As I often talk about the roads in the Pikes Peak region, I am surprised to get questions about them. People who are new to the area do not know how often we think about where our roads have changed. For example, Interstate-25 through Colorado Springs is now only four lanes, but north of the Springs it is (soon to be) six lanes. Sure more traffic between means more lanes.

When the Air Force Academy was built, the highway had to be moved east to clear the expanded airfield. It was a pretty new road even then. Just 10 years before that it was only two lanes! At the north end of the airfield you can still see two strips of highway, slowly taken over by weeds and grass.

Prior to the modernizing of US 85-87 into I-25, it was a strip of two-lane concrete. Just west of the Baptist Road exit a bit of it is still visible. Before the 1950s the road that is now Colorado 105 from Monument to Larkspur was the main road. In the 1920s, that road was modernized with concrete paving. Prior to that, it was a dirt road that followed the railroad from Palmer Lake to Greenland, and on to Larkspur. In 1926. they surveyed the present two-lane road, saving more than a mile between Palmer Lake and Larkspur. The new concrete road was much smoother, and it lasted some 80 years before it was repaved. The old concrete is still under some of that paving.

I-25 from Larkspur to Castle Rock is more or less where the old highway was, but before 1930 much of it was on the other side of the railroad tracks. North of Castle Rock it followed US 85 to Sedalia and Littleton before going up Broadway and Lincoln into downtown Denver.

If we were not zipping along so fast, many reminders of the old roads can be found here and there, even where you do not expect to see them.

E.M. “Mel” McFarland is an artist, historian and railroad enthusiast. He is a Pikes Peak region native and has written a handful of books and guides highlighting the area’s rich history. Contact Mel at n.