Englemann Canyon, a valley along Ruxton Creek in Manitou Springs, became the lower gateway to Pikes Peak as transportation and tourism developed together there. A mountain trail opened in 1880, and Zalmon Simmons later promoted a cog railway after surveying the canyon for telegraph lines. Completed in 1890, the Manitou and Pike’s Peak Railway began in the canyon and followed the creek upward, with the first part of its route passing through its steep, forested scenery. Hotels, cabins, mineral springs, a trolley link, and later a hydroelectric plant added to its role, making the canyon a meeting place of railroad, resort, utility, and mountain landscape history.