WALKING THE LINE: Day 4

The land at West 13th Avenue and Garrison Street has been the Snider Tract for nearly 80 years.

The two little Snider boys, who moved out of the city in the Roaring Twenties to what was then the countryside, are now elderly retirees. And the city has come out to surround them.

From their porches they saw the last runs of the Golden trolley in 1950 and freight train traffic dwindle and die in 1988.

They're still here to see commuter trains come back to the corridor. Excited? Just like the good ol' days?

Nope.

"I don't think much of it," said Jack, 82, who lives with his wife, Ruth, in the house they built on land his parents gave them from the tract as a wedding present.

Big brother Charlie, 86, feels much the same.

"You can protest all you want, but they can do what they want," he said.

Charlie and Jack Snider still poke fun at each other like they were kids. Charlie reminds Jack about the time he got chased around the field by a porcupine.

But when the talk turns to FasTracks, it gets serious.

Sitting in Jack's living room with Ruth and daughter Joyce Morgison, they wondered about the magnitude of change that could come with light rail, as opposed to the slow evolving changes they've seen until now.

"It takes 10 minutes to be able to pull out of our driveway now," Ruth said. "What will it be like when the crossing gates stop traffic every couple of minutes?"

They live on what's left of the small, five-acre family farm their dad bought right on the trolley line in 1928. He had moved his family out of a house on Benton Street just off Colfax in Mountair - a nearly forgotten name for the small town that formed at Colfax and Sheridan.

"This was really like country then," Charlie said.

Charlie and Jack watched over the years as the apple orchard west of them and the cherry orchard south of them gave way to homes.

"And they were good cherries, too!" Jack remembered.

They recall when the lot on Colfax Avenue where the Safeway stands was once used for carnivals with bear wrestling and boxing kangaroos.

"Hey, we had to have something to do!" Ruth said.

They remember when Sixth Avenue wasn't a freeway, but a hilly, two-lane gravel road. They saw Smiths Road, a washboard gravel strip in front of their house, get graded and then paved and then changed to Garrison Street.

Even now, in the evening, they can go out back on their one-third-acre lot and see owls perched on fence posts. Early morning can bring foxes through the back in search of food.

They used the trolley, for sure. Their dad worked the night shift for the Burlington Northern Railroad down on Fox Street, then worked in his alfalfa and corn fields when he got home.

"Dad worked himself to death," Jack said.

Like his father, he was a mechanic at Burlington Northern's shops. Charlie took the trolley downtown, then transferred south to make fan belts at the Gates Rubber plant. He later was a postal carrier.

Over the years, the Snider Tract was divided and divided again. There are now 10 houses on wildly different-sized lots.

Charlie said RTD and the city want to take 4 to 9 inches of property from them along 13th Avenue to widen the street.

Ruth said a developer came to her door and offered her cash for the property. She said he wanted to develop housing for senior citizens.

One change is sure to come in due time: no more horses on this former farmland. The property restrictions allow horses to be kept there until the last Snider leaves the land.

flynnk@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5247

About the series

FasTracks kicks off in earnest next year when crews start building the 12-mile light-rail West Corridor line through diverse and history-rich neighborhoods from downtown to Golden.

All eyes are on this first line, as it will set the tone for the nine other corridors to be built in the massive $6 billion transit system approved by voters in 2004.

To begin telling this story, the Rocky's team of reporter Kevin Flynn, above center, photographer Darin McGregor and videographer Laressa Bachelor trekked the length of the West Corridor. We invite you to come along, and experience our amazing urban journey of discovery.

About the series

FasTracks kicks off in earnest next year when crews start building the 12-mile light-rail West Corridor line through diverse and history-rich neighborhoods from downtown to Golden.

All eyes are on this first line, as it will set the tone for the nine other corridors to be built in the massive $6 billion transit system approved by voters in 2004.

To begin telling this story, the Rocky's team of reporter Kevin Flynn, above center, photographer Darin McGregor and videographer Laressa Bachelor trekked the length of the West Corridor. We invite you to come along, and experience our amazing urban journey of discovery.

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