East Portal Camp Cabins
Historian B. Travis Wright, MPS helps tell the story of Rollins Pass and the construction of the Moffat Tunnel in this CBS4 documentary about the East Portal Camp Cabins.
This is one of Colorado’s Most Endangered Places.
Nearly a century ago, two construction camps were placed on either side of the Continental Divide to support the 1,600 men who bored one of the nation’s greatest engineering accomplishments: the Moffat Tunnel.
These construction camps were self-contained towns—at the East Portal was a 24-hour mess hall, school, six-bed hospital with X-ray machine, post office, recreation hall with a movie theater (35 cents), facilities shops, bunkhouses, and cottages. Turnover was exceptionally low under this “factory system” of company town planning. Such an approach strengthened the community, and families lived on site for years: going to church in the schoolhouse on Sundays, participating in Elks Clubs, women’s bridge clubs, and dancing… but never stepping foot in a saloon, as the tunnel was fully constructed during prohibition and none were built at East Portal.
After the tunnel was completed, a majority of the buildings at East Portal were demolished, first by the railroad, and more later by the US Forest Service. The most specialized utilitarian buildings were removed first (warehouses that kept blasting powder, for example), while the most adaptable were removed last; but not before they were used to house military sentries during World War II. The Moffat Tunnel played a vital role during the war, with more than 30 defense-related trains passing through each day.
Besides the completed tunnel and attached ventilation plant, all that remains of this incredible endeavor: newspaper articles, old photographs, and five cottages sitting silently near the edge of the James Peak Wilderness; their tattered curtains stirred by breezes through shattered windows.
The remaining cottages, arguably some of Gilpin County’s most incredible historic gems, are now, as of today, listed as one of Colorado’s Most Endangered Places. Sadly, they won’t last much longer without urgent rehabilitation. The climate is rough, the winds are strong, and the vandalism is heartbreaking. Mother Nature, too, is pushing one cabin off of its foundation. Greater awareness could unlock possibilities for unique partnerships that can help with restoration: it is fitting this task must be undertaken by the community, for community is why—and how—these structures were built in the first place.
It is an honor to work on the Gilpin County Historic Preservation Advisory Commission that helped ensure these treasures can be seen by future generations. When I was interviewed for the documentary about the East Portal cabins, I was asked, “Can you tell me about this place and what it all means?” I had already answered historical questions about the old route over Rollins Pass, the need for the Moffat Tunnel and told stories of its construction efforts, talked about how the cottages were used… and I knew the interviewer was asking for something more. I took a deep breath, soaked in the view for a moment, and said, “This place is magical.”
It’s my hope that increased awareness leads to action, preserving this incredible site and its magic for the future. The story these cottages continue to tell is important for Colorado, its residents, and its visitors. After all, only the most adaptable structures were saved from demolition, and there’s plenty of life left in these cabins once inhabited by everyday people who, quite literally, moved mountains.
—B. Travis Wright, MPS
East Portal Camp Cabins description by Colorado Preservation, Inc.
The East Portal Camp Cabins, constructed between 1922 and 1923 at the eastern entrance to the Moffat Tunnel in Gilpin County, represent the last intact remnants of a purpose-built industrial community created to support one of the most consequential transportation engineering undertakings in the Rocky Mountain West. Conceived within the broader vision of David H. Moffat to establish a direct rail connection between Denver and the West Coast, the Moffat Tunnel ultimately shortened transcontinental routes by approximately 150 miles and permanently altered transportation across the Continental Divide.
Unlike many large-scale infrastructure projects of the era, contractors Hitchcock and Tinkler implemented a deliberate “factory system” approach to workforce stability, designing a self-contained town that combined housing, workspaces, food access, medical care, and recreation to reduce labor turnover and improve safety and productivity. Under the direction of engineer Clifford A. Betts, the camp was organized along a central east-west axis extending from the tunnel portal, with industrial functions to the south, residential and social spaces to the north, and a distinct “Cottage Village” of eleven single-family homes reflecting contemporary residential design. This planned environment reveals an early recognition that the built environment could directly shape morale, efficiency, and retention.
Today, only five of those cottages survive. No comparable resources survive at the West Portal, where the company town has been entirely lost, making the East Portal cabins the only surviving residential complex directly associated with the East Portal construction camp. Most of the East Portal camp was demolished after construction ended, leaving these buildings as the last residential structures still capable of conveying the human scale of the undertaking. They constitute the sole remaining built connection to the workers who constructed the tunnel and to the lives organized around that labor, preserving a rare physical record of the community that made the project possible. They also preserve evidence of how labor was organized and experienced on-site, reflecting distinctions between workers and supervisory staff, the integration of housing with industrial functions, and the rhythms of daily life in a remote, high-altitude construction environment. In that sense, the cabins function as documentary evidence in built form, capturing aspects of the project that do not survive in engineering records alone. That evidentiary value is amplified by their setting at the terminus of Tolland Road, now a heavily used trailhead for the James Peak Wilderness, where they occupy a critical intersection of public access and historical interpretation.
The cabins sit on U.S. Forest Service land but are owned by Union Pacific. Ongoing discussions between Union Pacific and Gilpin County, supported by Colorado Preservation, Inc. and other partners, have focused on potential acquisition, contingent upon environmental and structural assessments. The structures face multiple threats from demolition by neglect, prolonged exposure to severe mountain conditions, wildfire risk, and vandalism. In June 2023, the cabins were designated a Gilpin County Local Historic Landmark. That designation appropriately recognizes their significance, but recognition alone will not stabilize or save them. Without a clear preservation pathway, the cabins will continue to lose historic fabric and interpretive value; with one, they could support a compatible adaptive reuse approach consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, allowing the buildings to remain both historically legible and publicly meaningful.
“A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy.”
—John C. Sawhill
