High-Five Plains Towns You Are Here Map - Bennett, CO - 'You Are Here' Maps on Waymarking.com

In addition to the panel with the You Are Here map are three additional panels that read:

PANEL 1: HIGH-FIVE PLAINS TOWNS

Watkins, Bennett, Strasburg, Byers, Peoria, Deer Trail, Agate, Godfrey, Cedar Point, Riverbend—most of these Colorado high plains towns were founded around the time when the Kansas Pacific Railroad arrived in 1870. Five of these towns, Watkins, Bennett, Strasburg, Byers, and Deer Trail, all became busy agricultural shipping centers. Through the first half of the twentieth century these five communities, now along the east I-70 corridor, were the very picture of Main Street, USA—rural, self-sufficient, and distinctive, with strong local identities. But maintaining those identities became increasingly difficult after World War II, as Denver’s steady advance threatened to wipe out the line between town and country. In November 1996, the five time-tested communities launched the High Five Plains Foundation, a joint initiative to promote local economies, manage growth, and preserve the region’s traditions and quality of life. By integrating their past into the future, the High Five communities hope to keep an important part of Colorado’s history alive.

Also found on this panel:

Photo of turn-of-the-century Bennett
(Caption) Bennett, early 1900s. Bennett grew up near the junction of the Smoky Hill Trail North and the Fort Morgan Cut-Off of the South Platte Trail.
Courtesy Comanche Crossing Museum

Photo of Strasburg
(Caption) Strasburg, 1916. On August 15, 1870, workers drove the last spike of the Kansas Pacific Railroad at Comanche Crossing in present-day Strasburg.
Courtesy Comanche Crossing Museum

Photo of Byers
(Caption) Byers, 1900. Originally called Bijou, Byers started out as a station and settlement on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. The town’s first postmaster, Oliver Wiggins, changed the name to Byers in honor of William N. Byers, founder of the Rocky Mountain News.
Courtesy Comanche Crossing Museum

Photo of Watkins
(Caption) Watkins, early 1900s. Situated on the Boxelder Creek, Watkins developed around a Kansas Pacific station called Box Elder. It was later renamed Watkins in honor of a local rancher.
Courtesy Deer Trail Tribune

Photo of Deer Trail
(Caption) Deer Trail, 1919. Deer Trial is acknowledged by the Pro Rodeo Association and the Colorado State Assembly as “The Home of the World’s First Rodeo.”
Courtesy Deer Trail Pioneer Historical Society

PANEL 2: TEN MILES A DAY

The Kansas Pacific
It is no coincidence that the West blossomed just after the Kansas Pacific Railroad's completion in 1870. The next generation witnessed the heyday of the cattle culture, which depended on Kansas Pacific railheads from Denver to Dodge City; the rush of prairie homesteaders, who shipped their produce to market in its boxcars; and the rise of industrial mines, whose ores rode the line to eastern factories. Even as it helped construct a new frontier empire, the Kansas Pacific weakened the old one. The railroad ran through the heart of the Plains Indian nations, dividing their buffalo herds and expediting wars against them. As an economic pipeline and an engine of conquest, the Kansas Pacific played a central role in the transformation of the West.

August 15, 1870, was perhaps the greatest single day of railroad building in history. The Kansas Pacific tracks had surged to within fifty miles of Denver; a second construction team, advancing eastward from the city, stood just over ten miles distant. At dawn on this notable day an American flag and a keg of whiskey were placed halfway between the two crews, and the rhythmic calls of the gandy dancers commenced. By three in the afternoon the workers had bridged the gap; they laid ten miles of track in ten hours, a feat not matched before or since. Moreover, the Kansas Pacific made it possible to ride coast to coast without ever leaving the rails——the Union Pacific still lacked a bridge over the Missouri River and required passengers to be ferried across at Omaha.

Also found on this panel:

Photo of track being completed
(Caption) Laying the track
Colorado Historical Society

Railroad map
Colorado Historical Society

Photo of locomotive
(Caption) Kansas Pacific engine No. 51 was lost near this location in the Kiowa Creek flood of May 21, 1878. It was identical to KP No. 68, the Baldwin 4-4-0 pictured here.
Courtesy DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, Ag 82.86.40

PANEL 3: FRONT RANGE FLIGHT

The Rocky Mountains proved a formidable barrier to early aviation, leaving Colorado in a familiar position: bypassed. As with the railroads fifty years earlier, transcontinental air traffic went through Wyoming; Colorado had to make do with a Denver-based spur line—in this case, Colorado Airways, which began flying the fifty-five-minute Denver-to-Cheyenne route in 1926. Airplane technology quickly conquered the mountains, and Front Rangers began taking to the skies. In 1938 Continental Airlines became the state's first coast-to-coast passenger carrier, and after World War II Colorado became a major aviation axis, hosting Lowry Air Force Base and Buckley Naval Air Station as well as the U.S. Air Force Academy. Ultimately air travel changed life for Coloradans, tying them into national affairs as never before.

Denver Municipal Airport
Denver Municipal Airport opened in 1929, its four gravel runways squeezed onto a square-mile parcel in northeastern Denver. Boosters called it "the West's best airfield," but critics derided it as a pork-barrel reward for Mayor Benjamin Stapleton's political allies. Time proved out the boosters; by 1950 Stapleton Airport was serving six major airlines and 200,000 passengers, and in 1986 it ranked as the fifth-busiest airport in the world. Three years later voters authorized construction of Denver International Airport, a 34,000-acre facility to be supported by Front Range Airport and other satellite sites. Once again detractors cried boondoggle, particularly when construction glitches pushed the project behind schedule and over budget. When DIA finally went into service in February 1995, it was the largest airport in the world—and one of the most talked about.

Also found on this panel:

Photo of old Denver municipal airport
(Caption) Denver Municipal Airport in 1931, soon after its first expansion—a second hanger.
Colorado Historical Society

Photo of airmail plane
(Caption) The revenue from carrying airmail sustained early Colorado aviation. Pilot Floyd Pace (left) flew the Pueblo-to-Cheyenne, Wyoming, route in 1926.
Colorado Historical Society

Photo of DIA terminal
(Caption) Denver International Airport
Colorado Historical Society

Location Name: CDOT rest area on I-70 in Bennett, Colorado

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Date Logged Log   11/29/2013 hoteltwo visited it