06/15/2026
Railroad Personality of the Month: David Moffat
David Moffat was one of the most influential figures in the early development of Denver along with Colorado railroads and industry, so it is somewhat ironic that he is best known today for the tunnel that was named in his honor. That project ended in failure during his lifetime, and for the second time he lost his fortune and ended up nearly broke before his death. Regardless, his many successes have left an indelible mark upon Colorado.
Born in 1839 in New York, Moffat ended up in Omaha, Nebraska in 1856, working in a bank and speculating in real estate. Before he was 21, he was a millionaire who often needed adults to sign papers because he was still a minor. In a setback that would be repeated late in his life, the Omaha real estate market went bust and Moffat lost his fortune for the first time around.
But he had made friends with the Woolworth brothers, who would go on to create the largest department store chain in the world. In 1860, they hired him to start a bookstore in Denver. He quickly became a prominent business leader and banker in the young city. But then in 1868, misfortune struck again. The First Transcontinental Railroad bypassed Denver, selecting an easier route 100 miles to the north through Wyoming. William Byers, founder of the Rocky Mountain News proclaimed Denver “too dead to bury.”
BANKER, BUSINESSMAN—AND RAILROADER
In a move that would foreshadow his lifetime of achievements, Moffat would help in “rescuing” Denver from its predicament—with a railroad. He partnered with Byers (another friend he had made in Omaha), Colorado Territorial Governor John Evans and others to bring aboard East Coast investors, and they formed their own railroad—the Denver Pacific Railway & Telegraph Company, which by 1870 connected Denver (and Colorado) with the Union Pacific (UP) transcontinental mainline to the north, and to the outside world.
Two years later, Moffat again joined Evans and other business leaders to create a railroad linking Denver to the lucrative mining areas in Leadville and eventually, Gunnison. Opened in 1872 and called the Denver, South Park & Pacific, this was one of the first railroads in America to use narrow gauge for its tracks, greatly reducing initial construction costs through the mountainous territory. Of particular note, Gunnison was reached via Alpine Tunnel, at the time the highest and most expensive tunnel in the world.
The success of this railroad led in 1881 to Moffat, Evans and others starting the Denver & New Orleans Railroad (later the Denver, Texas & Gulf Railroad and ultimately part of the Colorado & Southern/Burlington Route). This railroad provided a direct connection to the deep-water port in Galveston, Texas, giving Denver easy access to worldwide markets.
Back in booming, sprawling Denver, Moffat saw the need for ground transportation and was a partner in the Denver Tramway, which would become the first street railway company in the Mile High City to adopt electricity over cable railway technology. This would end up making it Denver’s dominant rail transit provider by the turn of the 20th century. Moffat also had the foresight to see the power of the tourism industry and in 1889, he helped Zalmon Simmon (founder of the Simmons Bedding Company and “Beautyrest” mattresses) create the Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway, which used a cog rail system to climb to the summit of 14,115-foot Pikes Pike, becoming the highest railroad in the world.
STANDARD GAUGE—AND A TUNNEL
Moffat had plenty of involvement in Colorado’s mining industry as well. But his success in railroading did not go unnoticed, and in 1887 he was elected president of the Denver & Rio Grande (D&RG), the largest of Colorado’s railroads at the time. One of his actions was to convert the D&RG from narrow to standard gauge between Pueblo and Grand Junction. In Grand Junction, the line connected with the Rio Grande Western (RGW) to reach Salt Lake City. The RGW itself converted to standard gauge at the same time as D&RG, making the entire route a competitor for transcontinental rail traffic.
At this time, there were a limited number of railroad routes for passengers and freight to take when traveling west from Denver. All of these involved heading north or south first—so as to avoid some of the Front Range’s most challenging geography—before turning westward. But after his experience with the Alpine Tunnel and Pikes Peak, Moffat was not made timid by elevation or tunneling, and he spent $200,000 on surveying a possible route heading directly west out of Denver. Shareholders of the D&RG though he was insane (and wasteful with money) and called for his resignation.
So Moffat began one final railroad, the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific (also known as the Moffat Road), with the goal of stretching from Denver to Salt Lake City and tunneling through the base of James Peak just west of Denver to create a more direct route. The resulting Moffat Tunnel would eventually become an important and lasting part of Colorado’s railroad legacy. We will cover it next Sunday as our Colorado Railroad Attraction of the Month, completing the story of David Moffat in the process.
If you’re interested in learning more about David Moffat in the meantime, this Colorado Encyclopedia article is a good read: https://heyor.ca/1CPsWH.
