I have told how the two Colorado City railroad stations were lost in the Winter of 1931, but what about other railroad stations? In all, about 12 once stood inside what is now Colorado Springs. Did you know there were four railroad stations in the main part of Manitou? How about the one between there and Colorado City?
Let's start in Manitou. First the easy one: The Cog Railway station on Ruxton Avenue is still there. The Colorado Midland had two stations. One is mainly still there, up behind the old high school (now the elementary school). It was the home to the Hunt family, Nelson and Inez, a local author, from the 1950s until their deaths. The site is still owned by their daughter. The Midland had another station over in the Iron Springs district, just above Ruxton, below the cog depot. It was where the first equipment was delivered for the cog, as well as most of the coal it used. Down on Manitou Avenue, where the Villa Motel stands, was the Denver and Rio Grande station. It served as the motel's office until the business wanted a swimming pool and put it where the depot was.
The streetcar line had a station for the Garden of the Gods. I found a picture of it, but could not figure out where it was. It took a lot of checking before I realized how much the area had changed. It now would be under a big pile of dirt! It stood where Highway 24 crosses over Manitou Avenue near the swimming pool.
East of I-25, I recently talked about Roswell and Roswell City, which had a Rock Island station. The shell of the station is now a garage off of the north end of Wood Avenue. When the Rock Island stopped picking up passengers near the Rock Island tracks at Roswell, the building was sold and moved a short distance.
Not far away was Pikeview. The funny thing here is that north from Colorado Springs to Palmer Lake the Rio Grande and the Santa Fe had separate lines, each with a "Pikeview" station, but not in the same place. The Santa Fe's Pikeview station was off North Nevada near the present dog track. The Rio Grande's was where the railroad bridge now crosses over Garden of the Gods Road. Neither was at the actual Pikeview site, which was near the current Rockrimmon exit on 1-25.