Historical Markers COLORADO (Historical Markers Series Book 4)

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Another early settlement, Russellville, attracted Colorado's first wave of gold rushers in Yet that camp lay deserted by , its denizens all drawn west by rich gold strikes in the Rocky Mountains; and the mile houses became obsolete after , when the Smoky Hill Trail was supplanted by the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Still, the upper Cherry Creek neighborhood remained pretty well populated, home to scattered ranches, farms, timber camps, and communities such as Franktown and Parker the former Twenty-mile House.

And during the twentieth century, Denver's suburbs grew back upstream along the creek - back to the place where, in a sense, modern Colorado began. The Arapahos and Cheyennes warned white settlers in the s not to build along Cherry Creek. When the creek flooded ten times by , the settlers understood why.

The first of those deluges, in , nearly swept five-year-old Denver away, and each subsequent flood brought louder demands for relief.

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The city began dredging out a flood-control channel in , but in the creek overflowed again, inflicting another half-million dollars' worth of pain. And in Castlewood Dam twenty-three miles upstream from here gave way, unleashing a massive cascade of water upon Denver. Permanent flood protection finally arrived in with the completion of 2. And the reservoir it created has ranked ever since as one of Colorado's prime water-sports destinations.

Think of Mile House as a nineteenth-century truck stop. Strategically positioned at the junction of the Cherokee and Smoky Hill Trails, it provided wagon trainers and stagecoach travelers with meals, supplies, repairs, fresh horses, overnight lodging, and other goods and services as necessary. Proprietor John Melvin built it in and soon tacked on ten guest rooms, which briefly qualified Mile House as the region's largest hotel.

It was unquestionably the largest of the "mile houses" that lined the Smoky Hill Trail at roughly four-mile intervals. With its tavern, post office, and half-mile racetrack, it evolved into a rollicking recreation center for local ranchers and farmers; special holiday celebrations drew day-trippers from as far away as Denver. In business finally slowed to a trickle, and the Melvins closed Mile House and went into ranching.

Three roads will be traveled next summer. The Arkansas by those from the south and southwest, the Smoky Hill by the foolhardy and insane, and the Platte by the great mass of migration. In the mid-nineteenth century, two busy frontier trails followed this part of Cherry Creek. One, the Cherokee Trail, was forged in by a party traveling from Arkansas to the California gold fields. This road paralleled the Arkansas River west, turned north along Fountain and Cherry Creeks, and eventually veered west again in present-day Wyoming.

It remained busy into the s. The other trail, the Smoky Hill, carried many of Colorado's first gold-rushers in This dry, desolate route passed through Cheyenne and Arapaho territory, roughly following today's U. As a result, travelers generally avoided the Smoky Hill until , when stagecoach lines began running service over the route. In Colorado's railroad era began, and the trails quickly fell silent, their twenty-year heyday over.

Indians of Colorado's High Plains. Kiowa and Comanche Indians migrated to these prairies in the s, followed by Cheyennes and Arapahos in the early s. The region's infinite grasslands, thick bison herds, and brisk fur trade made for prosperous, if not entirely harmonious, living; the allied Cheyennes and Arapahos warred frequently against the Comanches and Kiowas who gradually moved south of here until , when the tribes agreed to a historic peace.

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In the United States granted most of eastern Colorado to the Cheyennes and Arapahos, but when gold rushers began stampeding through here after , strife erupted anew, this time between whites and Indians Though they fought for their homeland, the Indians were badly outgunned and outnumbered; by they had been banished from Colorado's plains forever. Junction Station, the first settlement at this site, suffered numerous Indian attacks similar to those that raged all along the South Platte during the mids. Army established Camp Junction in In Fort Morgan, roughly the size of a city block, was completed.

