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Automobile History of Ute Pass and Highway 24
- Steve Plutt
- Aug 28
- 11 min read
By Steve Plutt © 1923
Part 1: The Early Years
Ute Pass has been a main throughfare to the mountains for centuries. It can track its heritage back 5,000 years ago to Native Americans on the eastern slope of Pikes Peak . Its namesake, the Ute People , traveled this route from the plains to the hunting grounds of South Park and beyond. It was on August 8, 1862 that the Ute Pass Wagon Road Company was organized as a toll road. They started building a wagon road (which was nothing but an oxen trail) from Colorado City to the gold fields of Tarryall in Park County and to Leadville in the latter part of October, 1865 . The charge for traveling this road was 25 cents for each span of horses, mules or oxen and 15 cents for each riding animal. There was no charge if you were headed to church or a funeral. In 1876, A Colorado Springs paper told us that an average of 14 loaded teams went daily up the Pass . These teams were headed to Fairplay, Alma and beyond, loaded with goods such as mining tools, groceries, feed and furniture.
And now today, we zoom up and down the Pass at speeds never traveled before. It is a wide four lane road with guard rails and plenty of signage for safety. But how did we get to this point? What was the current Ute Pass like in its early days? Here is a chronological sequence of historic changes and happenings for the Pass during its automobile age.
Even before Colorado was admitted to the Union in 1876, roads and road building were a concern. So much so that a national organization called the “Good Roads Movement” was established. But when the “horseless carriage” era came to be, that movement really became focused on transforming the nations wagon roads into modern highways.
Gasoline powered carriages soon became the preferred form of transportation. Wealthy families across the country were motoring around their towns and cities. Here in Colorado it was no different, cars were the new and modern method of travel.
It was in 1899 when the new “automobile tourist industry” came to be in Ute Pass and the Teller County region. That was when the first gasoline powered carriage to climb any mountain road occurred and it happened to be up our very own Ute Pass. On July 21, 1899, Dr. Edward J. Cabler and his wife Eugenia along with inventor Robert Temple , loaded 1000 pounds of food, clothing and automotive supplies into their Temple automobile and left Denver for their destination of Victor, Colorado. They traveled up Ute Pass through Cascade stopping at Ute Park and on through Green Mountain Falls, Woodland Park and Divide. The journey took a total of six days to reach Victor.
Summertime travel up Ute Pass by automobile increased in the very early 1900s. But the Pass was always plagued by rain washouts and landslides which kept tourist dollars from reaching Colorado Springs.
After the disastrous cloudburst of August, 5, 1902 that wiped out every wagon bridge below Cascade, the El Paso County Commissioners spent $11,000 on repairing Ute Pass. Then the following year, they had to allot another $2000 to start repairs on the road in July of 1903. That force of men blasted away rock for two weeks to improve the road and make it “in better shape than it has ever been.”
Those improvements were made just in time as Ute Pass was the route of a Model F Packard driven by Elmer Thomas “Tom” Fetch and M. C. Krarup, as they completed what was only the second transcontinental journey from coast to coast . On Sunday, July 19, 1903 Fetch motored through Woodland Park and continued down Ute Pass stopping at Crystola for a photo opportunity.
Also in 1903, Mr. W.W. Price of Colorado Springs might have the honor of being the first big game hunter to use an automobile . He traveled up Ute Pass in his 15 horse powered Winton Touring car on a deer hunting expedition. Ute Pass was described as “one of the most difficult passages in the Colorado Rockies”. Price and A.C. Carlton were good friends and often traveled together.
One more thing about the year 1903, that was when the U.S. Office of Public Road Inquiries declared that a National Highway from coast to coast should go through Ute Pass. That office’s special agent, James W. Abbott lectured this to the Good Roads Association meeting on February 13 of that year in Perkins Hall at Colorado College. Speaking about that coast to coast National Highway, Abbott is quoted saying that “There is only one route for such a road to pursue and that is up your wonderful Ute Pass.”
In 1905, members of the Colorado Automobile Club formed the Colorado “Good Roads Association”. The Good Roads Association successfully lobbied for the formation of a State Highway Commission which was approved by the Colorado legislature in 1909 and came to be on New Year’s Day, 1910.
Both the State Highway Commission and the Good Roads Association advocated for wider, safer, faster roads. Furthermore, they demonstrated the economic opportunity to Colorado’s cities and businesses along the route of those roads how they would benefit from out of state automobile travelers.
