their duties, with Charles F. Shanks as Mayor.
The founder of Grand Junction also had about the same relation,
at about the same time, to the beginning of the city of Delta, the county
seat of Delta Coimty. Early in September, 1881, Crawford, with M. C.
Yandeventer and two or three other associates, decided to lay out a town
at the confluence of the Gunnison and Uncompahgre rivers ; and for that
purpose organized "The rncompahgre Town Company," the directors of
which were Crawford. H. A. Bailey, W. A. Bell, D. C. Dodge, M. C.
Yandeventer and R. F. Weitbrec. Crawford was elected President and
General Manager; Bailej-, Assistant General Manager; and Yandeventer,
Secretary. The land selected for the site of the projected new town, which
then was named "Uncompahgre,"" measured about 500 acres, and was
platted late in December, of that year, by Samuel Wade, the surveyor
who did a like work for Grand Junction ; and at that time the name of
the prospective town was changed to "Delta". A Federal post-office was
established there in January, 1882; and in the spring of that year the
town was incorporated as "The City of Delta". This was fallowed by the
election of municipal officers, with M. C. Yandeventer as Mayor. Delta
has had a healthful growth from the year of its beginning, and always
has been in the condition that is implied by the term "comfortable cir-
cumstances."
The founding of Montrose, the county seat of ilontrose County, and
a friendly rival of Delta, was a result of the operations of the Montrose
and Uncompahg-re Ditch Company, which was organized in December,
1881, and incorporated under State law, by John Baird, T. H. Culbert-
son, 0. D. Loutsenheizer, A. Pumphrey and Joseph Selig. The town-
site, covering 320 acres, formally was located on January 20, 1882 ; but
John Baird had erected a frame building upon it about three weeks earlier.
The land was laid out for town purposes immediately after its area finally
had been determined by H. C. Cornwall, and a plat of it was filed for
record on February 2.')th. of that year. Early in April, a saw-mill was
established within easy reach of the town, and thereafter the construc-
tion of buildings went on rapidly. In that month the community voted
to incorporate as "The City of Montrose," and on May 2nd elected officers
for the municipality, with Dr. W. Cummings as Mayor. Thus a locality
that was a solitude in November, 1881, had been converted into the scene
of a bustling, duly organized and fast-growing town within the time of
six months.
The city of Glenwood Springs, which is the county seat of Garfield
County, and is w-idcly known as an all-the-year-'round "health resort,"
was founded in August, 1882, by an association styled "The Defiance
Land and Town Company," which was formed by Judge H. P. Bennet,
of Denver; and John Blake, Isaac Cooper, William Gelder and Frank
Enzensperger. who were upon the ground. The company named the em-
bryo town "Defiance;" but 'in the next year the city's present and more
appropriate name was given to the settlement. Xo building was erected
upon the site until the spring of 1883, when John Blake constructed a
dwelling, which was followed soon by manv other improvements. In the
autumn of that year Glenwood Springs became the county seat of Garfield
County. The town remained without a municipal government until Au-
gust 28, 1885, when it was incorporated as a city ; and on September 21 st,
of that year, its first complement of city officers was elected, with J. E.
Schram as Mayor.
Meeker, the county seat of Rio Blanco (White River) Countv, and
which was named in memory of Nathan C. Meeker, the Ute Indian Agent
who was killed by the Utes at the White Eiver Agency, was the out-
HISTORY OF COLORADO 695
growth of a United States military post that was built on the northward
bank of the White River, at a point about four miles above the site of
the destroyed Agency, iijimediately after the suppression of the TJte up-
rising in 1879. Within a year or two thereafter a number of settlers
located near the post; and when, in August, 1883, the establishment was
abandoned, and the buildings were sold by auction, the white residents
in the locality bought them and converted the aggregation of structures
into the town of Meeker. Abont two years later (October 12, 1885), the
growing community was incorporated, and W. H. Clark became the first
Mayor of the municipality.
The history of the flourishing town of Steamboat Springs, in Routt
County, and of which the site was not within the limits of the Ute Reser-
vation, and which had had a slow development until after that reservation
ceased to exist, runs back into the summer of 187-i. At that time, James
H. Crawford hud claim, and later in that year obtained title from the
United States, to a tract of land that included the site of the present
town as well as the locality in which are situated the springs from which
the settlement took its name. These fountains of health were called
"Steamljoat Springs" because of the puffing sounds that accompany their
ebullitions, and which resembled those made by the exhausts of steam
from the engines of steamboats on our western rivers. The springs were
known by frontiersmen in the Pike's Peak country long before the Ameri-
can settlement of Colorado. While Steamboat Springs is not the county
seat of Routt County, it is the metropolis of that section of the State, is
surrounded by a very productive agricultural district, and since it was
reached liy the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railway it has had a large
and substantial growth.