The post defended the Trail, but traffic soon shifted north to the transcontinental rail corridor, and Fort Morgan was abandoned in Sixteen years later Abner S. Baker founded the present-day town and named it after the old battle station. Today one of eastern Colorado's most important cities, Fort Morgan has anchored life on the plains for more than a century. Colorado Historical Society Regional Museum -. A great many free trappers are here at present. The fort is quite a nice place. It is built of daubies [adobe], or Spanish bricks.

The buildings are quite durable. This is the first time I have slept under cover for 37 days. Willard Smith, September 13, As trappers and explorers, Louis Vasquez and Andrew Sublette helped build the lucrative fur trade. But by , when they raised Fort Vasquez midway between Fort Laramie and Bent's Old Fort along Trapper's Trail and went into business for themselves, the fur industry was nearly played out. Failing to collect even that sum, the new owners went bankrupt and abandoned the place in In later years a series of tenants - calvary units, stagecoach operators, and mail riders - occupied the structure for the short periods, but after the s the only visitors to Fort Vasquez were curious homesteaders and tourists.

This is made of mud or "Dobey," the enclosure is about feet square. The walls about 12 feet high. Upon two corners stand the round guard house running about five feet higher. Around the walls are "port Holes" and so made as to shoot from them in any direction. The old walls are now crumbling away. Three decades later, the Colorado Historical Society launched an archaeological study to reconstruct daily life inside the complex.

Painstaking excavations revealed roughly a dozen rooms around a large interior plaza. Visiting traders kept their pack animals in wooden stalls along the east wall, cooked and dine in a communal kitchen, warmed themselves beside brick fireplaces, and conducted business in large trading rooms. Storage chambers, a smithy, and the two proprietors' living quarters completed the fort. The rubble of the old fort yielded a wealth of buttons and beads, the currency of the fur trade - long-lost funds from forgotten transactions.

Gateway to South Park Address: Mountainous chains and peaks in every variety of perspective, every hue of vista, fringe the view As an important route from the east into Colorado's Rocky Mountains, Kenosha Pass has long served as a gateway to good fortune and its share of hard luck. Through this portal the Utes gained access to the giant game herds of South Park. And, in the early nineteenth century, fur trappers came here in search of pelts. The gold strikes of the s flung the door wide open; miners poured through by the thousands, bound for Fairplay and other diggings. As the rough trail from Denver widened into a wagon road, then joined by a railroad, Kenosha Pass became one of the Rockies' main ports of entry, funneling traffic to Leadville, Breckenridge, Aspen, and beyond.

From this summit, with the mountains parading across the horizon, travelers must have envisioned their destinies stretching out before them, as if they had reached the threshold of opportunity. The whole of the plains and the parks in the mountains of Colorado are the finest of pastoral lands Stock fattens and thrives on them the year round.

Over time, South Park's grasses proved more valuable than its gold mines. The bison and other game that for centuries had thrived in these pastures gave way after to sheep and cattle - some 60, head by Nearly outfits operated here, though the larger ones were usually more prosperous - Samuel Hartsel's ranch alone occupied 12, acres. The harsh winters of the late s thinned the herds, and ensuing years brought fluctuating prices, the railroad's demise, and government grazing regulations. In the late twentieth century, thirsty Front Range cities began buying up South Park's water draining the area of this precious resource.

Yet, ranching holds on. It still remains an important part of the basin's economy - a lasting piece of the area's heritage. Leadville's silver kings would not have reigned without the labors of humble Dake. This short-lived community, founded two miles northeast of here in , produced charcoal to fuel the smelters of Denver and Leadville. Nearly all three hundred residents were thus employed - most in chopping down trees, others in tending the twenty-seven kilns that cooked the timber to produce charcoal.

The sooty fuel had a lowly reputation, but since the preferred alternative, coke, was expensive and difficult to keep in supply, Dake never wanted for customers. The charcoal operation churned out fuel by the ton, almost completely stripping Kenosha Pass of trees in the process. But when the silver kings fell, so did Dake; the Panic of shuttered the smelters, and by the end of that year the charcoal town lay abandoned.

