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Colorado Midland Railway’s Pioneering Wildflower Tourism Excursions
Back in 1887, the Colorado Midland Railway had a wild idea: why not sell train tickets just to pick flowers?
From its base in Old Colorado City, the railway packed 500 people onto three-engine trains each Thursday for a buck per person.
Folks rode west through Ute Pass, stopped to hunt fossils at Florissant, then spent hours gathering armfuls of blue columbines near Woodland Park. The plan worked…