Around 1897, my husband's paternal great grandfather, Richard B., his wife, Sarah, and their family migrated from Kansas westward in covered wagons to the foothills of the Rockies near Husted, El Paso, Colorado. Richard and his two sons each had a homestead near one another. They worked one section--640 acres. Richard grew wheat as "wheat can grow anywhere," cut trees and sold the wood at homes in Colorado Springs for $2.50 a wagon load, and raised a few cattle.Husted was a three or four mile walk from the homestead. It had a railroad station, roundhouse and section house, railroad bunk house, a schoolhouse with a pot-bellied stove, two outhouses on side of hill and a stream crossed by a foot bridge. Richard painted the fence around the two-acre school yard. According to his grandson, it was very unusual to have wood painted in those days. They were forced to move into Colorado Springs in the spring of 1905 when possibly both Richard and one of the sons became ill and could no longer work the land.
Husted and its counterpart Pring were sidings on the D&RG (Denver and Rio Grande) Railroad built in 1871 (today operated by Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Company). Trains bound for Denver would start out in Colorado Springs with two engines--one in front and one in back. At Husted, another D&RG helper steam engine was added at Husted to assist northbound train in climbing the uphill grade over the Palmer Divide to mile-high Denver. A local roundhouse/turntable was used for turning the helper steam engines around. At Palmer Divide, the helpers would again turn around on a turntable located there, and return to Husted to pull another freight or passenger train over the divide. In the 1920’s, larger, more powerful engines enabled the railroads to eliminate the need for helper engines and crews in Husted.
Railroad accidents occurred along the stretch between Husted and Monument about six miles to the north. In the late 1800’s, there were several accidents due to trains being blown off the tracks by high westerly winds. This section also had its share of non-weather related accidents.
On Saturday, August 14, 1909, a spectacular Rio Grande train wreck occurred at 10:25 am. Ten persons died and between 40 and 50 were injured, three engines were in the ditch, two baggage cars, including the contents, were smashed to kindling wood, and several passenger coaches were badly damaged as the result of a head on collision between northbound passenger train No 8 and southbound passenger No 1 on the Denver & Rio Grande, near Husted, 13 miles north of Colorado Springs. The wreck was due to a misunderstanding of the orders.
The two photos on the Waymark page were courtesy of Jack Anthony, Wilber H. Fulker who was a passenger on the train and took the photos, and The Vaile Museum in Palmer Lake, Colorado.