The village of Hahn's Peak, the county seat of Routt County, situ-
ated at the base of a mountain that bears the same name, in a locality
which also was not within the area of the Ute Reservation, was an out-
growth of a mining-camp that was established at its site in the middle
'70s. Both the peak and the settlement were named in commemoration
of John Henn (the surname having been pronounced as "Hahn" by his
associates), a pioneer prospector in that section of country, who had per-
ished near there, from exposure and privation, early in the spring of
18G7.
Of the origin of the city of Gunnison, the county seat of Gunnison
County, some account has been given in an earlier chapter of this volume.
As the reader may recall, there were in the beginning two Gunnisons — •
Gunnison, proper, and West Gunnison — each the ambitious rival of the
other. But this untoward condition of affairs was eliminated soon after-
ward (in 1880) by the union of the two municipalities, under the cor-
porate name of "Gunnison City," of which F. G. Kubler was the first
Mayor. The- consolidated town, situated near the eastern border of the
late Ute Reservation, profited vastly by the great inflow of people, capital,
and activitv that followed the removal of the Utes and the opening of
that extensive reserve to the uses of civilization. Within the period of
three years, Gunnison became a well-built, inviting, and wonderfully busy
little city, having all the facilities and equipment that we associate with
such a community; and also had become an important railway center.
While this pace in the upbuilding of Gunnison was not maintained in
subsequent years, the city still remains the thrifty capital of a district
that produces various mineral values in large quantities.
The germ of the city of Aspen, the county seat of Pitkin County,
was the camp of some prospectors that was established upon the site late
in the autumn of 1879, and upon which, before the end of that year, the
pretentious name, "Ute City," was bestowed. The site duly was surveyed
and platted in the spring of 1880 by B. Clark Wheeler, who discarded
"Ute City" and substituted "Aspen" as the name of the prospective city,
because of the forests of aspens that flourished in the locality. Although
Aspen was without railway communications until the year 1877, it became
696 HISTORY OF COLORADO
quickly a bustling and typical mining-town, and the business center of a
region that was opulent in silver; and when it had attained the age of
six years it had a population of about 4.000. However, it was not until
the end of that decade was drawing near that the abundance and rich-
ness of the ores became well developed. Mr. W. F. R. ;\Iills, in a chapter
of this volume, ably has recounted the circumstances of the feverish
activity which then followed in the Aspen field; which doubled the popu-
lation of Aspen inside of three ,years ; and which was continued until the
mutterings of the storm of 1893 began to be heard. But Aspen still is
a handsome and well-kept city, and is noted for its exceptional attrac-
tiveness.
The activities of founders and promoters of municipalities during
the early years of Colorado's Statehood also were extended, in the period
which we have under consideration here, into the southwestern section
of the State, a large part of which had been released by the Ute Indians
a few years before the close of the Territorial era. The more important
of the urban communities in southwestern Colorado that originated in
that time are Durango, Ouray, Silverton, Telluride, and Lake City.
Of these, Silverton, the county seat of San Juan County, is the older,
as the plat of its survey was made of record early in September, 1874,
by a town company that consisted of Francis M. Snowden, iS". E. Slay-
maker, and Dempsey Reese; the first-named having built a cabin upon
the sitq about three years earlier, and which he was occupying when the
town company was formed. Although the settlement had not become any-
thing more than a hamlet of prospectors and miners, it was incorporated
in November, 1876, as a town, with Snowden and three other citizens as
its trustees. Until the completion, in July, 1882, of a branch of the
Denver & Rio Grande Railway from Durango to the mountain-locked
town, Silverton made slow progress ; and in .some of the intervening years
it had retrograded. Besides the consequences of its isolation, it was re-
tarded also by the effects of its high eIc\ation and the rigors of its climate.
However, its people braved and endured Nature's frowns with more
patience after the advent of the railway, which afforded a ready means
of conveying to market the abundant and vahiable ores of the coimty.
Within a few years thereafter a great and highly profitable development
had been made in the mining-industry in the Silverton district : but the
rugged town, as well as the entire county, suffered severely by the events
of 189.3 ; and from which neither has yet fully recovered.
