Boreas Pass and Como (21 August 2010)

Written by ceddammit

In August 2010, a friend and I ventured into the mountains west of Denver, Colorado to partake in Boreas Pass Railroad Day. Boreas Pass sits between the towns of Breckenridge and Como. These days, you can drive a car over Boreas Pass, but at one time the pass was navigated by the Denver, South Park, & Pacific Railroad (DSP&PRR). Over time, Breckenridge has evolved from a small mining town into a world-renowned hub of outdoor recreation: in short, a ski resort. Como was born as a railroad town and has somehow managed to hold on to a very small population since the railroad was abandoned around 1940. We started the day’s explorations with lunch at what was once a track-side hotel. This is the place:

After lunch we took to hoofin’ it all around the town of Como. Here’s a sampling of what we done seent around town:

Right next to the hotel / restaurant is the old depot…
…which, as you can see…
…was being rehabilitated when we were there.
This was the Montag Saloon.
The other side of Montag Saloon; note the fake brick siding
Como Mercantile
Note the octagonal cupola of the IOOF hall
False fronts galore
This is why some people live in these old towns – no HOA’s.
The view from the edge of town

As I said before, Como was born as a railroad town. The railroad facilities here consisted of much more than the depot you just saw. There was a whole complex of railroad-owned buildings, the centerpiece being (as it typically was in those days) a roundhouse. Let’s check out said roundhouse:

Back of the roundhouse
Front of the roundhouse

The roundhouse is definitely the biggest and most impressive building on the grounds, but there’s much more! Have a look-see:

This was an engineer house…
…a home away from home…
…for engineers who had some time off after rolling into town.
A plethora of old boilers stood outside the roundhouse
Like staring into the eyes of an insect.
Don’t ask me…I don’t know either.
I see this door and I want to paint it, black.
Foundation of tenement building
If you were a lesser railroad employee…
…i.e., not an engineer…
…then you could stay in the railroad’s tenement housing…
…which there appears to have been a fair amount of.

All right, I’ve seen enough of the old railroad grounds. Let’s see what else might be found whilst wandering the public streets of Como:

I long for the days when I could perform my own automobile maintenance.
Ride, ride, ride the wild bee!
The local Catholic Church
An ancient luggage cart hauling what must be decades-overdue luggage
For exterminatin’ varmints
Old grade school, now a civic center
Old high school
Old high school
Another view from the edge of town

Fascinating town, no? But we had got to get movin’ to get to Boreas Pass while there was still sunlight. So, up we went! There aren’t a whole lot of historical remnants at the pass, so I mostly got pics of the Rocky Mountain scenery:

Looking out across South Park
During its later years, the DSP&PRR was merged into the larger Colorado & Southern.
Boreas Pass Section House (left) and supporting structures
No, this isn’t a cemetery. Those are stumps left in place when trees were cut down for use in building and heating the section house.

Again, as so many weeks before, we have come to the end of ThrowBack Thursday. Next week, we’ll cover the non-Arches parts of my 2010 Moab trip.

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