Fremont County Colorado ~  1870

Lies immediately west of Pueblo County, the Arkansas River passing directly through it. It contains some beautiful and fertile valleys, but is chiefly broken and mountainous in its outline. It contains a population of about 1,200. The now somewhat famous Wet Mountain valley, of German Colony fame, lies partly in this county. Not so well adapted for agricultural purposes or for grazing as many other less broken counties, yet the valleys are very fertile, well watered, and the whole county is well supplied with a very superior quality of bituminous coal, probably the only true coal in the Territory, as shown in our chapter on Geology. Petroleum oil has also been discovered in large quantities. Gypsum, marble and alum are among its mineral productions. Canon City is the chief town and county seat, and contains a rapidly increasing population of about 800. It is named from the canon of the Arkansas, which has here cut its way through the rocky barriers, and passes out to the plain through a deep canon, nearly eight miles in length.

''Like a steed, in frantic fit,
That flings the froth from curb and bit,
The river chafes its waves to spray
O'er every rock that bars its way,
Till foam globes on its eddies ride
Thick as the schemes of human pride."

The United States penitentiary for Colorado is located here.

Rocky Mountain Directory & Colorado Gazetteer

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