Janeway was once an important stopover for teamsters and prospectors traveling to the high country. Known as Mobley's Camp until 1877, it was renamed for Mary Jane Francis, a local innkeeper with mining claims on Avalanche and Bulldog Creeks. In 1888 the town of fifty people had a mercantile store, post office, boarding house, and saloon. Its wide valley floor provided space for the transfer and distribution of goods, and Janeway Stage Stop became a transportation center in the Crystal River valley. The original stage route was replaced by the Crystal River Railroad in 1893. After the railroad reached Thompson Creek in 1892 and was extended in segments to Placita in 1899, the Crystal River and San Juan Railroad, owned by Colorado Yule Marble Company, extended the line from Placita to Marble in 1906. As the line was extended from Carbondale up river, Janeway became a railroad station with a siding for twenty-nine cars. Trains ran until 1942, when the tracks were torn out for World War II war-time salvage. The old railroad bed can still be seen at many locations along the Crystal River, and scrap marble blocks along the river were dumped from flatcars to prevent erosion of the railroad grade.