DENVER, NORTHWESTERN AND PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY RECORDS

The Denver, Northwestern and Pacific Railway Company incorporated in July 1902. The incorporators were David H. Moffat, Walter S. Cheesman, William G. Evans, Charles J. Hughes, Jr., George E. Ross-Lewin, Samuel M. Perry and Frank B. Gibson.

David H. Moffat, in cooperation with John Evans and others built the Denver Pacific; Denver, South Park and Pacific; and the Florence and Cripple Creek railroads. From 1887 to 1891 Moffat served as president of the Denver and Rio Grande. Moffat wanted to put Denver on a direct transcontinental route, build a railroad through the mountains from Denver to Salt Lake City and develop the northwestern portion of Colorado. David Moffat ultimately poured all of his fortune into the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific, which began at Utah Junction, three miles north of the Union Depot in Denver. By 1905, the line climbed the east face of the Rocky Mountains and crossed Rollins Pass to the Western Slope.

“From the time of its inception in 1902, the railroad never made any money. The cost of keeping the line over Rollins Pass open in the winter offset any profit the railroad might have made in the summer months. Even the hundreds of carloads of coal could not bring the railroad out of the red.” -- Denver and Salt Lake Railroad Company Records

On May 1, 1912, the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific Railway Company went into receivership with David C. Dodge and Samuel M. Perry as receivers. Due to foreclosure the company was sold to Denver and Salt Lake Railroad Company on May 1, 1913.

David H. Moffat died in 1911 without seeing the completion of his project. Two years later, his railroad, reorganized as the Denver and Salt Lake, reached the end of the line at Craig, Colorado, far short of the company’s goal. When the building of the Moffat Tunnel through the Continental Divide was completed in 1928 and the Dotsero Cutoff opened in June 1934, Moffat’s dream materialized.