Royal Gorge Route Railroad

The Royal Gorge Route Railroad is a heritage railroad located in Cañon City, Colorado. The railroad transits the Royal Gorge on a 2-hour scenic and historic train ride along what is considered to be the most famed portion of the former Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The 1950s-era train departs the Santa Fe Depot in Cañon City daily.

In the late 1870s, miners descended on the upper Arkansas River valley of Colorado in search of carbonate ores rich in lead and silver. The feverish mining activity in what would become the Leadville district attracted the attention of both the Rio Grande and Santa Fe railroads, each already having tracks in the Arkansas valley. The Santa Fe had tracks in Pueblo and the D&RG had tracks near Cañon City, Colorado, some 35 miles (56 km) west. Leadville was over 100 miles (160 km) away through the "Grand Canon of the Arkansas," a mountain valley 50 miles (80 km) in length at a consistent and railroad-friendly water grade of one per cent.

For two railroads to occupy a river valley ordinarily was not a problem, however, west of Cañon City the Arkansas River cuts through the Royal Gorge, a high plateau of igneous rocks forming a spectacular steep-walled gorge over 1,000 feet (300 m) deep and 6 miles (9.7 km) long. At its narrowest point sheer walls on both sides plunge into the river, creating a nearly impassable barrier. Sharing is not an option along this route.

On April 19, 1878, a construction crew from the Santa Fe's proxy Cañon City and San Juan Railroad, hastily assembled from sympathetic local citizens, began grading for a railroad line just west of Cañon City in the mouth of the gorge. The Rio Grande, whose track ended 0.75 miles (1.21 km) from downtown Cañon City, raced crews to the same area, but they were blocked by Santa Fe graders in the narrow canyon. By a few hours they had lost the first round in what became a two-year struggle between the two railroads that would be known as the Royal Gorge War. Temporary injunctions forbidding further construction were filed in the Colorado courts and soon moved to the federal courts, each company claiming prior right to use of the gorge.

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