Founded in , Breckenridge experienced its share of boom and bust - including the discovery of Colorado's largest gold nugget in , the end of dredge mining in , and its success as a ski resort and year-round destination. Come walk its National Register Historic District strict building codes have preserved many Victorian-era buildings or visit the Summit County Historical Society museum or one of its regional properties. Golden - Mining Address: One story goes that Golden takes its name not from the metal but from failed prospector Thomas Golden, whose fruitless quest for riches ended here in Incorporated in , this fast-growing mining supply center competed fiercely with Denver to become the primary gateway to the Rockies.

In addition to housing the territorial capital from until , Golden anchored a far-flung transportation network; the Colorado Central Railroad brought huge shipments of ore here from the gold camps, and the city grew into a bustling hub of train yards, smelters, brickworks, and factories including the now now-famous Coors brewery. Although Denver ultimately won the competition for regional dominance, Golden lived up to its name. And it triumphed in a larger sense, retaining its distinct character and independence even as its old adversary sprawled to its doorstep.

In addition to helping found Golden, W. Loveland was the town's most daring strategist in its contest against Denver.

Historical Markers COLORADO

He launched the Colorado Central Railroad in , intending to squeeze Denver out of the freight business and thus establish Golden as Colorado's commercial capital. It was a long shot, but Loveland nearly pulled it off by side-stepping creditors, defying legal injunctions, and even once having a judge kidnapped to keep the railroad out of receivership.

Loveland's Denver rivals and their powerful ally, New York financier Jay Gould, couldn't help but be impressed; he nearly beat them at their own game, and only their superior wealth and numbers enabled them to prevail. Though Loveland's master plan for Golden failed, few Colorado cities have ever enjoyed a more determined advocate.

In addition to serving high-country gold and silver camps, Golden developed mines of its own - coal and clay operations - and though the output hardly glittered, it gilded the city's economy for decades. Two coal-digging enterprises opened near here in the s, primarily to fuel Golden's locomotives and smelters.

Richer still were the local clay deposit, which ran under the heart of town and yielded tons of material for tiles, dishware, and pottery - and, above all, bricks. Stamped "Golden" to certify their high-quality origin, these durable slabs built dozens of prominent Colorado buildings, among them the Governor's Mansion in Denver. The clay's high firing point made it particularly useful for industrial purposes such as smokestacks and furnaces and, after World War II, defense-related applications.

Still heavy producers, Golden's clay pits have outlived the mountains' gold veins by more than a century. The giant white "M" on the hillside west of town stands for "Mines" - as in Colorado School of Mines, one of the nation's top engineering universities. The roots of the oldest state-supported institution of higher learning date back to , when an Episcopal bishop founded a small school of metallurgy in Golden. Recognizing the value of such an academy for Colorado's mining industry and for their town , local leaders pushed for state funding, and in the Territorial School of Mines gained its charter, with W.

The curriculum originally focused on gold and silver assaying but expanded over the years to include petroleum exploration, environmental engineering, even interplanetary mining. One thing that hasn't changed is the venerable "M," proudly maintained by Mines students since Camp George West honors one of Golden's founding settlers. West tirelessly promoted the town in his Colorado Transcript the state's longest-running weekly paper and fought to establish the Colorado School of Mines here. He also served a term as Colorado's adjutant general, during which he recommended that a troop troop-training facility be established at the foot of South Table Mountain.

The suggestion led in to the founding of the State Rifle Range. Renamed for West in , the complex over the years has served National Guardsmen, Army reservists, state law-enforcement personnel, and civil defense units; during World War II it stored munitions and housed German prisoners of war.

Though it donated half its land to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in , Camp George West continues to serve a variety of state and federal agencies. Bennett Rest Area, I City: It is no coincidence that the West blossomed just after the Kansas Pacific Railroad's completion in The next generation witnessed the heyday of the cattle culture, which depended on Kansas Pacific railheads from Denver to Dodge City; the rush of prairie homesteaders, who shipped their produce to market in its boxcars; and the rise of industrial mines, whose ores rode the line to eastern factories.

