A close friend and associate of lawman Wyatt Earp, Holliday is best known for his role in the event ...

to assemble 33 recruits, including the notorious gunfighters “Dirty”

Dave Rudabaugh David Rudabaugh (July 14, 1854February 18, 1886) was a cowboy, outlaw, and gunfighter in the American Old West. Modern writers often refer to him as "Dirty Dave" because of his alleged aversion to water, though no evidence has emerged to show ...

, Josh Webb, Ben Thompson, and “Mysterious” Dave Mather. On April 21, 1879, the Supreme Court granted the D&RG the primary right to build through the gorge on the basis that the lower courts had erred in not recognizing that it had been granted prior right to use of the entire 50 miles in 1872 by an

Act of Congress An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called Public and private bills, private laws), or to the general public (Public and private bills, public laws). For a Bill (law) ...

.Osterwald (2003) Masterson's posse returned to Kansas but the validity of the lease remained unsettled.DeArment (2014), p. 151 In early June 1879, when it appeared the issue was about to be resolved in favor of the Rio Grande, Masterson and 60 men hurriedly returned by special train, taking up a key position at the defensible Santa Fe roundhouse in Pueblo. An injunction on June 10, 1879, from a local court restraining the Santa Fe from operating on Rio Grande track sparked an armed retaking of their railroad the next day by Rio Grande crews. Robert F. Weitbrec, former construction foreman and now treasurer of the company, and chief engineer John A. McMurtrie brought 100 men to Pueblo. They met with

Pueblo County Pueblo County ( or ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 168,162. The county seat is Pueblo. The county was named for the historic city of Pueblo which took its name from the Spanish lan ...

Sheriff Henly R. Price and Town Marshal Pat Desmond on the best means to serve the writ and dispossess Masterson's men of the roundhouse. Weitbrec suggested they "borrow" a cannon from the state armory only to find that Masterson had already taken it and reportedly trained it from the roundhouse down the street approach. McMurtrie and Desmond gathered 50 Rio Grande men in front of the Victoria Hotel and distributed rifles and ammunition. They marched to the railroad platform, broke down the door to the telegraph office, and when shots were fired, Masterson's men fled through the back windows, cutting him off from any communication with his employers.DeArment (2014), p. 152However an 1898 popular history of the building of the railroads in the west, ''The Story of the Railroad'' by Cy Warman, asserts that Masterson surrendered the roundhouse peacefully ''before'' the telegraph office was seized. (Warman, p. 154) Supposedly when confronted with the re-borrowed cannon, Masterson's men surrendered the roundhouse.Rumors among disappointed Santa Fe partisans in Dodge City accused Masterson of accepting a bribe to surrender. However, Weitbrec met with Masterson after taking control of the telegraph and it is likely that, unable to communicate with the AT&SF, service of the writ and seizure of all the Rio Grande property elsewhere actually led him to capitulate. (DeArment, p. 152) Despite accounts in partisan secondary sources reporting deaths at the hands of the rival company's men, there is no reliable proof that anyone was actually killed.Two stories illustrate the nature of the "war". The ''Dodge City'' (Kansas) ''Times'' alleged that a Harris W Jenkins was shot in the back and paralyzed by a "drunken Rio Grande guard" while fleeing through a window of the telegraph office in Pueblo, later dying at his "home in Pawnee County." The ''Colorado Weekly Chieftain'' was forced to make a retraction when it reported that a "John" (or James) Gallagher was killed by a blow to the head from a Santa Fe worker, only to have the alleged victim show up very much alive at their offices. The federal courts forced the D&RG to return the property it had illegally seized and ordered it into

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...

. However in the fall of 1879, railroad "robber baron"

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made hi ...

of the Kansas Pacific Railroad loaned the D&RG $400,000, bought a 50% interest in the company and announced the intention of completing a rail line from St. Louis to Pueblo to compete with the Santa Fe.

After the Royal Gorge War

In the end, the warring companies settled out of court. On March 27, 1880, the two railroads signed what was called the "Treaty of Boston" (Boston being the corporate home of the Santa Fe) which ended all litigation and gave the D&RG back its railroad. The D&RG paid the Santa Fe $1.8 million (which included a $400,000 "bonus" over actual costs) for the railroad it had built in the gorge, the grading it had completed, materials on hand, and interest. Gould's plans for competitive lines and a proposed line through Raton Pass southward into New Mexico, were cancelled by the Rio Grande. D&RG construction resumed, and rails reached Leadville on July 20, 1880. Passenger train service began in 1880 and continued through 1967. Rio Grande continued freight service through the gorge as part of their Tennessee Pass subdivision until 1989, when the company merged with the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

, and the Southern Pacific took control of the gorge line. In 1996, the combined company was merged into the systems of the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

. The year after Union Pacific purchased Southern Pacific and Rio Grande, the railroad closed the Tennessee Pass line, including the gorge segment. In 1997, Union Pacific was persuaded to sell the of track through the Royal Gorge in an effort to preserve this scenic route. Two new corporations, the Cañon City & Royal Gorge Railroad (CC&RG) and Rock & Rail, Inc. (R&R), joined together to form Royal Gorge Express, LLC (RGX), to purchase the line. Passenger service on the new Royal Gorge Route Railroad began in May 1999, and are controlled by the Rock & Rail Railroad. Train movements from Pueblo CO to Canon City CO on the Tennessee Pass are controlled by the

Union Pacific Harriman Dispatch Center The Union Pacific Harriman Dispatch Center is located at 850 Jones Street in downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Called "the Bunker" by some, the Harriman is Union Pacific's rail traffic control headquarters, where the movement of more than 850 trains and n ...

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

Hanging Bridge

A highlight of the gorge route is the 1879 hanging bridge located along the north side where the gorge narrows to and the sheer rocks walls plunge into the river. Designed by Kansas engineer C. Shallor Smith and built by Santa Fe construction engineer A.A. RobinsonJ. R. DeRemer is often given credit for the building of the Hanging Bridge but he was in the employ of the Rio Grande at the time the bridge was built by the Santa Fe. for $11,759, the bridge consists of a plate girder suspended on one side under A-frame girders that span the river and are anchored to the rock walls. Strengthened over the years, the bridge remains in service today.

Royal Gorge Route Today

The Royal Gorge Route Railroad operates trains year-round through the

from

to the western terminus in Parkdale, Colorado. The train is a destination attraction that carries passengers under the Royal Gorge suspension bridge. David Romano is the general manager.

References

Notes Citations Sources * DeArment, Robert K. (2014). ''Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend'', University of Oklahoma Press, * * Warman, Cy (1898).
The Story of the Railroad"> The Story of the Railroad
' "The Story of the West" Series (1906), D. Appleton and Company, New York.

External links

Royal Gorge Route's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Gorge Route Railroad Cañon City, Colorado Heritage railroads in Colorado Transportation in Fremont County, Colorado Tourist attractions in Fremont County, Colorado