640 Miles to Denver

(Text from original sign.) 640 Miles to Denver. Those dangerous, discomforting days of staging to Colorado ended when the Kansas Pacific Railroad (paralleling U.S. 40) built west to tie Denver with Kansas City and the East. Pushing their hell-on-wheels town along as they made their way, thousands of brawling, thick-skinnned men shoveled and scraped a roadbed over the prairie, threw down roughhewn ties - 2475 to the mile - and armed against Indian attack, ironed the road - three strokes to the spike, 25 spikes to the rail, 375 rails to the mile, 640 miles to Denver.

On August 15, 1870, at 3:00 P.M., when the last rail was spiked just east of Strasburg, for the first time it was possible to cross this continent on rail unbroken by a river crossing over temporary track laid on ice or by ferry. On that final day, a record 10 1/4-mile gap was filled, and a 1 1/2 day ride by palace car replaced the jolting, sleepless, week-long trip by stage and rambling two-month journey by prairie schooner over the sunburned plains.

Erected with the Comanche Crossing Historical Society, 1969. High-Five Plains Towns - Ten Miles a Day - Bennett Country - Front Range Flight