I remember when Uncle Bob came to Cleveland to visit my Mom (his sister)and stay with us for a week right after he sold off his share of the Narrow Gauge Museum and Motel in Alamosa.He spent some time in Akron visiting his Dad (my grandfather) and other long-time friends to take some time and regroup following the mess in Alamosa. He brought some steamer trunks full of things from the motel and museum for us to hold onto for a while until he got resettled in Golden with his new partner Corny. I'll never know all the inner thoughts he had or the discussions he had with Conry Hauck as to exactly why they chose Golden specifically. I do know they looked and looked at a lot of properties in the narrow gauge "circle". Uncle Bob related to me years later that one over-riding factor that led to Golden was the availability of the portion of the farm (and house he lived in) and the reality of moving the accumulated rolling stock, engines and tenders to Golden. Bridge weight limits in that era were NOT conducive along the routes from Alamosa to Golden for tractor trailers to haul the collection. Trying to haul those loads and deal with questionable bridge limits etc. in locations further into the Rockies would have been unpredictable at best. Also, the Golden site could use a temporary spur track laid from across the street to move items onto the Golden site. Some of the potential museum locations were on land parcels with sorted and not too clear pathways of owenrship, particularly if they were mining lands or railroad parcels.He also related to me that in 1958, tourism was really taking off in Colorado. The Golden site was fairly strategic as one of the "gateways" to the Rockies for capturing museum visitors. They also had yet another motel early on to capture some of the tourists.Uncle Bob spoke about the accessability to the Golden site with far more good weather days as opposed to a site at higher elevations and the (then) limited "good roads" providing access to mountain towns.On one of my early visits to Golden, Bob mentioned the photo opportunities the curved track and open look of the Golden site. Some great "run-by" photos could be taken of the museum rolling stock in the early days.
Of course there are some great letters I have relating the sordid "encounters" Bob had with a certain beer factory across the street and other real-estate adventures.
Rick