CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN ZOO

If you were a visitor to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo between May 1950 and the fall of 1974, you most likely remember the futuristic looking little train that made round trips every hour from the Broadmoor Hotel to the Zoo and back again. The train, named the Mountaineer, was a favorite of Zoo visitors as it made its way along the two miles of narrow gauge cog railroad track, through four tunnels and lush scrub oak and pine, providing spectacular views all along the way.

The Mountaineer Train’s restored engine has now been placed back on the last remaining section of the train’s roadbed at the Zoo and was dedicated in May 2005 at a ceremony that involved the acceptance of the restore relic by then Zoo President and CEO, Susan Engfer, from representatives of local Rotary clubs that assisted in its restoration.

This railroad memory has been revived via the generosity of seven local Rotary Clubs, headed by the Broadmoor Rotary Club, and the late Don Bymaster and family. Bymaster had a vision to see the old train returned to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo years after it had been sold to the town of Telluride for skier transportation. After that venture failed, the train was sold to a Gilpin County concern that was going to use it to move gamblers between Blackhawk and Central City. Those plans also fell through and the once proud Mountaineer was relegated to rust and dilapidation in a Gilpin County aspen grove.

Bymaster, a Broadmoor Rotarian, eventually located and purchased the train. Or, at least, what remained of it after becoming victim to both weather and scavengers. In ill health, one of his last wishes was for the train to be returned to it’s original home at America’s only mountain zoo. With the assistance of Bymaster’s wife, Lorena, his daughter, Dona, and Rotarians from around the region, those wishes have now come true after painstaking restoration of the Mountaineer’s locomotive shell.

The train was designed by Cadillac. It consisted of two coaches, each seating 20 persons, and an engine that pushed the train up the grade from behind, and then backed down holding the coaches behind. Though the train’s Cadillac V-8 engine is no longer operational, the locomotive’s newly restored façade – exactingly refurbished by Black & White Auto – is accessible to Zoo visitors for both first-time explorations as well as trips down memory lane. You can see the Mountaineer engine at the entrance of the cog railroad’s fourth and longest tunnel, which ran under Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Road. This roadbed, the only section still in existence, is located inside and just to the right of the Zoo’s entrance pillars. All abroad!

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