Entry No. 3 — the Grand Junction file — filed under: roadside-oddity
Driggs Mansion Ruins
“His wife lasted only months against the canyon's silence before demanding out.”
Laurence La Tourette Driggs ghostwrote Eddie Rickenbacker's Fighting the Flying Circus and invented the pulp ace Arnold Adair — and in 1918 he paid Grand Junction stonemason Nunzio Grasso to stack Mayflower Canyon sandstone into a six-room, two-fireplace house beneath Thimble Rock. Legend says his wife lasted only months against the canyon's silence before demanding out. Hunters used it, parts got carted off midcentury, and now the Roman-arched shell stands alone in the sagebrush, its entry propped by steel since the 1990s.
The move: Pull off at the signed Driggs Mansion Overlook near mile 129 on CO-141, frame the arch against Thimble Rock at golden hour, then drive six more minutes south to straddle the divide where Unaweep Canyon splits its water out both ends.
📍 Before you go The viewing spot is a signed pullout on CO-141 near mile marker 129, roughly 35 minutes from Grand Junction via the US-50 junction at Whitewater, with interpretive panels on the house and the canyon's odd geology. The ruin sits on private ranch land under a conservation easement, so photograph from the pullout and do not cross the fence. There is no fuel for the roughly 45 miles between Whitewater and Gateway, so top off in town; pair the stop with the barely-perceptible Unaweep Divide a few miles further south or continue to Gateway for the full byway.
- 📍 Whitewater
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: CO-141 near mile marker 129 (Driggs Mansion Overlook), Unaweep Canyon, Whitewater, CO 81527
Hours: Added 2026-06-11 — confirm current hours before you go.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Proof: source 1 · source 2 · source 3
last checked: 2026-06-11