What ever happened to Glenwood Canyon’s lost train monument?

From 1950 until the early 1980s, a model Vista Dome train car was a roadside attraction for drivers through Glenwood Canyon.

Courtesy of the Glenwood Springs Historical Society

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From 1950 until the early 1980s, a model Vista Dome train car was a roadside attraction for drivers through Glenwood Canyon.

Courtesy of the Glenwood Springs Historical Society

The train monument, seen in the lower left-hand corner, stood alongside the highway until the early 1980s, when vandalism fears forced it into storage. Road widening a few years later ensured it could never return to Glenwood Canyon.

Courtesy of the Glenwood Springs Historical Society

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The train monument, seen in the lower left-hand corner, stood alongside the highway until the early 1980s, when vandalism fears forced it into storage. Road widening a few years later ensured it could never return to Glenwood Canyon.

Courtesy of the Glenwood Springs Historical Society

The Vista Dome monument now calls the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden home. The stone and concrete arch is in the main yard near the outdoor garden railroad.

Jim Hill/CPR News

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The Vista Dome monument now calls the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden home. The stone and concrete arch is in the main yard near the outdoor garden railroad.

Jim Hill/CPR News

It’s taken the Colorado River a few million years to patiently carve the dramatic rock walls of Glenwood Canyon that we enjoy today. Humans didn’t take quite as long to conquer it.

Railroads came first, in 1887. The first primitive state road trundled along in 1902. The “modern engineering marvel” that we know as Interstate 70 was completed in 1992. Since the first locomotive steamed through the canyon, the train has been the best way to see the vistas – mostly because someone else is driving.

Every time 72-year-old Bob Seedroff of Grand Junction weaves his car through the canyon, he’s left with the suspicion that something is missing. He’ll ask his wife, “Whatever happened to that little train pedestal that was at the entrance to the canyon?”

Read the rest of this story at Colorado Public Radio.