Teller County’s Scott Stalnaker was on motorcycle ride exploring the countryside along the Platte River where the river runs below Dome Rock in the Platte Canyon in Jefferson County. He came across a stone memorial to an engineer with the Denver, South Park and Pacific railroad.

On Oct. 19, as part of Pikes Peak Historical Societies Chautauqua programs, Stalnaker will share the heroics of William “Billy” Westall who saved 450 passengers of the train he was driving Aug. 28, 1898. About a year later, a 10-foot, granite monument was erected near the crash site by the Ancient Order of United Workmen along what is now County Road 96 near Dome Rock, southeast of Reynolds Park.

More than 115 years later, the monument was moved to a more prominent spot along the road. A group of students from West Jefferson Middle School championed efforts to preserve the monument. It remains a key piece of history under the purview of the Jefferson County Historic Commission in the North Fork Historic District, which exists, in part, to celebrate the railroad that once passed through.

Stalnaker was born and raised in Southern California, where he spent most of his life. He has been playing music professionally from the time he was 12 years old. His sister, a major executive and well established in the media, invited Stalnaker to sit with an editor to see if he might be interested in a career change. He enjoyed it and quickly enrolled in college classes to learn filmmaking and editing. He then went on to produce educational television, which involved writing, filming, lighting, editing, and composing background music for many video projects. At the same time, he continued to do professional musical studio recordings for various clients and some live performing.

“I did kind of retire, but I continue to do some projects here and there,” Stalnaker said. “After all of the experience I’ve garnered, as well as classes I’ve taken, I am an audio engineer in addition to being a musician. I often fix audio that production companies have problems with and have done rather extensive editing and some filming.”

He eventually became discontent with like in California.

“It became impossible to get around in California due to the extreme traffic,” he said. “Also, I just wasn’t happy in California. Everything is illegal. They started selling $30 passes to be able to hike in the wilderness. My favorite lakes were closed. I couldn’t ride my motorcycles, scuba diving became difficult with the threats of massive fines, concerns about having the car broken into while I was under water, and other hobbies that got shut down by the government.”

He moved to Woodland Park in 2020 with his four motorcycles and several guitars. The forest is now four miles from his back door. He can take dirt roads almost all the way to Castle Rock to visit his cousins.

“I couldn’t be happier. And the fishing is sometimes good,” Stalnaker said. “The motorcycles have come in handy when the Teller County Search & Rescue team goes out, or when I randomly hear of someone missing or in distress. But most often, they serve the insatiable need to explore.”

His exploring led him to the Billy Westall memorial and research into the heroics of this train engineer. Stalnaker’s presentation will tell of the train wreck where 450 lives were saved, except Billy and will conclude with a ballad he wrote himself in honor of the beloved engineer.