Even as it helped construct a new frontier empire, the Kansas Pacific weakened the old one. The railroad ran through the heart of the Plains Indian nations, dividing their buffalo herds and expediting wars against them. As an economic pipeline and an engine of conquest, the Kansas Pacific played a central role in the transformation of the West. August 15, , was perhaps the greatest single day of railroad building in history. The Kansas Pacific tracks had surged to within fifty miles of Denver; a second construction team, advancing eastward from the city, stood just over ten miles distant.

At dawn on this notable day an American flag and a keg of whiskey were placed halfway between the two crews, and the rhythmic calls of the gandy dancers commenced. By three in the afternoon the workers had bridged the gap; they laid ten miles of track in ten hours, a feat not matched before or since. Moreover, the Kansas Pacific made it possible to ride coast to coast without ever leaving the rails - the Union Pacific still lacked a bridge over the Missouri River and required passengers to be ferried across at Omaha.

In , Major Stephen H. When his man party passed through area on July 9, the men marveled at the lush mountain scenery and spectacular landforms of the area. On July 12, the expedition paused near present-day Colorado Springs long enough for botanist Edwin James to scale Pikes Peak - declared "unclimbable" by Zebulon Pike only fourteen years before. Long never found the headwaters he sought, but the many species of plant life he collected busied scientists for years and his description of the Great Plains as a "Great American Desert" forever fixed itself upon the American mind.

Naturalists find new inhabitants, the botanist is at loss which new plant he will first take in hand - the geologist grand subjects for speculation - the geographer and topographer all have subjects for observation. Bell, Long Expedition, July 10, Your journey along I between present Pueblo and Greeley follows a centuries-old trail. Native peoples, Spanish and French explorers, American trappers - all used it at various times. By the s most westerners knew it as the "Trappers' Trail," named for the storied mountain men who trapped in this region from the s and moved frequently between Bent's Old Fort on the Arkansas River to fur posts on the South Platte.

They wandered the uncharted Rocky Mountains, they went in harm's way, and they captured the imagination of Americans, then and now. But the mountain men were neither so free nor so independent as their legend insists. They toiled at the end of a long economic chain that stretched from the icy beaver ponds of the Rockies to the uncertain fashion markets of New York and London. Then in the s, the supply of beaver ran out, and hat fashion changed from fur to silk. Suddenly, the day of the mountain men was done.

Others were unable to fit in, forever of the move, always on the fringe of society, misfits to the end. Until gold existed mainly in rumor in Colorado - but it was a persistent rumor, dating back to the s. Rumor became reality for thousands of doubters when, in a series of significant strikes beginning with George Jackson's discovery near present-day Idaho Springs in January, miners began to find bona fide lodes - not just a sackfuls of dust, but vast fortunes. Though not the first strike, John Gregory's find near present-day Central City in May brought thousands of miners up Clear Creek Canyon who had begun to dismiss the rumor as a hoax.

The Jackson and Gregory discoveries, among others, marked the beginning of the real gold rush, bringing tens of thousands of settlers to Colorado. Finding Colorado's gold was one thing; extracting it profitably was another problem entirely. Most of it was locked up in maddeningly complex ores, and there existed no efficient, cost-effective means of distilling out the paydirt.

Not, that is, until , when a professor named Nathaniel P. Adapting a Welsh mining process, Hill used high heat and pressure to draw out the precious metals. His innovation threw open the West's mineral vaults and launched the era of industrial-scale, hard-rock mining; it also established Colorado as America's nineteenth-century ore-processing center.

Mines throughout the West shipped their output here - first to Hill's Boston and Colorado Smelter which opened at Black Hawk in , later to massive refining complexes in Denver, Leadville, and Pueblo. Hill eventually became Colorado's third U. As you drive along this stretch of U. Its route from Golden to Black Hawk opened in , providing what was then Colorado's richest gold district with rapid, cheap, high-capacity freight service.

