COLFAX AVENUE has long had a prickly his- tory. If early Aurora had a heartbeat, then Colfax served as its main artery.
The aging roadway was Aurora’s only paved road for a number of years, and served as Gateway to the Rockies
— or at least that’s what the sign said. In the 1930s and 1940s, long before Interstate 70, almost everyone heading into the Denver area from the east rode through U.S. Highway 40, and through Aurora. For many, modest hotels with
immodest neon signs were the first stop in the mile-high region. After the opening of I-70 in the late 1950s, Colfax and the motels started to slide. The aging, iconic flashing neon signs are all but gone. Gone, too, are most of the aging motels that have been razed to make way for new businesses as growth of the Anschutz and Fitzsimons cam- puses spread down Colfax.
The Cactus Motel sign was an iconic part of the strip, one of the last kitschy signs to fall to the times.
I remember I70 still under construction in 65.