Uptop Colorado – September 2020

Yes, it is Up Top at 9382. Also, for sale as of 2020. Plenty to see at a site used for everything from saloon brawls to church services to modern day concerts. Native Americans were among the first to visit this area. They came to collect medicinal plants and build some prayer trees. Some people claim the trees that were built by the Utes are still standing. I think I spotted some.

The trappers and mountain men came next and then in 1877 the Railroad, Denver and Rio Grande crossed the pass. At that time at 9,382 feet, it was the highest RR pass in the world. It was called “The Railway Above the Clouds”. It was a narrow-gauge RR and attempts to convert it to standard gauge failed due to the tight twists and turn so it was torn up in 1899. The RR was moved south and built standard gauge to haul bigger loads.  The narrow-gauge trains and tracks are gone now but if you look carefully when you are there and, on the road, up it is easy to see the RR bed.

The Trujillo family had homesteaded the area in 1917 and built a sawmill to supply lumber using the old RR bed to haul the lumber for the Coal industry to build their mines and tunnels.  At that time close to 100 people live in Uptop. They built a Chapel a schoolhouse and dozens of cabins.

After WWII the coal industry shifted, and the town started to die. It was revived to a small extent when the “Lone Pine Inn” was built as an around the clock restaurant to serve tourist and truckers on highway 160. It also served as a dance Hall and tavern.

The final death blow was delivered in 1962 when dozens of cars and truck slide off the treacherous twisty turns and the decision was made to reroute the highway. In 2011 it was named a National Historic Landmark.