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It could be said that
much of Colorado Springs’ history was predetermined some 60
million or 70 million years ago, when volcanic pressures forced the
earth’s crust to rise and buckle, forming the Rocky
Mountains. These mountains, rising abruptly from the High Plains,
have had much to do with who we were and what we have become.
Cheyenne, Ute,
Arapaho, and other Native American tribes hunted in the area and
visited the mineral springs in the foothills of Pikes Peak. Some say
they also came to worship Manitou, the Great Spirit.
The first white men
to see Pikes Peak were probably fur trappers or traders. An
expedition led by 27-year-old army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike spotted
the great white peak in 1806 from somewhere near the Royal Gorge of
the Arkansas River. Pike dispatched a party and intended to scale
it. But ill equipped and fighting November snows, they abandoned the
effort.
In 1859, gold
seekers, lured by the prospect of riches in the mountains west of
Denver, established a village they called Colorado City as a supply
depot and jumping off point for the South Park goldfields. That area
is now part of Colorado Springs’ West Side.
General William
Jackson Palmer, a former Civil War general and railroad tycoon,
passed through the area while surveying the route of
his Denver & Rio Grande Railway. He decided this was the perfect
place to build a genteel resort like Newport, Saratoga, and others
he had enjoyed back east. He formed a town company, and staked out
the first streets in 1871. A Quaker and strict teetotaler, Palmer
forbade the manufacture, sale, or consumption of alcohol in his new
town. Drinkers and carousers simply rode out to the saloons of
Colorado City.
During
the next 20 years or so, Colorado Springs grew to be a popular spa.
Well-to-do tourists arrived by train and spent summers at General
Palmer’s luxurious Antlers Hotel or at other grand establishments
in Manitou Springs. Many of the celebrities of the time--Jefferson
Davis, Oscar Wilde, John D. Rockefeller--vacationed here. And the
area was so popular with English visitors and settlers that the town
acquired the nickname Little London.
The Springs’ days
as a quiet little resort came to an abrupt end in 1891 when gold was
discovered at Cripple Creek. In 10 years, the population of Colorado
Springs tripled to 35,000. More than 50 of these new residents were
newly minted millionaires, and many of them
built splendid mansions in the North End of the city. One of these
was Spencer Penrose who built not only the world famous Broadmoor
Hotel, but the Pikes Peak Highway, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and
the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun. After Cripple Creek gold dried
up, Colorado Springs returned to a sleepy existence catering to the
tourists and to the many tuberculosis patients who came to regain
their health in the thin, dry air.
Hollee
Jo Vail, GRI ~ Broker Associate ~ Remax Properties, Inc.
1740 Chapel Hills Drive ~ Colorado Springs ~ Colorado 80920
Voice: 719-590-4726 ~ Fax: 719-590-9122
Toll Free:1-866-4HOLLEE (866-446-5533)
