What we know
The site of the Santa Fe's Monument depot, 'ca. 1887', which the society calls 'the second depot for the Santa Fe line' (PLHS walking tour, S-0235). The town granted the Santa Fe its right-of-way in 1887. Each Monument depot had an agent and two operators; E. W. Hunt was the Santa Fe agent for many years and W. N. Willis the last, and DeLos Barnhardt was its section boss (Lavelett, S-0011, p. 63, with a photograph of the depot and Willis about 1947, p. 67). After block signals came in during the 1940s, both Monument depots were closed, moved near Highway 105 and made into restaurants about 1949, then torn down and burned (pp. 63-64). The Santa Fe tracks were torn out in November 1974 (p. 64), and the grade became the trail in 1980 (S-0235). See Monument D&RG depot.
Where it was
'300-314 3rd St.' (PLHS walking tour, S-0235); placed where the old Santa Fe grade, now the New Santa Fe Regional Trail, crosses Third Street in OpenStreetMap, which is also where the tour's map put it. Good to about 200 feet.
Placed from a written description, such as a land section, a distance from a landmark or an old survey note.
Sources
- S-0002: Palmer Lake Historical Society website (palmerdividehistory.org)
- S-0011: Lucille Lavelett, Through the Years at Monument, Colorado: The Story of Monument, Colorado, 5th printing (Palmer Lake: Palmer Lake Historical Society, 2004); first published Colorado Springs: Valliant Press, 1975
- S-0103: OpenStreetMap extracts via the Overpass API (2026-10-05)
- S-0235: Palmer Lake Historical Society, "Palmer Lake Walking Tour" and "Monument Walking Tour" web pages (palmerdividehistory.org, about 2020-2023; removed; Internet Archive captures)
Sources are named in the text above. Numbers such as S-0080 refer to our source list. Most newspaper quotations were read in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. Long quotations from recent books are shortened here.