Arvada trolley car and Breckenridge gold dredge boat make 2015 endangered list

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Denver Public Library
<p>The Blizzard of 1913 buried Colorado&#039;s Front Range in 4-6 feet of snow, including this streetcar in downtown Denver.</p>
Photo: Streetcar3
Streetcar No. 4 in 1947, about three years before it was retired.

An old Denver streetcar made this year's Endangered Places List. Since 1998, Colorado Preservation, Inc. has compiled a list of places in the state it deems at-risk. Also on this year's list is one of the state's first orchards, a gold dredge boat, and an old mining site.

Denver Tramway Co. Streetcar No. 4 was part of a broad Denver-metro area rail system and was manufactured by Denver’s Woeber Carriage Co. in 1911. It ran routes in Arvada and Golden until it became the last car to be retired by the system in 1950.

“There were actually coal cars that would be attached to the street cars as they came back downtown,” Kim Grant, an administrator of grants for the City of Arvada, says. “And the coal went to the Denver Tramway power plant, which is where the current flagship REI flagship store is.”

Photo: Streetcar2
The streetcar today -- "endangered" and in need of repair.

The City of Arvada hopes to purchase the car, restore it, and put it on display in the Old Town area by the time light rail comes there in 2016, he adds. The overall cost to restore the streetcar and display it would be about $300,000, he says.

The Endangered Places List goes back to 1998 and includes dozens of places and things -- from the neon signs of Colfax Avenue to a railway depot in Moffat County.

Some places and things on the list could not be rescued (see the full list here). For instance, an old church from the 1880s in Teller County was demolished after years of neglect. However, list supporters also have claimed victories, including the Rialto Theater Building in Alamosa County, which suffered a fire but was spared demolition when preservationists stepped in.

Also making the 2015 list:

  • Ute Ulay Mill and Townsite in Lake City, which dates from 1873 to the early 1900s. “The Ute and Ulay mines were at one time some of Colorado’s best known silver and lead producers. The mine is largely responsible for the formation of Lake City.”
  • Gold Medal Orchard in Cortez, which dates to the 1890s “Gold Medal Orchard was one of the earliest planted orchards for commercial purposes in Montezuma County. The orchard brought national attention to the region when it was awarded 4 gold medals at the Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition in St. Louis in 1904.”
  • Reiling Gold Dredge in Breckenridge, which dates to 1908. “The Gold Dredge is considered to be one of the most intact dredge sites in the United States. The dredge was one of nine gold dredge boats that worked the Breckenridge area in the early 20th century.”