German Colony Colorado ~  1870

This colony, which was organized at Chicago in the spring of 1870, under the leadership of Carl Wulsten, and which made the passage from Chicago, via the Kansas Pacific route, to the Wet Mountain valley, with a good deal of parade and éclat has not succeeded in accomplishing as much or making as satisfactory a record as the one already described. Charges of corruption and dishonesty have been openly preferred against some of the prominent men of the organization, by members who have left in disgust. Others report that the situation selected is the very worst that could have been found in Colorado. They assert that the elevation is so great, and the valley so hemmed in by bleak mountains, that nearly all crops fail to mature before the frost period cuts them off. On the other hand, these reports are declared to be the exaggerated croakings of disaffected members, who foolishly expected to find all the hills flowing with wine and honey, and milk, and lager!

We have no statistics at hand with which to either corroborate or contradict the above statements. Doubtless the disaffected exaggerate the disadvantages and disappointments, while the managers equally overrate the advantages and successes of the enterprise.

Wet Mountain valley lies south from Canon City, in Pueblo and Fremont counties. It is well shut in by spurs of mountain ranges; well watered; abundantly supplied with timber in the vicinity of excellent and extensive beds of coal, and will doubtless attract more and more attention as it becomes better known.

Rocky Mountain Directory & Colorado Gazetteer

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