Homestead Meadows and Kenosha Pass

Happy ThrowBack Thursday, all! Are you up for another day of Colorado scenery and history? No? Then get the Hell out!

All right, now that that bastard’s gone, let’s head up to Homestead Meadows. Sound familiar? It should; I have successfully taken you there twice and brought you along for a failed attempt as well. Today, I will take you back to late June 2009, which was to be my last visit to Homestead Meadows (probably).

This time, I had only one homestead on my radar: the Boren homestead. Robert Boren established his homestead around 1906. On it, he raised cattle, grew potatoes, and harvested lumber and hay. Let’s take a look already, shall we? We certainly shall…

After exploring the homestead buildings, I noticed a farm implement hiding in the grass. Given its age and the fact that it has likely been exposed to the elements for decades, it seemed to be in surprisingly good condition. Check it out…

…Some squinting and some Wikipedia reading led me to conclude this farm implement was built by Dowden Manufacturing Company in Prairie City, Iowa. It was likely a “Dowden Potato Digger”.

During the hike back to the car, I encountered an intriguing sign. Yes, I know this trail was The Road to/from the homesteads back in the day. Yes, I know the trail is still officially listed as a “U.S. Forest Service Road” (though closed to motor vehicles). Regardless, this sign just seemed…out of place…

Now, let’s skip ahead about a year, to late June 2010. The scene this time is Kenosha Pass. Fans of the TV show “South Park” may recall that Kenosha Pass is where the boys found a man frozen in a block of ice. What’s the relevance? I don’t know. But I do know that for several years, Kenosha Pass was crossed by the Denver, South Park, & Pacific Railroad (DSP&PRR). If this railroad sounds familiar, it’s because it also went over Boreas Pass, which you and I visited a few weeks ago. Kenosha is far more scenic than Boreas. Want proof? OK…