It can be hard to imagine life along the 285 corridor before cars, shopping centers, restaurants, and businesses, but this was the landscape of the area as little as 100 years ago. The pioneers of Conifer, Pine, and Bailey are the founders of these beautiful places where we reside and run our businesses. Those brave souls faced the harsh Colorado winters without snow plows and 4WD vehicles. They braved the elements (and wildlife) before indoor plumbing. They farmed the land and spent a day and a half in their wagons to take crops to The Brown Palace in Downtown Denver for sale. They built the railroad that opened commerce to the Bailey area and beyond. And they are the ones who laid the cobblestones of the towns we love.
From the collection of the Littleton Museum. May not be reproduced in any form without permission of the Littleton Museum.
Mountain life in Colorado had many hardships and those pioneers endured it all. Think about this - if you have lived in the Corridor for a while, you've experienced winter storms that dumped feet of snow on top of us. We are lucky to have machinery available to help us with the load, but these pioneers relied on their tools and hands. They were snowed in for days, weeks, and possibly even months while they enjoyed the beauty this area has to offer.
Today, we are fortunate to have the ancestors of these strong and resilient pioneers give us the stories and memories of their family members. With careful preservation, those stories continue to be passed down long after they have departed. A sense of community brought the pioneers of the corridor together, just the same as it does today.
It's this story of friendship that opened the door of history for me.