By decade's end the CCRR stretched beyond Silver Plume 25 miles west of here and eastward to prairie ranches and farms, integrating the disparate parts of Colorado's young economy. It also carried day-trippers from Denver to view the scenic wonders of the canyon, to picnics in the mountains, and to the dance pavilion at Beaver Brook two miles east of here.

The line stayed busy until the s, when dwindling mine yields and increased auto traffic sent railroading into decline. The last train to Black Hawk ran in She reached Central City in at fifty-plus years of age, set up shop as a laundress, saved enough to invest in some mining claims, and quickly became a prosperous woman. But she shared her wealth freely, spending much of it to build churches and schools, aid the destitute, and help ex-slaves establish new lives in Colorado. More dedicated to philanthropy than to business, she gave away most of her fortune; bad luck and economic downturns claimed the remainder, leaving Clara Brown broke and living on a pension.

The former slave died penniless in But few Coloradans bequeathed a richer legacy. Between two and three hundred Chinese immigrants settled near Central City in the s, forming the state's second-largest Chinese community behind Denver. Most were former railroad construction workers who moved here in search of better prospects. But then, prospects for Chinese in the West were always limited by language barriers, discriminatory laws, and outright racism.

Chinese mine workers in Central City earned lower wages than European immigrants did, and their only opportunities to mine for themselves were on leased claims that others had given up for dead. Yet they made those claims pay. This pattern repeated itself throughout the state: Chinese made the most of less-than-ideal circumstances, carving out livings as laborers, miners, and entrepreneurs - and doing much of the hard work involved in building Colorado.

Though most of the early Chinese settlers eventually left, the descendants of those who remained welcomed new Chinese and other Asian immigrants to the state, particularly in the late twentieth century. A native of southeastern China, he came to Colorado via California, arriving here in to supervise construction crews for the Denver Pacific Railroad. After migrating to Central City to manage Chinese mine laborers, Chin began operating mines of his own on claims leased from white owners , and he soon acquired interests in other mountain towns and in Denver.

His success created many opportunities for the Chinese community, but Chin also reached across racial boundaries to forge friendships and ties with white businessmen. Although a federal law stripped him and all Chinese of U. Marchers carried both the Chinese and U. Today, this National Historic Landmark District offers visitors ample opportunity to explore the region's past.

The Central City Opera House, opened in , still plays host to a summer season of operatic performances. Visit the Harvey House and the Teller House, historic homes on the National Historic Registry, for a glimpse into the lives of the city's well-heeled residents. In Black Hawk, the Lace House offers and example of the Victorian architecture popular among that town's residents in the nineteenth century. Jackson's January gold strike, a thriving gold camp, and now a National Historic District, saw its population jump to 12, during the s.

It was also a smelting center and by thirty-one treatment plants dotted the area. After the s, visitors came to soak in the mineral hot springs whose water also was bottled and sold across the country. Sand Creek Massacre Address: With his brother Woodbury, he became a successful trader and shipbuilder. During the American Revolution , he supervised construction of the Continental warships Raleigh , Ranger and America at his Portsmouth Shipyard, was in active military service, and personally financed General John Stark 's expedition against Burgoyne in He became President of New Hampshire in and , and was later elected Governor of the state six times, in , , , , , and A close friend and advisor of Thomas Jefferson , John Langdon was a delegate of the Federal Constitutional Convention in and was elected the first president of the United States Senate.

In he was joined by J. The next century saw fourteen styles of 'stage' coaches, the most famous being the Concord Coach , and forty styles of commercial and pleasure vehicles carrying the name of Concord all over the United States and around the world.

Also located in this historic lot is a boulder on which a shad is carved, perhaps by the red man to preserve a likeness of his favorite fish, which swam up the Winnipesaukee River when the shadbush blossomed. After the dams were built the fish disappeared. The frame, built from local timber by resident Hugh Gregg, was raised by one hundred volunteers from the village and surrounding towns on September 16, This fine old structure has served the people of Greenfield continuously since that time as a gathering place for them to worship their God, to legislate their town's civil affairs and to enjoy the company of their neighbors.

