Days 4 and 5: More Colorado

Day 4 was pretty light with lots of miles between stops. So, I’m combining these two days for a bigger post.

A detail from the Golden Burro Cafe in Leadville, CO – note the two-phase wagging tail:

This one is in Walsenburg, CO – very few of these left:

I made a quick trip over the border to New Mexico. The Mesa Vista Motel in Raton, NM:

I’m sure this sign in Raton, NM had a neon text panel underneath the panel that’s there now:

DiLisio’s department store operated in Raton from 1918-1978. These letters remain on the edge of the building’s roof:

The former Solano Shoe Shop in Raton — for lots more shoe and boot signs, see this page at my website:

https://www.roadarch.com/sca/shoes.html

The gas station below is also in Raton. One of my favorite gas station designs are these streamline Conocos. Most had double canopies, porthole windows, and extensive use of green glazed tile (even in the bathrooms). I’ve got lots of them at my website — most of the survivors are in Texas:

https://www.roadarch.com/gas/txconoco.html

Perhaps my favorite detail is on the backside. These continuous windows allowed natural light in for the mechanics. Most remaining stations have filled in or covered these up but the station in Raton is intact:

When I went digging, I was surprised by how little info there is about these two scaffold signs. They are both prominent landmarks on the highest peaks in both Raton and Trinidad, CO. This one on top of Goat Hill has been there since at least the 1950s and I suspect a lot longer:

This one has been there since at least the 1920s:

On to Colorado. This sign in Alamosa, CO at a still-operating cleaners:

St. George the Dragonslayer in Crested Butte, CO:

The backlit plastic sign at Chong’s Cafe in Pueblo, CO is blown out but the neon top is what matters:

A giant chile in Pueblo:

This rubber duck is located at the Quacker Gift Shop in Manitou Springs, CO:

This sign in Manitou Springs is really getting rusty (business long gone). I always hold my breath that it will still be there whenever I’m in town:

One of two former Tastee-Freez locations in Colorado Springs:

The Fox Theatre in Walsenburg, CO:

I was devastated to see that this sign in Pueblo, CO which I shot last year…:

… had been painted over sometime earlier this year when a sushi place moved into the space. Better than removing it, I guess. Too bad it couldn’t have been moved to the Neon Alley instead.

Let’s close with the many faces of this sign in Canon City, CO. It was built in the 1950s for the El Camino Inn:

Sometime after 1991, it became the Travel Inn Motel and the sign was adapted. My photo below is from last year. Yes, very odd how they made the letter “T” basically unreadable: