Railroad Wars

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The Railroad Wars were a series of conflicts between two competing railroads in the Old West of the late 1870s. ^[1]

In 1878, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the smaller Denver and Rio Grande were competing to put the first line through Raton Pass. Both railroads had extended lines into Trinidad, Colorado and the pass was the only access to continue on to New Mexico. There was a great deal of legal maneuvering, and even threatened violence between rival gangs of railroad workers.

To break the impasse, Atcheson, Topeka, and Santa Fe hired a number of local gunfighters in February, 1878. Faced with this threat, and running out of money, the Denver and Rio Grande was forced to cede the pass to their rivals. The first railroad war was over without a shot being fired.

The next year a silver strike in Leadville brought the struggle back to life. Now both railroads were competing to put track along the narrow Royal Gorge. The Denver and Rio Grande had hired its own gunfighters so the Atcheson Topeka and Santa Fe decided to strengthen its forces. On March 20, 1879 the railroad hired Bat Masterson to put together a group of gunmen. Masterson's force included such famous fighters as Doc Holliday, Ben Thompson, Dave Rudabaugh, Mysterious Dave Mather as well as about seventy other fighters.

This impressive force experienced impressive successes through early June of that year. On June 10, the Fourth Judicial Circuit ruled in favor of the Denver and Rio Grande, changing matters entirely. With the assistance of the sheriffs in the counties through which the railroads passed, the Denver and Rio Grande mounted an attack on their rival's forces. There was heavy fighting at the Atcheson, Topeka, and Santa Fe's garrisons in Colorado. The garrisons in Denver and Colorado Springs fell quickly. Masterson's headquarters in Pueblo held out the longest, but also conceded defeat later that day. There were later some bloodless skirmishes but the wars were essentially over with the Denver and Rio Grande in control of the Royal Gorge.