The Revival of Southern Colorado’s Uptop
Once the home of the highest railroad in the world, two sisters have restored the tiny town back to a San Luis Valley gem.
By Kara Mason
In the 1880s, before rollercoasters and theme parks were widely popular, there was another way for people to get their adrenaline fix: the world’s highest operating train, dubbed the “railroad above the clouds” near La Veta in Southern Colorado.
“It was like the Six Flags of America,” said Sam Lathrop, who now, with her sister, owns the land where the railroad once brought people.
“People would take this train to be terrified.”
Then, the train that went over Veta Pass would pull into a small train depot in a town called Uptop. Now, Uptop is a privately-owned ghost settlement on 429 acres that has been restored by the Lathrop sisters who originally purchased the land in 2000.
“It was a total fluke,” Lathrop said.
The sisters, originally from Massachusetts, had fallen in love with the land that Lathrop says sits perfectly in between sweeping views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Twin Peaks. It wasn’t until later when they actually purchased the land they realized there were old buildings from Uptop still on the property.
Since the purchase and restoration of the buildings, Lathrop said everybody who visits the old town seems to feel connected to it, and many have a historical or spiritual connection.
“People would come and tell us things like, ‘Oh, my mother taught in that little school house’ and we just started finding that people had an oral history to share,” Lathrop said. “They would tell us how the bar (shaped like an S) had the best bands that would play there.” Musicians who play the town now say it’s one of the few places they sound the best, according to Lathrop. She believes it’s because all of the buildings were built with wood milled from nearby trees.
“We’ve had world-class musicians and they just love to play there,” Lathrop said.
On the day the sisters closed on purchasing the land they went up to Uptop where Lathrop was elected mayor by a majority of two people.
“The first person we met up here was Apache Susie,” Lathrop said. “She told us, ‘Whenever I’m blue, I come here because the spirit of my ancestors are up here and they are so content.’ And we’ve felt that ever since.”
Lathrop said she and her sister have tried to incorporate all of the different cultures that have touched the land, especially the Native American cultures. There are Ute prayer trees — trees that were tied as they grew to represent different things for the Utes — all around the property and the La Veta area.
“We don’t feel we’re particularly sensitive but it seems we’ve been guided by something,” Lathrop said.
One time the sisters were told by a descendent that one tree on the property seemed to be a type of memorial tree. It also happened to be where they had buried a pet that had passed away.
By the end of 1899 the tracks that carried people up the mountain were moved further south, but not before contributing to history.
Chief Ouray and his wife, Chipeta, traveled over the pass in 1878 on their way to Washington, D.C., where they were to negotiate a treaty. That same year a team of botanists, led by Harvard’s Asa Gray, camped on the pass. They were collecting plants for Charles Darwin.
Moving the tracks didn’t kill Uptop. Soon after, a highway allowed for tourism in Uptop, where the S-shaped bar acted as a watering hole for locals and those passing through.
Eventually, when a new highway was built, the town hit a decline. That was until the Lathrop sisters renovated the town that’s now a National Historic District.
“To bring it back to life is a real joy,” Lathrop said.
Since, the sisters have opened up the land to different events and festivals. It’s a year-round destination.
But now they are looking to sell.
Lathrop wants to return to France, where she’s lived before, to write another play before becoming a park ranger in Virginia.
“Our goal is to find keepers, meaning not somebody who would have it just as two weeks out of the year summer home, but somebody who will take it forward,” Lathrop said.
She and her sister say they are optimistic they will find perfect buyers — somebody who will find the kind of adventure they did when they bought Uptop.
“We felt so blessed and like we just walked into a whole storyline. Let’s play in this story,” she said.
