Craig Depot

Listed: 2008

Constructed: 1917

Threat: Demolition by neglect; proximity to railroad tracks

Closest Town to Resource: Craig

Significance: Constructed in 1917, the Craig Depot and the Moffat Line were the main connection to the Yampa Valley. The depot was a hub of activity for transporting livestock, coal, and supplies. The depot was shut down in 1985. Union Pacific Railroad, the current owners, have postponed the demolition of the building, but there are currently no plans to move the building, which may be required to save it.

Site Needs: Discussions with Union Pacific to postpone demolition, identify a community advocate to lead the project, and find funding to support moving the structure.

Update: Over the past decade, significant damage and vandalism have afflicted the Depot. Sitting between active railroad tracks, negotiations began to move the quickly deteriorating building. Unfortunately, funding fell through, and the Craig Depot was demolished in April 2022.

4 Bar 4 Ranch

Listed: 2014

Constructed: 1885

Threat: Demolition by neglect

Closest Town to Resource: Fraser

Significance: The original 320-acre

4 Bar 4 Ranch was homesteaded in 1895 to provide a stop for the Georgetown Stage Line and serve as a roadhouse for travelers. The hotel and barn were constructed using trees from the property, and the hotel remained open until 1913. Following the closing of the stage line, the ranch continued to host travelers until it was purchased, and the barn converted into a Ford Motor Company dealership. Ford vehicles were sold in the building until 1917. The buildings have been vacant since the 1980s.

Site Needs: The Stagecoach Hotel building has been carefully dismantled and stored, with ongoing funding needed for its restoration.

Update: The site has new hope, with Historic Fraser taking over the project. A new team with the Homeowners Association and interested parties have reinvigorated the project. An official NR nomination was completed, and the team is working with the SHF, CPI, and Hord Coplan Macht to phase its restoration. An HSA has been completed, and a $200,000 SHF grant was awarded for the rehabilitation of the Ford Barn, completed in 2019.

Moffat Road

Listed: 2012

Constructed: 1903, rails removed in 1930s

Threat: Demolition by neglect; closed road

Closest Town to Resource: Fraser and Tolland

Significance: The Moffat Road was constructed as a railroad line intended to connect Denver to NW Colorado through the Continental Divide to Utah and the West Coast. The Moffat Road roughly follows an earlier constructed Wagon Road that followed an old Ute Trail. The rails were removed in the 1930s, but many of its historic features remain, including the rail bed, several trestles, the Needle’s Eye Tunnel, telegraph poles, remnants of the snow sheds and foundations from the hotel and depot that were built atop the Divide at Rollins Pass.

Update: The Rollins Pass Restoration Association continues to work to reopen Moffat Road. Future goals include funding repairs to the Needle’s Eye Tunnel, restoring east/west access, installing signage, and restoring the Twin Trestles. Some want to apply for Rollins Pass and the Needles Eye Tunnel to become National Monuments. In 2021, a major threat from a proposed land swap between a private developer and the U.S. Forest Service that would have threatened the resources in the vicinity of Fraser was thwarted by a coalition of interests led by CPI and several partners.

Listed: 2001

Constructed: 1200 A.D.

Threat: Natural elements; vandalism

Closest Town to Resource: Rangely

Significance: The Shield Rock Art site dates to 1200 A.D. and is in an area that has some of the oldest Native American pictographs and petroglyphs in the state. As part of the area’s Canyon Pintado Project, the site falls into phase II of trail and interpretive installation conducted by the Bureau of Land Management. New interpretive signage has been installed, and increased staff visits to the site have decreased the threat of vandalism.