Even with the arrival of The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, prices were always higher in the mountains than in Denver.
In the winter of 1884 apples were lower here for some odd reason and in 1893 potatoes were 2 cents a pound both here and on the front range. Eggs were 4 cents a dozen higher in C.B. at 25 cents, bread was three loaves for 25 cents, sugar at six pounds for 50 cents and coffee was 30 cents per pound.
If you’re lamenting for those days of bargains and simpler lifestyles you should consider the joy of outhouses at outdoor temperatures, epidemics without a cure, childhood deaths from now easily curable diseases, imminent fire danger, no electricity and… sorry, but I had to mention this one…dental visits featuring foot pump drills.
And then there was the pollution. The skies would often be thick with the smoke of the coke ovens, biting the very tissue of your lungs with every breath. And the screaming of five sawmills certainly must have been welcoming to the newly arrived and difficult to tune out for the veteran local.
But beer was a nickel and friends to quaff one with were plentiful…some things change, some things don’t.
Source: “When Coal Was King” by Duane A. Smith
Rob Quint