From Trolley to Light Rail

Eiber, Past, Present, and Future

By Tom Slabe and Carrie Sonneborn

The history of Eiber is like that of many inner suburbs of large cities across America. Following settlement by daring pioneers, descendants of those brave families built extensive agricultural systems and displaced Native American populations and the herds of buffalo and elk that previously frequented this area. Irrigation ditches, dirt and gravel roads, and fence rows converted the foothill prairie into a mosaic of land uses patterns that we recognize even today as rural America.

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.History of Rail in Eiber

Denver Lakewood and Golden RR 1891 – 1896 (steam freight and passenger, Denver to Golden)

Denver and Intermountain RR 1904 - 1939 (electric trolley, steam freight)

D&IMRR with Associated RR 1941 - 1953 (diesel freight to Remington Arms (Federal Center))

Electric passenger rail ceased in 1950

Associated RR 1953 - 1988 (diesel freight to Federal Center)

RTD 2013 (electric passenger light rail, Denver to Golden)

A historical journey....

Agriculture was Lakewood’s economic base at the end of the 19th century.  However, the collection of ranches and farms was not completely isolated from the growing city to the east and the immovable mountains to the west.  Horses and stagecoaches brought Lakewood’s first settlers and remained an important aspect of farm living for many years thereafter, but the railroad was the next step in the evolution of transportation.  The locomotive made it possible for one of the community’s founding fathers, William A.H. Loveland, to achieve his ambition to plat a community where his Denver, Lakewood & Golden Railway (DL&G) could stop and take on passengers. 

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