Barbara Lawlor, Central City.   It is an amazing feat to take hundreds of elementary school students on a field trip at one time. The organizational logistics are daunting. Yet year after year, the Gilpin Elementary School manages to take its entire student body to Central City, where they carry handmade angels, snowflakes, popcorn strings and cranberries, to traditional Christmas tree corner.

Last Thursday, the students were bused to the Teller House Opera parking lot where they began their trek through town to the tree, class by class, filling the early afternoon-empty sidewalks in front of the casinos. Father Christmas greeted them and the children hung their ornaments on the branches of the tree, which soon became crowded at the bottom.

Younger brothers and sisters were held up by moms and dads as they looked for an open branch. The students then began the uphill walk to the Teller House, where all of them, 248 children, packed into the historic building and did their best to be quiet.

They heard the story of a young girl, the train stationmaster’s daughter, who had been taught how to handle an emergency situation- the tracks being blocked. She learned how to build a fire on the tracks and then wave a lantern to warn the train.

The day before Christmas, the girl had been busy making natural decorations for the Christmas tree her father had chopped down. While he went to town, she carefully decorated the tree with pine cones and popcorn, dried wildflowers, and cranberries.

Just when she had finished, she heard a loud crash. When she went outside, she saw the dust from a landslide plume into the sky. The rubble covered the tracks. She knew she had to build a fire, but didn’t know what to burn. Then she thought of the Christmas tree, and sad, but knowing it was the right thing to do, she hauled the tree onto the tracks and ignited it, just in the nick of time to stop the train and save its passengers.

She was now a hero and received presents and gratitude from all the people who had been on the train. The children in the Teller House listened in awe at the story from long ago.

The Gilpin School choir then sang Christmas carols, inviting the children to join in. As the students left the Teller House, they were each presented with a bag full of small gifts and treats.

Barbara Thielman, of the Central City Historical Society, organized the event with the help of Gilpin teachers and volunteers. The students enjoyed an old-fashioned afternoon of celebrating the season much as the miners, the founding fathers of Central City, and their families did.