Day 61 - In Julesburg - Two Far 2021 - Sooo... Far

June 8, 2021

Day 61 - In Julesburg

If you zoom in on the map, you'll notice that Julesburg is very compact and has neither suburbs nor urban sprawl. You're either in the town or out. We enjoyed walking and riding around the town.

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Kelly IniguezHave you seen any old movie theatres in your travels through small towns?

I hadn't thought about watching for grain elevators - but I do watch for theatres - a family tradition.
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2 years ago

Jeanna & Kerry SmithTo Kelly IniguezWe have seen plenty of old movie theaters - all I remember have been closed/boarded up/falling apart. I'll watch for them now on our small town tours.

The old downtown movie theater in Inverness, FL, near where we live, has been recently restored and has both live performances and showings of classic movies on a true big screen. You would enjoy it, I think.
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2 years ago

Kelly IniguezI always look for the old theatre in small towns. Sometimes the building has been repurposed - but usually you can tell. It always warms my heart to see small town theatres that have a new lease on life - like in Inverness.
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2 years ago

Julesburg is in the far northeastern corner of Colorado. We actually routed to Holyoke and up to Julesburg so that we could say we rode in Colorado on this trip. It seemed a shame to be so close and miss that opportunity.

This marker greets visitors entering town.

Just a little farther into town, another marker tells some of the town's history. The current location of the town is the fourth place the town has been sited.

We visited the Sedgewick County Historical Museum and met Ken, volunteer docent. He is very knowledgeable about Julesburg and Sedgwick County (and Ford vehicles, but that's a different story).

Ken - thanks for the history lesson and answering all our questions. We enjoyed talking with you.

Julesburg was a stop on the Pony Express route. We learned that the Pony Express only operated from April, 1860 until October, 1861 when the telegraph put it out if business. I was surprised to find out that it existed for such a short time. Ken said that at any given time, the Pony Express employed 80 riders. The number of men who later claimed to have been Pony Express riders didn't fit into that staffing level and time frame.

A map of the Pony Express route from St. Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CA.

Here are a few things from the museum that we had not seen before.

This is a forerunner to today's wind turbines. It was used to generate electricity in rural areas before "electrification".

We've seen many displays of old banking stuff, but I don't remember seeing early safe deposit boxes.

And this is the oldest water cooler I recall. I think it was from 1909.

I had never heard of Tramp Art.

Here are two examples:

After we finished seeing the museum, we stopped for lunch at D&J Cafe. It's the only restaurant in town and very good. Then we rode around town a little before going back to the motel.

True to its history, the railroad is still very important here. A Union Pacific mainline runs right across the road from our motel. The trains are very frequent. Ken told us that in the 60's, trains ran at least every ten minutes. A sign in the museum said that the current traffic is about 80 trains every 24 hours. It's a good thing that Kerry and I both enjoy listening to trains.

Today's ride: 3 miles (5 km)
Total: 2,400 miles (3,862 km)

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