With the State Highway Commission came State aid dollars that were available to all counties of the state to make improvements to Colorado’s roads, including Ute Pass. That Commission came just in time to fix the Pass that was damaged on August 17, 1909 by more large cloudbursts. Though not nearly as bad as previous washouts, the Pass was still considerably damaged. The water came down the road in such large quantities that many in Manitou had to evacuate . Seven days later all repairs had been made by the El Paso County crews and the road was ready for use and declared “as in good shape as ever.”
In 1910 the Ute Pass Highway was renamed “Colorado Primary Road #18” . In March of 1910 the El Paso County Commissioners traveled Ute Pass examining trouble spots to prepare for the upcoming summer rains. They decided that stone retaining walls should be erected to prevent future troubles. They also elected to rebuild a bridge but all and all, thought that the road was in fairly good condition.
In October of 1910 the Commissioners traveled to Denver to meet with the State Highway Commission. The BOCC laid out plans to widen Ute Pass from Manitou to Crystola. They requested that the existing ten and sixteen feet of width be expanded to a full twenty feet . Additionally, an appeal was made for rock walls to be built along Fountain Creek to protect the highway from erosion. Those plans came to life in late November of that year. On November 26th a road crew of 38 convicts set up camp west of Manitou. They built retaining walls and widened the highway as requested. All of this work was completed on April 29th and the road declared as “one of the finest in the state”.
Even though the Pass was thought to be one of the most modern in the country (and by this time, it was even designated a National Transcontinental Highway, the Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean Highway), accidents at railroad crossings continued to be a frequent occurrence. The highway crossed and re-crossed the Colorado Midland Railroad many times. Projecting outcroppings of rock often blocked the vision of automobile drivers and hid the approaching trains from view. So, in 1915 construction started on blasting away those outcroppings and eliminating four bridges and two of the most fatal crossings the Pass had. The Colorado Midland and Ripley & Leslie of Pueblo were the two contractors who relocated the dangerous spots. The projected cost of between 8,000 and 9,000 dollars was split between the County and the State.
This new crossing design indeed reduced fatalities. However, with the continued increase in traffic volume, accidents were always a chance drivers took when traveling Ute Pass. The main cause now was due to drivers not observing the “keep to the right” rule even though the road was wide enough for two cars. Heavy summertime traffic that always included inexperienced mountain drivers, would tend to stay in the center of the highway when approaching corners and curves. This was such a problem that it was the next year that officials contemplated policing Ute Pass during the summer months in hopes of preventing speeders and careless drivers .
1916 traffic on Ute Pass was also sharply increased as the Pikes Peak Auto Highway was now open and caused a lot of traffic safety issues. The Hillclimb likewise started that year causing traffic jams from Manitou to Cascade. The state highway department wanted to blast away rocky points that jetted out on curves in order to increase viewing distance of oncoming traffic. Additionally, the state wanted the Pikes Peak Auto Highway Company to pay for half of that expense.
The year of 1919 had El Paso County put $2700 into their 1919 budget for Ute Pass maintenance and construction. The same year also saw the State and Federal government agreeing to finance a Ute Pass project that would change the highway from Cascade to Green Mountain Falls. The intention was to move that stretch of road completely to the east side of the railroad and eliminate four bridges and four grade crossings. During that construction, which would take place in 1920, dynamite was used to blast away solid rock in order to widen parts of the road and do away with many sharp corners and curves.
While efforts were concentrated on lower Ute Pass, other parts of the road beyond there still kept washing out, like in August of ’20 when Fountain Creek wiped out the road two and a half miles below Woodland Park.
1921 started out good for getting improvements done on Ute Pass. Expenditures of about $30,000 were approved by the state highway commission on February 17 . One of the first things on their list was to widen 200 feet of road at Cusack’s Corner from 16 feet to 24 feet . Did this include the elimination of the dangerous Bell Crossing ? Most likely. Other goals were to lower the grade below Cascade so it wasn’t so steep a climb and to replace a bridge west of Green Mountain Falls . The June issue of “Highway Topics” published by the Ohio Good Roads Federation called Ute Pass one of the best examples of road building in America.
Speeding and reckless driving continued to be a problem. In Green Mountain Falls the local newspaper (The Gurgle) reminded its readers that the state law regulating speed limit is thirty-five miles an hour on straight aways and twenty miles an hour on curves. The paper also advocated imprisonment instead of fines as the “man with money” could easily pay any fine but most certainly would not want to be jailed.
