In 1923, a Colorado businessman opened a hotel around an abandoned railway station beside giant petrified tree stumps; four decades later his 160-acre resort became part of a national monument

• Representative Image of an old hotel built around a renovated railway station near giant petrified redwood stumps (AI Generated Image)In the spring of 1923, John D.
• Coplen opened a hotel on his ranch in Florissant, Colorado, built around the town's old railway station, which he had moved onto the property and renovated into a lodge.
• The hotel stood near giant petrified redwood stumps and an outcropping of fossil shale, turning a site Coplen had spent decades protecting into a commercial attraction for visitors.