Royal Gorge Railway War
In the 1870s, a small section of the narrow gauge railway it meandered through the cavernous walls of the Arkansas Canyon in the heart of Colorado. Control of this rail line would play out as a major cliffhanger in the state’s mining history and would later be dubbed the “Royal Gorge War”. The incident took place in the Arkansas Canyon during the years 1878-1880.
Bat Masterson and Ben Thompson, two prominent gunmen of the day, sided with one of the warring railroad companies: Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (AT&SF). The railroad company was trying to reclaim the tracks that rival Denver and Rio Grande (D&RG) had built in 1872 as a lucrative link between Denver and Pueblo.
The stage was set in 1872 when the Denver and Rio Grande (D&RG) Railroad Company built a narrow gauge railroad from Denver to Pueblo, Colorado. They then opened a line from Pueblo to Canon Coal Mines, which lay 37 miles west of Pueblo. They then built south of Pueblo, ran a line through the mountains of southern Colorado and into the San Luis Valley until they reached El Moro in 1876. They extended the rail line to Fort Garland in 1877 and finally to Alamosa in June. from 1878.
Around the same time, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (AT&SF) Railroad Company was building west of Kansas City. The AT&SF reached the Colorado line in 1872, but due to delays it did not reach Pueblo until 1876. During that same year, Leadville was booming as a silver mining center and would make a great deal of money hauling goods to and from the city.
Realizing this potential, AT&SF decided to operate a rail line from Pueblo to Leadville. This required the line to pass through the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas River, which was situated fifty miles west of Pueblo. The narrow pass would allow only one railway line to be built. This was the crux of the conflict; the D&RG wanted the same.
By 1878, both railroad companies had brought men and equipment to the area in hopes of securing the right of way through the gorge while company lawyers fought court rulings in their favor. By April of that year, AT&SF had stationed more than 300 men in the canyon to secure construction sites for the line. D&RG matched that number, but had trouble keeping men hired because their rival paid higher wages.
AT&SF attorneys were able to get a local court to issue a temporary injunction against D&RG, halting any further work on the canyon. But before AT&SF could take advantage of this opportunity, D&RG obtained an injunction preventing the Kansas company from doing any more work on its line. With both companies at a standstill, men were posted at critical points in the canyon to ensure they had control of the line and equipment.
The D&RG built several stone forts under the direction of its chief engineer, a man named James R. DeRemer who had served in the Civil War and knew how to build the stone parapet needed to fight a battle. These dry-laid masonry “Forts DeRemer” built on Texas Creek and Spikebuck featured gun ports and a commanding view of the track below.
Fortunately for both sides, the rock forts were never used to ambush each other. In November 1878, D&RG ran out of money and was forced to make a pact with his arch-rival. On December 1 of that year, they issued a 30-year lease to AT&SF, which gave them the use of all rail lines and all equipment, including rolling stock.
Once AT&SF had control of all the tracks and trains, they quickly began to bring more business to Kansas City and less to Denver. Realizing their mistake, D&RG took legal action to terminate the lease. Finally, in early 1879, the case was brought before the Supreme Court in Washington. Anticipating a violet response, regardless of the court ruling, each company sent armed men to defend their rights and property. AT&SF hired Bat Masterson and a group of 33 men he recruited in Dodge City to set up camp in the canyon to defend their construction workers and company property. They arrived on a special train and after setting up camp, nicknamed “Dodge City”, Bat returned to Kansas.
On April 21, the Supreme Court ruled that the D&RG had the first priority right to the Canyon, but not the exclusive rights. The decision, watered down as it was, was not to the liking of either party. In late May, the Colorado Attorney General filed a lawsuit in state court to stop AT&SF from operating railroads within the state. Then, on June 10, State Judge Thomas M. Bowen issued an injunction preventing AT&SF from using or operating any of D&RG’s buildings, equipment, or rolling stock, essentially voiding its lease. With Judge Bowen’s warrant in hand, D&RG officers went to the sheriffs of each county crossed by the rail lines to take possession of all their property.
Before the warrants could be served on the county sheriffs, AT&SF instructed Bat Masterson to return to Colorado and concentrate his forces in Pueblo. He quickly recruited 50 armed men and brought them in on a special train. Included in this group were Ben Thompson and a dozen of his fellow Texans.
