Arlington,
Colorado
Arlington, began its life as a railroad
camp on the Missouri Pacific RR, in Eastern Colorado. The trains have stopped running and the rails
collect rust. No longer is there the
clicking of wheels flashing over the tracks.
Cars and trucks can be heard rumbling along the highway that followed
the rails to Pueblo.
There a couple of hardy ranchers
that still call this little prairie burg home.
The Post Office closed and moved to Hasewell a few years back. The roadside businesses are gone and the few
store fronts are now silent. The
roadside park has a caretaker and the occasional traveler will stop for a
moment. Silence is the main companion
for the few that pause.
The main feature of the town is the
schoolhouse that sits in far corner of the town. The two story building dominates the land,
yet years of neglect is showing. Number of
years ago some locals wanted to buy the school but the scrapper that owned it
would not sell. Today the junk that had littered
the yard is gone except the tires left in the weeds. The winds whistle through broken windows, the
bell tower is sliest for the few birds and it appears that the school may be
doomed.
The town has set vacant for so many
years that the weeds dominate. The few
streets are overgrown and the remains of houses and building rise above
them. Street signs mark where the roads
had once been. Rooflines are barely visible
in the overgrown town.
Yet someday the tracks may hear the
clicking of wheels again. A group wants
to buy the rails but the transaction is held up in court and government agencies. Arlington has no farming, most of that is to
the east. Trains would just pass through
the remains of what once was on their way to Pueblo.
Nearby is a WWII auxiliary airstrip
and little further is Adobe reservoir.
The canals today carry dust of yesteryear when the sugar beet ruled the
country.
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