In the winter of 1912 a unique event held up a Colorado Midland passenger train in Ute Pass just before daybreak.

Three horses got on the track just as the train approached below Divide.

With the train in pursuit, the horses dashed down the tracks in the rays of the headlight, and nothing daunted them.

The train, an express, at that, had no scheduled stops until Manitou!

The fireman even climbed out on the pilot and tried to shoo the horses off the track, but they gave him a genuine horse laugh. Neither were they frightened by the blasting of the whistle, to which the engineer resorted in desperation. This only awakened the passengers in the Pullmans, who upon learning of the race, entered the spirit of the unique incident.

It was said that a few sportsmen were even seen taking bets on the event. As the train passed through the Ute Pass communities it was hoped that the horses would take to streets. Somehow they were not tempted. The strange site dashed on through the nine tunnels between Cascade and Manitou, rather than yield the chase.

One horse was killed in the encounter — it fell through a trestle in the pass. Another finally left the track at Manitou, while the third and last scampered into a pasture just above Colorado City.

The train continued quietly on into Colorado Springs some 35 minutes late. Everyone on the train had some sort of version of the story, but the best was directly from the crew in the locomotive. I have not found any story of a rancher losing three horses, but maybe there is some mention in Teller County records.

I have seen stories of other animals on the track, one being a bear hit by a train going to Cripple

Creek, near Midland. I have even slowed a cog train or two because of bighorn sheep standing in the track up on Pikes Peak! A few chases of deer on the track usually ended with them turning away from the rails.