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it would be sold. Louisville garden vegetables and fruits were <br />either marketed in town to other residents, or shipped to Boulder <br />or Denver for sale. In so doing the homeowners took advantage <br />of the extraordinarily deep lots that prevailed in the original <br />town and early additions to Louisville. In at least one case, <br />the Thomas family, vegetable production replaced mining as the <br />major source of income as they came to own City Market. <br />Others, who apparently were not as successful at gardening, <br />used their houses as bases for other home industries including <br />wine making or pasta making. Such activities to supplement <br />family income continued well into the twentieth century and <br />left their marks on houses and lots throughout old Louisville <br />as evidenced by remains of gardens, vineyards or orchards. <br />In addition to the ingenuity of Louisville residents in coping <br />with the volatile coal market another factor helped the town <br />and its mines to survive--transportation.8 <br />Louisville, by modern standards, is only approximately <br />thirty minutes from downtown Denver, however, in the days before <br />automobiles and turnpikes that distance would have required <br />a trip of at least a day and possibly longer by horse and wagon. <br />Such time and the resulting freight charges would have made <br />it economically unfeasible for coal mines to operate. In Louis- <br />ville, as it evolved, this was never a problem because the site <br />was served by a railroad'six years before the town was founded. <br />During 1872 and 1873 construction crews of the Colorado Central <br />pushed tracks through eastern Boulder County on their way to <br />5 <br />