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THE LODGE IN 1905
Recent archaeological work near State Bridge has shown that prehistoric people inhibited the area as far back as 8,000 years ago and that the Ute Indians inhabited and used this area in the last 1000 years. Chief Yarmony is the most famous of the Ute Indians from this area and it is for him that Yarmony Mountain (behind the Lodge) has been named. In the later 1800‚s cattle and sheep ranchers began settling the area and Trough Road (just in front of the State Bridge Lodge) was a wagon trail. There was a ferry that crossed the river in the early 1880‚s that was used by the pioneers and settlers of that time and our Lodge was a stage coach stopping station. The land on which the State Bridge Lodge now sits was originally purchased as a mining claim around 1880 but was never really mined. In 1890 the State of Colorado authorized $6,000 for the construction of a wagon bridge over the Grand River (now called the Colorado River). The Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Works Company got the contract for their bid of $5790 and built the two span Howe Truss bridge whose remnants can still be seen out front. This is how "State Bridge" got it's name and has been known ever since.The railroad came through in the area between 1900 and 1905 completing the run to Kremmling in 1906 and greatly helped the local cattle industry to get their herds to the market. In 1901 then Vice-President Teddy Roosevelt stayed at the State Bridge Lodge (Cabin 3) while elk hunting in the nearby Flat Top Mountains. Ever since then the lodge has always been some form of saloon, restaurant and always a great place for entertainment and fun!
Railroad History
In 1860 David Halliday Moffat came to Colorado from the banking industry in Omaha, Nebraska and worked among businessmen and miners in Denver to form a bank. Moffat was involved in nearly every railroad scheme from the Colorado Central to the Rio Grande. The rail that runs directly in front of the State Bridge Lodge was built in 1905 as a part of Moffat’s projects and Union Pacific rail workers today still refer to this stretch as the Moffat Tunnel subdivision. The first major road from Denver to Craig, CO was named the Moffat Road and was first organized as the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific Railroad in 1902. The need to get cattle and sheep to the market spurred the development of a rail station at State Bridge in 1905 as well as the acquisition of land between the rail and the river. This area was used by the railroad as a stockyard for the cattle. In 1913 the company was re-organized as The Denver & Salt Lake Railroad (D&SLR), two years after David Moffat’s death. Another chapter in local rail history was written in 1932 when the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad bought out the D&SLR, then completed the “Dotsero Cutoff” from Bond to the existing D&RG line near the confluence of the Eagle & Colorado Rivers in 1934. In the next few decades coal became the main job for the rail with the development of the Yampa Valley coal mines. To this day coal is the major customer of the rail lines in front of the State Bridge Lodge. Other customers include the Amtrak passenger and freight industries. About 20 to 25 trains a day pass by the State Bridge Lodge.
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NEWS & EVENTS
OPEN!
State Bridge Lives! We are renting cabins and working with the county to put the permits in place to bring State Bridge back to you!
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