Letter from Virginia McConnell Simmons
Geography – April 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Here is a small stick to throw onto the flickering flames about whether the original, narrow- gauge D&RG route crossed La Veta Pass or Veta Pass, and whether the later standard- gauge route crossed Veta Pass or La Veta Pass. Today I think we should defer to USGS maps and accept the northern (narrow- gauge) pass as La Veta and the southern pass as Veta.
If quad maps aren’t handy, the area can be checked out in the DeLorme Colorado Atlas & Gazetteer. Railroads had a practice of giving stations and landmarks various names or spellings that suited their whims and/or proprietary interests, like the San Luis Southern switching Jarosa to Jaroso. The old and the new D&RG routes each have a Muleshoe Curve. Idiosyncracies abound. Businesses still do it, such as putting a funny A in the name of a ritzy hotel in Colorado Springs.
Virginia Simmons
Del Norte
