Colfax Avenue is a major part of metro Denver's DNA — but in Strasburg, it's just a road. Photo: Robert Sanchez/Axios
One day many years ago, Jule Nygaard took a break from her cashier job at Jun's Liquor in Strasburg, stepped outside and looked up at the street sign outside the door.
"I work on Colfax Avenue?" she thought.
Across the Denver metro, America's longest continuous commercial street is woven into the DNA — an often-weird mix of scorn, ridicule and pride.
Out here — where Colfax serves as the Arapahoe County-Adams County border — it's simply the no-stoplight main street through town.
Why it matters: Colorado's most talked-about road peters out with a whimper.
Jule Nygaard at work. Photo: Robert Sanchez/Axios
About a mile east of Strasburg — beyond the liquor store, gas station, post office, bank, salon and the just-closed Western Hardware (enjoy retirement, Al!) — Colfax simply ... ends.
Photo: Robert Sanchez/Axios
What Robert's seeing: There's no marker celebrating the moment. In fact, there isn't even a Colfax street sign.
For a storied roadway that's shaped generations of people, its ending is a bit of a bummer.
🤔 Or maybe I've got it wrong and this is really the beginning?
The bottom line: If there's a better metaphor for life, let me know.