Well it was not originally the King Branch, King did not come to Fairplay until 1882 and this branch dates back to the end of 1879.I think the name stuck because King, King City etc was the last name when things closed up.
Of course the first thing you need is to determine your period of interest, for the Depot it was 1885 to c1905.the Hotel well my inspiration is the as new photo of 1897 but I will fudge a bit.By 1897 major coal operations had ceased.
So a very brief review of the coal operations.
The line I have been calling the Leadville Main was originally built to serve the coal mines shortly after the Railroad arrived in Como, well initially they called the Station Lechner.I have in the past conducted tours over the old mine site, it is private property owned by friends of mine, I was over there yesterday looking for wood, not coal.
The grade is clearly visible until you cross Park Gulch and the rest of the hook is a bit of a guess.Originally one mine a second was added and a coking operation, other areas were being looked at which resulted in the lease of land that was originally called Lower Como, as opposed to Upper Como for the original mine with of course Como being in the middle. Also used is the term Coal Banks which seems to refer to the lower mines. The spur to the Lower mines was built at the end of 1879.
When it was decided to build over what was then Breckenridge Pass to be renamed Boreas Pass the spur was used for the first section of the to be main line to Leadville.
So are we building the track to Leadville or the track to the coal mines? First pick your date.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2020 07:23AM by Como.