Bakers Tank, Road to Boreas Pass, Colorado Poster

"Bakers Tank, Milepost 102.16, on the Road to Boreas Pass, Colorado" by Catherine Sherman. This historic watering tank sits along a road on the route to Boreas Pass, Colorado. A narrow gauge railroad that was completed in 1884 carried travelers along this route until it was abandoned in 1937. After World War II, the Army Corps of Engineers reconstructed the road for automobile traffic. Boreas Pass (elevation 11,481 feet (3,499 meters)) is a high mountain pass in central Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains. The pass is located on the continental divide, at the crest of the Front Range along the border between Park (south) and Summit counties. The pass was formerly known as Breckenridge Pass in the 1860s, when it served as an early route for thousands of prospectors during the Colorado Gold Rush who crossed from South Park to look for gold in the valley of the Blue around Breckenridge. In 1866, it was widened to a wagon road that accommodated stagecoaches. In 1882, under the direction of Sidney Dillon of the Union Pacific Railroad, the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad (by then controlled by the Union Pacific) begun laying narrow gauge tracks up the pass, which Dillon renamed in honor of Boreas, the Ancient Greek god of the North Wind. After the railroad was abandoned in 1937, the Army Corps of Engineers later reconstructed the route for automobile traffic. A sign on the tank tells this story: This tank served the Denver, South Park and Pacific Narrow Gauge Railroad (later the Colorado and Southern) from Como to Leadville. The railroad had 63.83 miles of track and 435 curves. The longest stretch of straight track was 1.6 miles. This line was begun October 2, 1880, and completed February 5, 1884. It was abandoned April 10, 1937. The tank was restored by Summit County in 1958.