In 1913, a funicular railway was built by local businessman Charles Quaintance
on the Northwest face of South Table Mountain. There was, at that time, a
combination dancehall-casino-tea room-observatory situated at the top of Castle
Rock. That structure appears in this picture. Tourists from Denver rode the
streetcars out to Golden for a day or evening in the mountains.
The Boettcher Mansion
site includes a fascinating write-up about this funicular and the one on Lookout
Mountain, including the period when the Ku Klux Klan was using the dance
pavilion as a place to hold meetings and burn crosses.
Read it!
