Florissant, Colorado - Is this trip our "Fossil Trip"? (Florissant Fossil National Monument)

 

We stayed at a Harvest Host Campground

(between Breckenridge and Colorado Springs)

This is the Florissant Grange.  Apparently the Grange is a fraternal organization, primarily for the farmers and ranchers in rural areas.  

The property is a former schoolhouse from 1887.

There are 35 Grange members, 3 of them are 91 years old and attended this school.

Lovely evening with music and pot luck dinner with other Grange members.

Among the Grange activities are a weekly music/pot-luck get together.

They also have classes (art, pine needle basket weaving, gourd making) on a regular basis. It is a surprisingly "together" community for the rural folks.

Then, the fossils.  

This is the quarry that is open to the public for personal "fossil hunting"

For $15 an hour per person, they give you a box of rocks (shale) 

and the tools to find fossils.

Primarily a razor blade and kitchen knife to split the layers!

Our 'catch' was primarily leaves and sticks.

Not nearly as much fun as the fish from Wyoming.

The landscape in this area is mostly flat, some rolling hills.

They say that the forest was covered with Redwoods.

Imagine that - a Redwood forest covered this now flat landscape.

Many petrified wood stumps of redwood have been uncovered and are a part of the National Monument.

The "Mother Tree" had these three 'babies'

Breckenridge, CO - Boomtown from mining to skiing

A beautiful summer day in the now very touristy town of Breckenridge.

A free gondola ride to the top of the mountain to see all the summer activities.

Kids 'learning the ropes'

Alpine slides are in most of the ski towns now.

Always love the Colorado Columbines

And then the history - we always try to get the story.

                            Survival in an isolated town.
 

The winter of 1898 had snow of 20 feet.

The “supply chain” was blocked for 78 days

 by the snow on the railroad tracks with snow drifts as high as 50 feet.

                            The Legendary High Line 

Train completed in 1884 from Denver to Breckenridge to Leadville, and crossed the Continental Divide twice.

The journey that had taken days by stagecoach or mule train could be done in about 12 hours.

These towns were no longer isolated from the outside world.

During the snow storms, the engineers would first try “bucking” to get thru the snow (moving forward thru the drift, then back again). 

 

When that failed, they would bring on the rotary snowplow (like a giant snowblower) to try to get thru. 

If that failed the townspeople would come out and shovel by hand.

Then in the BIG SNOW, all efforts failed for 78 days.

Lou examining the rotary engine.