Initially, when presented with the offer, Ben was reluctant to sign, fearing that if violence broke out he would be charged with murder. Ultimately, he agreed to keep the stone rotunda in Pueblo until law enforcement officers presented him with the legal papers to take possession. According to Walton’s book (Life and Adventures of Ben Thompson) Thompson agreed to do the job for $5,000 and was approached by D&RG to deliver the roundabout for $25,000. Ben refused the offer saying, “I will die here, unless the law relieves me.”
On June 11, the Denver Sheriff and his group of D&RG men seized the AT&SF office and roundabout in Denver. A trainload of D&RG agents then headed south to take possession of the property along the way. At the same time, former Colorado Governor AC Hunt raised a gang of 200 men, captured a train and headed north seizing all the small stations and taking the agents prisoner. At Cucharas, Hunt’s forces fired on twelve AT&SF men, killing a Mexican and wounding an Irishman named Dan Sullivan.
In Pueblo, Sheriff Henley R. Price backed two D&RG officials, JA McMurtie and RF Weitbrec, and served copies of Judge Bowen’s warrant to all AT&SF workers by dawn. After serving the warrants, Sheriff Price and his gang headed to the train dispatcher’s office at 8:30. The dispatcher refused to let him take possession of the building and the sheriff told him that he had thirty minutes to think about it.
At 9:00, Price returned to find the office filled with several dozen armed men from AT&SF who refused to move. Rejected, the sheriff walked back to the Grand Central Hotel and recruited an additional 100 deputies, all heavily armed and armed with plenty of free liquor.
Returning to the depot at noon, Sheriff Price and his army of deputies demanded that those in the depot surrender. They refused and the gang moved to the roundabout where Ben Thompson and the Texans were waiting. When confronted by the sheriff, Ben said that he had been put in charge of the company’s property and that he could not turn it over without authorization to do so. The sheriff then stated that he had come to disperse an armed mob.
Ben replied that there were no armed mobs in the roundabout, just men from the construction crew who had been sent to protect company property. Saying that some of the men had guns, Ben invited the sheriff to come into the roundabout and look at the men to see if any of them were guilty of violations of the law. Price was allowed into the roundhouse alone, and after a brief search, he left without making any arrests.
Faced with the powder keg of a standoff, Sheriff Price withdrew his men and sought the advice of local attorneys. After reviewing the judge’s order, he was informed that he was not authorized to use force to seize AT&SF property. He thought about this until around 3:00 and then decided it was time to act regardless of the legality of the court order. He and fifty of his liquor-lubricated aides gathered outside the Victoria Hotel, where they received bayonet-equipped rifles and a large ration of ammunition, courtesy of the D&RG. Marching toward the depot they formed a skirmish line in front of the building.
At that point, a rancher named WF Chumside staggered out of the box office. It was said that he had been “a little under the influence of liquor” and wanted to plead the case of those inside the warehouse. He was quickly tackled by one of the deputies and kicked in the head.
The gang then proceeded to the telegraph office and began shooting as they broke down the door. Most of the men inside the office quickly escaped through the back doors and to safety. Unfortunately, Harry Jenkings fell as he fled and was shot in the chest with the bullet lodged in his spine. The gang threw the injured man into an express car and sent him for medical attention. He died a short time later.
After storming the telegraph office, the gang ran into the roundabout, the last stronghold of the AT&SF defenders. Thompson puts them out of the rotunda yelling, “Come on, motherfuckers; if you want a fight, you can have one.” Before he could back up his challenge, he was overpowered by a dozen deputies and imprisoned. Without his leader, the insiders wanted to talk. A short time later, they handed over the building without firing a shot. They were all disarmed and herded down the street to join Thompson in the small, crowded jail on West Fifth Street.
Later that night, former Governor Hunt and his group arrived by train from the south, then continued up the Arkansas River to Canon City. By midnight the entire railway had been captured. Sometime during that night, Bat Masterson, Ben Thompson, and the others hired by AT&SF were released from jail and boarded a special train bound for Dodge City. Arriving the next morning, Ben collected his money from AT&SF and headed to Texas via Kansas City and St. Louis.
The Royal Gorge affair did not end on June 11, but continued in court for several more months. Ultimately, “robber baron” Jay Gould bought fifty percent of D&RG’s stock and settled the dispute out of court. On March 27, 1880, both railroads agreed to sign the “Treaty of Boston” which returned the railroad and property to the D&RG. AT&SF was paid $1.8 million for the rail line it had built through the pass and finally ended the Royal Gorge war.