Uptop: A Winter Poem

By Steven Wade Veatch

The winter snow blankets the town of Uptop.
A wind blows hard, swirling angry flakes of snow.
Light from coal-oil lamps fall through cabin windows—
casting a golden glow down a silent, snowy street.

People of Uptop long for the days of springtime;
the changing realm of white to robust green,
when summer’s blooms spread cheerful colors—
and alpine beauty stirs dreams of travelers coming on rails.

For decades they came over the mountain pass and endured;
some searching streams for gold or looking for silver in mineral veins.
Others started ranches where the grass and water was good.
Each one tamed the West and the grieving mountains.

The depot still stands, built by section hands in 1877,
to meet countless fortune seekers coming over old La Veta Pass.
Today the rails are gone and the travelers are few.
Only a small number remain in the small town of Uptop.

On Sunday at the Chapel by the Wayside, among the trees,
a church bell breaks the weekly silence—renewing the sprits—
of humbled hearts to stay for another peaceful year,
in Uptop, Colorado, the secluded and cherished place.

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DIRECTIONS TO UPTOP GHOST TOWN, COLORADO:
TWO turnoffs to Uptop ghost town are located off Hwy 160:
• 20 minutes east of Ft. Garland, CO: .turn at mile marker 276:
• 15 minutes west of La Veta or 20 min. west of Walsenburg: turn at mile marker 281

Poem   © by Steven Wade Veatch
Photos © by Steven Wade Veatch