Life could be harsh in Colorado’s rugged, remote Middle Park region in 1876

Life could be harsh in Colorado’s rugged, remote Middle Park region in 1876

A log structure and several people are pictured on the banks of the Colorado River — then known as the Grand River — at Hot Sulphur Springs in this 1870s photograph by W.G. Chamberlain. (Courtesy of Denver Public Library Special Collections, X-9455) On a good day for the Colorado Central Railroad in spring 1876, it took less than three hours for a passenger train departing Denver to ascend Clear Creek Canyon as far as Floyd Hill. ← April 16–…