R Fay's Birthday Ride (All Nov) NEW TIME AND PLACE
Details
Location and time changed: Now at I-170 exit to Highway 65 parking lot (bottom of Plateau Canyon, right off I-70)
Carpenter Mine Ride
For those folks not riding the Jug Handle in Moab with Dana, Lets to a
Then and Now Ride to the Carpenter Mine on 27 1/4 Rd.
(Weather Permitting) A Then and Now Ride is where you take an old picture and ride to the exact same location and stare at it until you have had enough and then your ride home. It's really rewarding. This Photo is 1895. The mine lasted from 1890 - 1924. This was the mine with the
"Go Devil ride" in it's history. (Today, the Go‑Devil can still be seen at the Cross Orchards Historic Site in Grand Junction) See pics below.
Meet on 27 1/4 Rd where the pavement becomes dirt.
There is a glass like surface parking lot there. 9 am
Gravel or Mtn bikes recommend. It's about 12 miles out to the mine or you can drive out further and meet us as we come along. (All downhill on the return trip.) If it rains while we are out there, the Bentonite Clay will provide many days of fun to ride on. - I promise you. We are going to try to bust this out in the morning before the storms come into town. Kind of like the Donner's and the Packard expeditions.... Which dove tails nicely into an old cycling axiom, 'Never ride with someone that you wouldn't eat'.
The Carpenter, Colorado, post office operated from June 11, 1890, August 3, 1891.[2] However, the town never attained a population of over 50. After the closure of its post office, Carpenter built a company store and a combination boarding house/restaurant. Book Cliff company stone cutters and masons constructed several buildings and many foundations at Carpenter, using stone from the company quarry near the cliffs. One of the finest examples of a building made of Book Cliff sandstone is the Fruita, Colorado Catholic church. (Our Lady of Perpetual Motion)
Several years of prosperity followed the arrival of the Little Book Cliff Railway at the townsite in 1892. Carpenter began to formulate big plans for his village. He envisioned it as a tourist resort complete with hotel, dance pavilion, picnic areas and even a lake that was to be fed by a spring, located near his Book Cliff mines. Carpenter renamed the camp Poland Spring after a noted resort of that name in Maine. It was variously referred to as Polen, Pollen, and Polan Springs, although Carpenter's intended name was evidenced by his having it emblazoned on the side of one of his railroad excursion cars. The resort plans were never completed because Carpenter went broke shortly after the Panic of 1893.
One of the most pleasant aspects of the railroad was the excursions it hosted. An outing to the Book Cliffs meant a day of hunting, horseback riding, hiking, picnicking, and a general good time. Of special note were the Memorial Day excursions; scores of people would go to Carpenter, gather the abundant wildflowers there and return to town with them to decorate their loved ones' graves. Associated with many excursions was a conveyance called a Go-devil. It consisted of little more than a few boards bolted together and attached to a set of handcar wheels. Thrill seekers used them to coast back down the tracks to Grand Junction at break-neck speeds.