Colorado City, Pueblo County Colorado 1871

In 1858, and previous to the discovery of the Gregory gold mines, a few hardy pioneers, with their families, located under the shadow of the celebrated Pike's Peak, and named their settlement Colorado City. It was the first place in the new Territory dignified with a municipal title, which it yet retains, with buoyant hopes of someday, Phoenix like, rising from its own ashes to a genuine importance, beyond all former pretensions. Read more...Colorado City Gazetteer

Formerly, nearly all the immigration to the Territory directed their steps to this point, as the future great metropolis of Colorado, and as the key to the mountains through which all travelers must pass on their way to the mines, the beautiful and wonderful garden of the gods, and to the famous boiling springs. Of the latter, John C. Fremont, in his report of explorations, says: "In the upper part of a rock, which had apparently been formed by deposition, was a beautiful white basin, overhung by currant bushes, in which the cold, clear water bubbled up, kept in constant motion by the escaping gas, and overflowing the rock which it had almost entirely covered with a smooth crust of glistening white." The water has a very agreeable taste, and was found to resemble that of the famous Seltzer springs, in the grand duchy of Nassau, a country famous for wine and mineral waters; and it is almost entirely of the same character, though still more agreeable than that of the famous Bear springs, near Bear River, of the Great Salt Lake. A great many enterprising men, with capital, located at Colorado City for the purpose of opening a permanent field for business operations, and for a time the town flourished, and was indeed the most promising place for the metropolis of the Territory; but soon a series of adversities reduced it to what it now remains, a small, deserted country village, dependent entirely upon farm produce.

Among the principal causes of its decline was the discovery of the Gregory gold mines, in Gilpin County, to which Denver was the nearest market; the opening of the Ben. Holladay stage line, with general office at Denver, and the frequent Indian outbreaks along the Arkansas route, left unprotected. The adjacent hills and canyons were selected by the various tribes as a favorite spot from which to make their raids, and was generally avoided by the immigrants as dangerous territory. Notwithstanding the adversity that this place had to contend against, many of the old settlers remained in the vicinity even after the capital had been removed and all sources of commerce cut off. Many of the dwellings were moved out of the town onto the adjoining farms, so that while the town went down, the agricultural portion of the country was improved. In a few months the iron horse will be rushing through this beautiful valley, and immigration will again set in towards this favored portion of Colorado.

Rocky Mountain Directory & Colorado Gazetteer

Source: Rocky Mountain Directory and Colorado Gazetteer, 1871, S. S. Wallihan & Company, Compilers and Publishers, Denver, 1870.