Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, Texas, March 13, 2011

Chapel on the Rock, Allenspark, Colorado, September 16, 2011

High Mountains to High Desert (Exit78)

About nine miles south of Estes Park on Colorado 7, we stopped to take pictures of the Chapel on the Rock – officially St. Catherine of Siena Chapel – on the grounds of Saint Malo Retreat Center.   The chapel  is built on a large piece of granite that the Colorado highway department once planned to dynamite to widen and straighten the adjacent highway.  Dedicated in 1936, the chapel was built from local stone hauled in by mule carts.

In November 2011, a fire heavily damaged portions of the St. Malo Retreat Center.  The chapel, several hundred feet away was not damaged.

In September 2013, 100-year scale rains caused flooding and mud and rock slides that significantly damaged the natural terrain.  Plans to rebuild the property have been placed on indefinite hold.

The Chapel on the Rock was undamaged and remains open.

Bent’s Old Fort, La Junta, Colorado, September 7, 2011

Bent’s Old Fort (Exit78, November 8, 2011)

William Bent, Charles Bent and Ceran St. Vrain were among the earliest western fur traders and, in the 1820’s, began to engage in the Mexican and Indian trade.  There were five Bent brothers. For thirty years their name was almost synonymous with the fur trade of Colorado.

In 1831 or 1832 Charles Bent and St. Vrain formed a partnership, which in time became Bent, St. Vrain, and Co., and entered the Santa Fe trade. In the late 1820’s or early 1830’sWilliam Bent, who had apparently been trading independently, erected a large adobe fort on the north bank of the Arkansas River, 12 miles west of the mouth of the Purgatoire. At first named Fort William, it was also known as Bent’s Fort and finally as Bent’s Old Fort after it was partially destroyed and a new fort was built elsewhere. Elaborately constructed, it was eventually a massive adobe structure of quadrangular shape having 24 rooms lining the walls, supported by poles. Two 30-foot cylindrical bastions, equipped with cannon, flanked the southwest and northeast corners. The walls were 15 feet high and 2 feet thick and extended 4 feet above the building roofs to serve as a banquette and were pierced with loopholes. On the south side was a cattle yard, enclosed by a high wall. A self-sufficient institution, the fort was operated by about 60 persons of many nationalities and vocations, including blacksmiths, trappers and traders, carpenters, mechanics, wheelwrights, gunsmiths, cooks, cattle herders, hunters, clerks, teamsters, and laborers. (read more…)

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNG), Silverton, Colorado, September 8, 2009

Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (Wikipedia)

The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNG) is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge heritage railroad that operates 45.2 miles (72.7 km) of track between Durango and Silverton, in the U.S. state of Colorado. The railway is a federally designated National Historic Landmark and is also designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

The route was originally opened in 1882 by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway (D&RG) to transport silver and gold ore mined from the San Juan Mountains. The line was an extension of the D&RG 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge line from Antonito, Colorado, to Durango. The last train to operate into Durango from the east was on December 6, 1968. The states of New Mexico and Colorado purchased 64 miles between Antonito and Chama, New Mexico, in 1970 and operates today as the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Trackage between Chama and Durango was removed by 1971.

The line from Durango to Silverton has run continuously since 1881, although it is now a tourist and heritage line hauling passengers, and is one of the few places in the U.S. which has seen continuous use of steam locomotives. In March 1981, the Denver & Rio Grande Western sold the line and the D&SNG was formed.

Some rolling stock dates back to the 1880s. Trains operate from Durango to the Cascade Wye in the winter months and Durango-Silverton during the summer months. Durango depot was built in January 1882 and has been preserved in original form.

image – Some rights reserved

Quote is from Scott Adams’ Blog.  Adams is the Dilbert cartoonist.

Image is creative commons licensed from DonkeyHotey on Flickr.

“Fort Cody Trading Post” – North Platte, Nebraska, August 18, 2007

Growing up in North Platte, Nebraska in the 50s and 60s, images of Buffalo Bill Cody were a familiar sight for me as the city claimed to be “Home of Buffalo Bill,” which it was, for a time.  William F. Cody, had a long association with the town. In 1870, he was initiated into Freemasonry in Platte Valley Lodge No.32, in North Platte.  Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show was founded in the area in 1883 and, from the profits, he purchased a 4000 acre ranch in the area a few years later.

In the 1960s, Fort Cody Trading Post was on US Highway 30 on the north side of town, along the route I took most of the time to Madison Junior High in the 7th grade.  Highway 30 was the early and mid 20th century incarnation of the Great Platte River Road, roughly followed in the past by the Trapper’s Trail, the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, the California Trail, the Pony Express, and the military road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Laramie across Nebraska.

Today’s Fort Cody is on the south side of town, south of the South Platte River and near Interstate 80, the modern incarnation of the Great Platte River Road.  In the 80s and early 90s, the trading post was one of our family’s favorite stops when visiting North Platte.

Fort Cody Trading Post (RoadsideAmerica.com)

On a cross-country trip, Fort Cody is a reassuring sight, with its log stockade walls and towers, looming 2-dimensional Buffalo Bill sign, and promise of “Western Gifts.”

The 30-foot tall sign resembling Buffalo Bill isn’t an arbitrarily exploited Old West figure; Buffalo Bill Cody (called Buffalo Bill after killing 4,280 buffalo in one 18 month period) lived in North Platte for many years.

The Fort Cody Trading Post has remained true to its original vision — a replica frontier redoubt of the 1860-to-1875 era that claims to be “Nebraska’s Largest Souvenir and Western Gift Store.” While many gift shops in the West attempt to look like frontier stockades, this is probably the largest, maybe even larger than life. Soldier dummies man the stockade battlements and towers; one has an arrow sticking out of his butt.

(read more about Fort Cody at RoadsideAmerica.com)

Tulsa Garden Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 26, 2013

Gull with its catch, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, June 14, 2012 – trip out to Fort Sumter and back

Manitou Avenue street  scene, Manitou Springs, Colorado, September 10, 2011

We were camped just a a ways down the road at Garden of the Gods RV Resort.

Manitou Springs, Colorado (Wikipedia)

The City of Manitou Springs is a Home Rule Municipality located in El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The town was founded for its scenic setting and natural mineral springs. The downtown area continues to be of interest to travelers, particularly in the summer, as the downtown area consists of many one-story, adjoining, small shops, restaurants, and pubs, as well as a creekside city park with a children’s playground made from unusual materials. Among other services, shops cater to tourist interests such as clothing, candy, souvenirs, and outdoor recreation. The main road through the center of town was one of the direct paths to the base of Pikes Peak. Barr Trail, which winds its way up Pikes Peak, is easily accessible from town.

(Read more about Manitou Springs, Colorado on Wikipedia)