BECAUSE YOU ASKED
Q: Just north of the Colorado-New Mexico border, on the west side of Interstate 25, is what appears to be a small ghost town made up of a church and several small buildings. I’m curious to know what this is and a little history about it.
– Jim Anthony, Denver
A: The ghost town is probably the former coal mining town of Morley, which was owned at one time by Colorado Fuel and Iron. The ruins of the church and other buildings are now on private property.
The town was named for either Tom Morley, a coal-mine owner, or for William R. Morley, a Santa Fe Railroad construction engineer who laid out the railroad line there in 1879.
The church was finished in 1917 and named St. Aloysius Catholic Church.
Sources: Trinidad Las Animas Chamber of Commerce; (www.trinidadco.com/storyindex/Morley.asp); “Colorado Place Names” by William Bright
Q: What are those little buildings to the east of C-470, between Kipling Street and Ken Caryl, and what are they used for? They look like little gazebos but are close together on what appears to be private property.
A: That is one of the most frequently asked questions. The huts are cellphone towers, designed to look less obtrusive.
Source: Sunset Management Services; Colorado Department of Transportation C-470 Corridor Project
– Compiled by Bonnie Gilbert
REGIONAL NOTES
CENTENNIAL
City rates among safest in U.S.
Colorado’s 10th-largest city is among the nation’s safest communities, according to a Kansas-based research and publishing company.
Centennial ranked No. 25 on the list from Morgan Quitno Press, which has rated the country’s safest and most-dangerous cities for 12 years. No other Colorado city made the top 25.
Among the best cities, Newton, Mass., topped the list, and Clarkstown, N.Y., was No. 2. Camden, N.J., was rated the most-dangerous community. Detroit was No. 2.
With roughly 101,000 residents, Colorado demographer data show, Centennial was the 10th-largest city in the state last year.
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