June 21, , Enoch Poor settled in Exeter, becoming a successful merchant and ship-builder. In he was appointed colonel in the 3rd New Hampshire Regiment.

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Congress commissioned him Brigadier General in Mortally wounded in a duel fought September 8, , he was buried in the First Reformed churchyard in Hackensack, New Jersey. From the landing station at Boscawen to the point where the waterway entered the Middlesex Canal in Massachusetts there was great activity, terminated by the coming of the rails.

Remains of locks , towpaths , loading stations, hydraulic apparatus, and masonry walls may yet be seen at a number of locations.

List of New Hampshire historical markers (126–150)

Remnants of a branch canal at Head's Brickyard are among the most nearly intact in this state. Captain Crosby served with distinction at Bunker Hill and marched in defense of Ticonderoga in and of Rhode Island in He also served in Amherst as moderator, selectman, and representative to the General Court. He returned to Massachusetts and later migrated west and served in the War of Once a hosiery mill, it houses an intact hydraulic power plant and a bell cast by George Holbrook, apprentice to Paul Revere.

The Busiel Mill, built in as a hosiery mill, was later used for the manufacture of clocks, electronic relays, and organs. The foot structure was the largest surviving example of a two-span covered bridge utilizing Burr truss and timber arch design. Following several years of human effort which corrected decades of deterioration, the newly restored landmark was destroyed by a violent windstorm on September 14, The Barrett textile mills, located in Bank Village, produced cotton fabric for domestic and export usage.

This house demonstrates fine federal architecture and testifies to the skill of local craftsmen. It was built in when church and state were intertwined. Until , regardless of denomination and belief, residents were considered members of this parish and their tax money supported the minister. In the town became owner of this edifice and the church society its tenant and this arrangement remains today. This building of simple colonial architecture still embraces some of the religious and civil affairs of this community and stands as a monument to pure democracy.

John Blunt for 70 pounds in Signed stones by the finest stone sculptors in New England are found here. Among these craftsmen are: Supreme Court, Isaac Blasdel the clockmaker, and others. Academy and taught school in a nearby log cabin before graduating from West Point in Following army service his talents as a surveyor and map maker took him to the mid-west to explore the Great Lakes ; thence on an expedition to the Mormon settlement in Utah where he explored the Salt Lake , studied the Mormon faith, and published a 'History of the Mormons'.

In he was chosen to command an expedition from St. Louis through Colorado and Utah to survey and map land for the Pacific Railroad which would connect the east with the west; his tragic death by bow and arrow occurred in October of that year.

Son of Dyer and Polly Foss, he was born June 19, His homespun verse and country poems were great favorites. When David Dunbar, Surveyor General, visited nearby Copyhold Mill to inspect fallen lumber , local citizens assembled, discharging firearms and convinced Dunbar to leave.

Returning with 10 men, Dunbar's group was attacked and dispersed at a local tavern by citizens disguised as ' Indians. Their village was the home for over 60 families and was a self supporting thriving community. Farming and lumbering was a way of life for the villagers. East Weare formerly had a train depot, churches, school, post office, toy shop, garage, grocery store, lumber mills, grist mill, also Grange Hall , cemeteries, blacksmith shop and creamery.

Granted to soldiers in Lovewell's Indian War or their survivors, the land was largely settled by Congregationalists from Massachusetts Bay. Their first meeting house was 'made of Good Hewn Loggs' in It measured 24 by 30 feet and housed town meetings and religious services. The building was improved in with seats, window glass, and a pulpit. In , it was replaced by a two-story framed building, which was moved around and converted to the barn standing to the northwest. The militia of the Revolutionary and Civil War trained and 'paraded' on the village common.

It was a professional, cultural, and trade center.

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