SCANDAL IN GORE CANYON - ALL WAS NOT QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT AS EARLY RAIL TYCOONS FOUGHT OVER THE GORE
By Cyndi McCoy / Photos Courtesy of Grand County Historical Association

Near Corona circa 1910, an engine pushing a spreader with flat-bed cars in tow clears the large snow drifts off the tracks after a February snow storm (GCHA Photo #3513).

As the dust cloud billowed, the pounding hooves grew louder and the focused blows of the track lane crew hammers halted. A horseback messenger confirmed what railroad tycoon David Moffat and Survey Engineer H.A. Sumner already feared.

Union Pacific (UP) Executive E. H. Harriman was up to his old antics again and would be one of the greatest threats they’d come across in the Wild West. Middle Park’s rugged, unforgiving terrain and merciless weather conditions were no match for the low-down deeds Harriman dealt to keep Moffat and the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific Railway (DNW&P) from reaching its Salt Lake City, Utah destination.

Thanks to investments from Moffat (through ties in banking and mining) and business associates, trains had triumphantly reached Grand County by 1904 over Rollins Pass. Also known as the famous Moffat Line, the major accomplishment of a standard-gauge railroad from Denver west was Moffat’s most grand vision.

Thought of as folly for a dreamer, the line would ascend an even higher summit by reaching the bountiful area of Winter Park through the Moffat Tunnel in 1928. The 6.2-mile-long tunnel, the sixth largest on earth and the highest standard-gauge railroad built in North America, reduced the trip to Middle Park from five hours to about 12 minutes. (Moffat would never get to see his final dream unfold, buying a one-way ticket for that eternal rail line in the sky in 1911.)

David Moffat unwinds in his office at the First National Bank in Denver, 1889. This photo was taken following a bank robbery in which Moffat paid the robber in order to avoid any violence (GCHA Photo #4958).

The industrialist envisioned a line that would connect the dying city of Denver, neglected by a Union Pacific route in 1866, and head west over the Continental Divide. By 1872, when the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad had formed in hopes of connecting at least freight and passenger service to the UP’s transcontinental railroad, the census counted only 4,700 people in what is now a bounding metropolis. A Rocky Mountain News headline declared the city “too dead to bury.”

Despite heavy UP opposition, the railway stretched through near-impossible challenges, with many survey crews repelling down sheer rock walls just to make footbridges above the raging rapids of several river canyons. The line headed west through Byers Canyon in Hot Sulphur Springs, and reached Craig in Moffat County.

Sumner suggested going through the Gore Canyon, but Harriman was always “watching with interest” and trying with all his might (much of it financial) to derail their plans. Harriman sensed the Moffat Line would be in direct competition to his UP transcontinental railroad and went as far as to skew building plans to dam up the canyon. Many men with the clashing survey crews were armed and rumor has it the tension caused some to resort to gunfight.

By the time the horseback messenger had delivered the post, newspaper headlines were reading “Scandal in Gore Canyon.” Two companies, the New Century Power Company (NCPC) and the Hydro-Electric Power Plant Company, were making surveys of Gore Canyon, buying up land around Kremmling, and filing like mad men for reservoir sites right in the chosen pathway for the railroad.

Hot Sulphur Springs soon after the arrival of the Moffat rails in 1905, photo courtesy of Kalmbach Books.

Between you, me and a fence post, Moffat and Sumner suspected the companies were frauds, most likely connected to Harriman, and the story would unfold to prove them right. Opposing legal authorities would keep DNW&P attorney Charles J. Hughes Jr., very busy as well. One of the first obstacles to argue was a statement that a railroad grade would not be stable in its proposed route because the water table was too high. Other challenges arose when former Chief Engineer Milner switched over to Union Pacific, which in turn began filing for reservoir sites up Yampa River Canyon.

The tables would turn after an injunction against Moffat was removed, and Moffat’s lawyer filed a counter-suit against the NCPC. While valid, the injunction ordered Moffat and survey crews for the railroad to cease work in Gore Canyon. The counter suit ordered NCPC to stop its work in the Gore, but it didn’t. This violation of the court order is believed to have put the final nail in NCPC’s own coffin. Stall tactics, lost files, maps off by up to two miles, and skewed photographs would not fool the railroad or President Teddy Roosevelt any longer. Roosevelt’s own investigation into the matter proved it was Moffat who had the rights-of-way up the Gore.

The crew is gathered in front of Engine 110 of the Denver and Salt Lake Railroad, circa 1920 (GCHA Photo #4610).

The NCPC would fold in its cards and give the pot to the Hydro-Electric Power Plant Company – which did prove to be legitimate. Very much worn down by delay and expense, our Western hero Moffat passed on his reins to the Rio Grande, which had the resources to finish out the project.

Their contributions to Denver, the railroading economy, and commerce in Grand County have been priceless. The DNW&P, which followed a shorter route west and opened up farming, ranching and mining areas in the county, first reached Granby in 1905. It brought coal west, Middle Park lumber and materials to Denver, and Denver tourism to Grand County.

Moffat was a man of perseverance and so is Granby resident and enthusiast Dave Naples, who gives the inspirational industrialist a voice through the Grand County Characters. “He had the vision, and courage to back it up and do something about it,” Naples said. “He was a doer ... his attempt to build the standard-gauge railroad was considered a huge folly at the time, and Moffat just said ‘I don’t care. I think it can be done and I’m the one to do it.’”

Like Moffat, Naples doesn’t give up that easy. Chugging along with not much more than their passions to fire up the engine with many obstacles on track, his model railroad club is optimistic a museum in Granby will be a reality soon and “a project the community can get into.” Railroads are still a large part of Grand County’s lifestyle and unique character, and the museum will highlight that with interpretive displays and full-size cars on showcase, including a full model of the famous Moffat Line.

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