06/16/2026
Parker History: Back to Our Roots — Remembering the Railroad in Parker — From 1882 until the mid-1930s, the railroad played a defining role in the growth of the settlement now known as Parker. The Denver & New Orleans Railroad first brought trains through the frontier community before the line eventually became part of the Colorado & Southern Railroad system. For decades, trains carried passengers, mail, freight and opportunity between Parker and Denver.
Brothers James “Jim” Parker and George Parker helped make the railroad possible by donating land for the right-of-way. Both were Union veterans from Illinois who remained deeply committed to Parker’s future. George, wounded during the Civil War, is pictured in the image shown in the second photo (third from left).
The railroad became especially important to Parker’s dairy industry. Two creameries located behind what are now the Tailgate and Parker Garage shipped dairy products north to Denver. The station stood near today’s Parker Station area just off Mainstreet. As commerce expanded, Parker’s population grew rapidly, leading to construction of the Parker Consolidated School, now known as The Schoolhouse, in 1915.
One of the line’s most memorable features was the steep climb from Parker to Hilltop, then a separate community with its own station. An extra engine was added in Parker to push trains uphill before returning downhill. The train swayed so dramatically that residents nicknamed it “Pollywog,” or simply “Polly.”
The railroad era ended after a devastating flood destroyed the tracks in May 1935. By 1936, crews were salvaging the remaining rails. Today, the railroad’s legacy lives on; remnants of the line are still visible just south of the PACE Center, on the side of Sulphur Gulch.
Photo Captions:
1. A scanned postcard from Parker, Colorado. The postcard is dated July 21, 1912. The top of the postcard is an image of railroad tracks going up a hill with a trestle in the background. The bottom of the postcard shows three men standing around the tracks with a car parked next to them and houses in the background. The words on the bottom of the postcard say "Washout at Parker, Colo, July 14, 12." Photo courtesy of Douglas County Libraries Archives & Local History.
2. The Parker railroad station. George Parker is pictured in the image shown in the second photo. Photo courtesy of the Colorado Historical Society.
3. A 1907 train ticket stamped with "Parkers." Photo courtesy of Parker History.
4. A map of the historic Denver & New Orleans Railroad alignment through Parker.
