The Saddlehorn Comfort Station is one of a group of related structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado National Monument. The comfort station (otherwise known as a public toilet) and the nearby caretaker's house, garage and the Saddlehorn Utility Area Historic District feature a consistent interpretation of the National Park Service Rustic style, featuring coursed ashlar sandstone masonry and log-supported roof structure. The comfort station was designed in 1936 by W.G. Carney of the National Park Service Branch of Plans and Designs, and built by labor from the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Plans specified not only the general layout of the house and garage, but the specific dimensions of each stone and its location, using a technique of "built by detail".
The comfort station is located at the intersection of Rim Rock Drive and the Saddlehorn Loop, named after a distinctive nearby rock formation. Construction was carried out by craftsmen, known as LEM's (Local Experienced Men), with suitable skills, reputedly stonemasons of Italian descent. Much of the material came from Rim Rock Drive construction. The comfort station was built by the men of CCC camp NM-2-C.
The three Saddlehorn National Register properties were nominated to the National Register of Historic Places as a multiple property submission on the basis of their related design and history.
Famous quotes containing the words comfort and/or station:
“It was a comfort in those succeeding days to sit up and contemplate the majestic panorama of mountains and valleys spread out below us and eat ham and hard boiled eggs while our spiritual natures reveled alternately in rainbows, thunderstorms, and peerless sunsets. Nothing helps scenery like ham and eggs.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)