Georgetown.com redux

As was noted in a May Off Limits column, promotional efforts for the Georgetown Loop railroad have recently been stymied by www.georgetowncolorado.com, www.georgetownloop.com and www.gtownloop.com – websites owned by former Loop operator Mark Greksa. The sites, which are usually the first to pop up in a Google search on the...

By Joel Warner

August 14, 2007

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As was noted in a May Off Limits column, promotional efforts for the Georgetown Loop railroad have recently been stymied by www.georgetowncolorado.com, www.georgetownloop.com and www.gtownloop.com – websites owned by former Loop operator Mark Greksa. The sites, which are usually the first to pop up in a Google search on the railroad or the town of Georgetown, list the many troubles plaguing the railroad since Greksa lost his contract in 2004, and encourage potential riders to consider an alternative: Greksa’s Historic Royal Gorge Route Railroad.

Now the town is hoping to dismantle Greksa’s online soapbox. A recent Clear Creek Courant article noted local merchants are throwing their weight behind the less eloquent web addresses www.georgetowncolorado.biz and www.visitgeorgetowncolorado.com, hoping they can de-thrown Greksa’s sites from the coveted top spots on Google and other online search engines. The story noted the town’s promotions committee considered purchasing www.georgetowncolorado.com outright, but since Greksa supposedly wanted $35,000 for it and the committee’s total annual budget was only $30,000, boosters had to go a different route.

Even if Georgetown’s new web addresses improve its online image, there’s still the matter of the railroad itself. As another Courant article reported, mechanical issues caused the train be closed this past weekend – at least its ninth maintenance shut-down in the past two seasons. Its going to take more than a Google search to get this locomotive back on track. – Joel Warner

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Joel Warner is a former staff writer for Westword and International Business Times. He's also written for WIRED, Men's Journal, Men's Health, Bloomberg Businessweek, Popular Science, Slate, Grantland and many other publications. He's co-author of the 2014 book The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny, published by Simon & Schuster.

Contact: Joel Warner