1922 found the state of Colorado allotting some $11,000,000 for its roads. Contrary to its wintertime condition, the spring of 1922 now had a highway ready for all tourist travelers. At this time Ute Pass was celebrated as one of the finest roads in the state and was known as “The Motorist Mecca”. It was claimed about Ute Pass that no better mountain highway existed on the entire Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean Highway. It was boasted that the highway was broad and smooth, blasted out of solid granite with magnificent beauty. Automobile tourists flocked to Cascade, Chipita Park and Green Mountain Falls with Green Mountain Falls becoming the chief community of Ute Pass . Further up the Pass, Woodland Park was also a summer encampment but secondary to the others. The Colorado Springs Automobile Club painted all the bridge abutments and road signs from Edlowe to Manitou in July that year to make the road safer for all. While doing so, they tore down all local advertising and that action miffed the local tabloid “Ute Pass Weekly News.” The News opined that it was nice that the Club touched up all the signage, but grumbled that they “invade Ute Pass as their own territory and do as they please with other firms’ advertising matter.” Even so, the safety of motorists was still in jeopardy because of persistent speeders traveling up and down Ute Pass. According to a June 22, 1922 article in the Gazette , complaints that speeders are “burning up” the road on the Pass prompted the “rangers” to strictly enforce the state law fixing mountain speed limit at 15 miles per hour. Arrests would be made if violators were persistent and pointed out that speeders are a “decided menace to the safety of himself and other motorists.” The Ute Pass Weekly News claimed that the speeders have 2x4’s for a brain and that they sweep their high-powered cars up and down the Pass at 35 and 40 miles an hour. That publication claimed that “It’s a cinch that Ute Pass is no place for an automobile and a DAMN FOOL DRIVER.”
Washouts also continued to be a safety hazard when sand and gravel would wash down onto the road from the adjacent hillsides.
As the year 1922 wound down, El Paso County dedicated another $4,000 for Ute Pass maintenance, half of that coming from the State.
In February of 1923 it was agreed by the state highway department and the El Paso County Commissioners to appropriate $8,500 for the building of a bridge just above Cascade and another one above Green Mountain Falls. Both of these bridges were to replace old deteriorating ones. They would also change the road configuration on each side of these bridges in order to eliminate the existing near ninety degree approaches to them.
The “War on Unsightly Billboards” continued, for in the spring of 1924 the Colorado Springs Auto Club went up Ute Pass and in one night removed one thousand signs, one hundred coming from just one bridge.
Other than that, things were pretty quiet construction and maintenance wise along the Pass in the years from 1924 to 1926. Fatal auto accidents and slide offs were the biggest headlines and there were a lot of them. There was one news article in the June 20, 1925 Denver Post that wrote that speeding is one of the worst forms of reckless driving. It went on to say that Ute Pass has been a speedway for years with disregard of the state’s legal speed limits. They told how Ute Pass was a deadly menace due to speeding. 1926 is the year that State Primary Road 18 was changed to U.S. Highway South 40 aka 40 South, aka 40S.
The most exciting topic in 1926 however was brought on by Irving Howbert (the same Howbert who was a principal organizer of the Colorado Midland Railroad up Ute Pass). In August of that year, Howbert advocated building an additional highway from Manitou to Cascade along the old historic Ute Indian Trail. He led a horseback party of interested persons, including Frank Cusack, up the old trail to see about the feasibility of such an idea. There were concerns about financing and obtaining the right of way from property owners but they felt the new road would work well with little rock blasting needed on the old trail. The next step was surveying of the proposed route and thus the movement was officially underway for a four lane highway up Ute Pass.
The group gained two influential allies, one the State Highway Engineer and the other a State District Road Commissioner. The Commissioner, M.A. Ege , was able to get the survey completed and a detailed construction plan was compiled.
A July 28, 1927 Denver Post article reports that the state highway board has given its unofficial approval for a new road to parallel the existing Ute Pass. Two days later the Post came out against the new road.
They opined that prior to paralleling any scenic tourist routes, the state should fix the Limon to Denver road. Their stance was that roads leading into the state should be the priority and they stood against the expansion of Ute Pass .
In November of 1927, Commissioner Ege declared that the new Ute Pass Road is not practicable and is prohibitive in cost. This announcement miffed Frank Cusack of the Cascade Town Company. He claimed that a one million dollar improvement for the town of Cascade is being held up pending the new highway construction. So a meeting was set up with the state highway commission to discuss the possibility of Federal aid for the road. Without Federal aid, the proposed new road would never happen, and it didn’t.
Download a PDF of this series with footnotes and bibliography
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