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WEEK OF JANUARY 9, 2025
VOLUME 98 | ISSUE 6
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Denver to Pueblo in 11 minutes? Hyperloop tests start soon BY SUE MCMILLIN THE COLORADO SUN
On Dec. 30, customers browse the merchandise inside the Buffalo Bill Museum gift shop. The Pahaska Tepee building, where the gift shop and cafe PHOTO BY CORINNE WESTEMAN are, was set to close indefinitely at end of day Dec. 31.
So long to the shop atop the mountain Customers, concessionaires bid farewell to gift shop at the Buffalo Bill Museum
BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Over the decades, the gift shop and café at the Buffalo Bill Museum & Gravesite has been a haven for tourists and locals alike. It was a quiet spot to relax and reflect, to sip coffee or hot chocolate while enjoying the views of Denver and the nearby foothills. It was a welcome relief for those who desperately needed some food or indoor bathrooms. It was also a fun spot to grab souvenirs so visitors could fondly remember their trip to Lookout Mountain. It was, ultimately, a place of memories — good and bad, big and small, significant and fleeting. Now, that haven is closed indefinitely. The Pahaska Tepee building, which housed the gift shop and café, closed at end of day Dec. 31. It was built in 1921 and has been run by the same family of concessionaires since 1956. Denver Mountain Parks, which owns the site, plans to assess Pahaska Tepee’s condition and explore future programming op-
portunities for it. Denver Parks & Recreation officials have not said what those opportunities might be or when the building will reopen, whether on an interim basis or a permanent one, but encouraged people to check its website for updates. In the meantime, the museum and gravesite will remain open with its usual hours. Bill Carle and his nephew Dustin Day said their family has been running the Buffalo Bill Museum gift shop for five generations, since Carle’s grandma answered Denver Mountain Parks’ request for proposals in 1956. By 2024, their family members had met about 80,000 people a year from all over the world. As Carle said, he and his family are leaving Lookout Mountain “with great memories but a bad feeling.” Carle and Day said their family — the H.W. Stewart Company — wanted to continue its partnership with Denver Mountain Parks. However, the agency decided not to renew the agreement into 2025.
VOICES: 10 | LIFE: 12 | CALENDAR: 8
Day said the family would’ve been open to “an opportunity to adapt, overcome or step aside,” but there “wasn’t even a conversation” as Denver Mountain Parks seemed to make the decision unilaterally. Now, Day and Carle said, they felt like they were letting the locals and the tourists down. They expected Dec. 31 was going to be a difficult and busy day, with Carle adding, “I’ve had a wonderful life on Lookout Mountain. … It’s hard to leave.” A place of memories
The H.W. Stewart Company has been concessionaires at major Colorado sites since 1893, when it started operations atop Pike’s Peak. After that, it served as concessionaires for several public sites like Echo Lake Lodge, as well as private operations in Grand Lake and Estes Park. For decades, Carle and Day said, Lookout Mountain served as a central location for family gatherings like Easter egg hunts and Thanksgiving dinners. SEE FAREWELL, P5
Imagine slipping into a sleek capsule at a train-like station in Pueblo and arriving in Denver 11 minutes later. Regardless of the weather. That’s the vision that drives Swisspod Technologies as it works to complete a one-mile, full-scale hyperloop test track on the grounds of the former Pueblo Army Depot in southeastern Colorado. In November, Swisspod unveiled 25 steel tubes atop concrete pillars stretching across 218 yards of prairie. You could look through the tunnel-like structure from one end to another. Seemingly, pretty basic stuff. But they are the first pieces of an elliptical test track for an intriguing, futuristic mode of high-speed transportation in which capsules carrying cargo or people would levitate through vacuum tubes. “As fast as a plane and as convenient as a train,” Swisspod CEO Denis Tudor said as onlookers peered at or clambered into the empty tubes. While enthusiasm for hyperloop technology fueled a decade ago by design competitions sponsored by Elon Musk and SpaceX has cooled significantly, Tudor and his company are unabashedly forging ahead. He expects to begin testing at the Pueblo track in late 2025. The 43-acre hyperloop testing facility is part of another dream too: the conversion of the former Pueblo Depot into a sprawling complex of businesses and industry to provide jobs in Pueblo County. “Swisspod’s hyperloop test track falls right into our research and development plans,” said Chris Bolt, vice president and chief operating officer for PuebloPlex, the redevelopment authority for the former Army post. SEE HYPERLOOP, P4
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