Strokes from other pens

Boom town of the railroad

Highway 6 provides today’s corridor through northeastern Colorado, but a century ago it was the railroad that showed the way west. The Burlington & Missouri Railroad laid tracks across the width of Phillips and Logan counties, creating a need for towns to service the line. Those wilderness enclaves were spaced every eight to 10 miles because that’s what the trains needed.

Some of these railroad towns still exist while others have disappeared. The Never-Ending Journey has visited four of these survivors in the past month, Paoli, Haxtun, Dailey and Fleming, as we contin...