Since its earliest days, Golden has been popular with visitors. In the early 1900s, people rode out from Denver on the streetcars to spend the day in the mountains. From the depot at 13th and Washington, they headed to Castle Rock or Lookout Mountain.
In 1912, Rees Vidler built a funicular railway to the top of Lookout Mountain. Its base was about where the water storage tank now is, and the summit was approximately where the antennas are.
Not to be outdone, in 1913, Charles Quaintance built a funicular to the summit of Castle Rock. At the top, he built a dance hall and lookout tower.
Neither railway was a commercial success, and both were gone by the 1920s, but they still capture our imagination a century later.