Lake City, the county seat of Hinsdale County, came into existence
in August, 1874, and was incorporated as a town on the 16th day of that
month, although its platting was not completed until the following No-
vember. During the next five years the results of industrious mining in
the vicinity of- Lake City brought growth and prosperity to the town,
the lack of railway facilities notwithstanding. But these welcome condi-
tions were terminated in 1880, and were followed by a period of acute
adversity, in which there was a heavy loss of population and a great
shrinking of property values. Inactivity and material decline continued
to characterize Lake City until the summer of 1889, when a branch of
the Denver & Rio Grande Railway was constructed to it from Sapinero,
in Gunnison County. This outlet instilled new life into the town, and
the resultant good times were not disturbed until the coming of the dis-
astrous year of 1893. While its recovery has not been rapid. Lake City,
â– which has a fine situation, with several charming lakes near it (hence
its name), has been doing well in recent years, and is widely known as
one of our very beautiful mountain towns.
The founding of the city of Ourny, which occupies a small amphi-
theater that is surrounded by lofty elevations, and which is another of
our beautiful mountain-towns, was a consequence of discoveries of precious
metals in rich lodes in its locality by A. W. Begole, John Eckles, John
Munroe, R. F. Long, A. J. Staley, Logan 'Wniitlock, M. W. Cline and other
prospectors, in the summer of 1875, and which was followed by a stam-
HISTORY OF COLORADO 697
pede of fortune-seekers into the new district. The site of the town was
"taken up" by Cline and Long, who formed immediately the "Ouray
Town Company," with Cline as President, and named the organization
and the projected town in honor of the great chieftain of the Utes. A few
weeks later a preliminary survey and plat of the embryo settlement was
made for them by D. W. Brunton. Some cabins were built on the site
in the following autumn and were occupied by their owners during the
ensuing winter; bat most of the claim-owners and prospectors withdrew
from the district to abide elsewhere until the cold season had passed. In
the spring of 1876 a great throng trooped into the locality of the recent
discoveries and began the work of building its capital town, as well as
that of developing its mineral resources. Later in that year Ouray was
incorporated, and in the next was made the county seat of the lately-
formed Ouray County. But, as in the cases of other pioneer municipali-
ties in the "San Juan Country," the growth of Ouray in its earlier years
was hampered by its isolation from railway communications. However,
this drawback ceased to exist when a branch of the Denver & Rio Grande
Railway was completed from Montrose to the town, late in December,
1887.
The City of Telluride, county seat of San Miguel County, and a
near neighbor of Ouray, also was an offspring of mining activities. Wliile
the region embraced by the lines of the present county had been entered
by prospectors in earlier times, notliing of direct importance in mining
was done there until the year 187.5, when a beginning of profitable work
in placers was made in the section drained by the upper reaches of the
San Miguel River. Shortly after the lode discoveries at Ouray became
Icnown, the eastern ]oarts of San Miguel County (as now formed) were
entered by eager prospectors, some of whom, during the next two years,
discovered several lodes that proved later to be of great value. One of the
results of the local developments in that period was "San Miguel City,"
a hamlet occupying land adjacent to the site of Telluride, and which, in
subsequent times, was practically absorbed by the latter. Telluride orig-
inally was christened "Columbia,"" and was founded in January, 1878.
Under that name the settlement was incorporated in July, of that year,
and its citizens elected George N". Hyde to be their first Mayor. Although
the town had been made a corporation and had a Mayor, it was not duly
platted until August, 1883, at which time the name "Telluride" was sub-
stituted for "Cciumlua." The city, which is situated in the heart of an
exceedingly rugged section of country, progressed slowly throughout the
decade of "the '80s, during which period it had not the benefits of a rail-
road. But in Novemlier, 1890, the track of the Rio Grande Southern Rail-
way, an ally of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, and of which Otto
Hears, the '"Pathfinder of the San Juan Country," was President and
moving spirit, entered Telluride and gave vigor and robust prosperity to
the retarded town. But these conditions were seriously blighted in 1893 ;
and Telluride, in common with the other mining communities in that
quarter of our State, has not yet fully regained all that it lost in that
memorable year. Yet, and also in common witli the others, Telluride
faces the future resolutely and sanguinely.
The beginning of the Citv of Durango, the county seat of La Plata
County, and the metropolis of" the "San Juan Country," was made in the
forepart of September. 1880. As related in an earlier chapter of this
volume, the section of Colorado in which Durango is situated was visited
by American prospectors in our pioneer times, but who failed to establish
themselves in it. Nothing effective further was done toward determining
the extent and value of its mineral resources until 1870, when the coun-
try was entered by another party of American prospectors, of whose opera-
tions, which did not result in permanent occupation, some account also
has been given in an earlier chapter. The section was a part of the Ute
Indian Reservation until the autumn of 1873, when, by an act of Con-
gress, approved on September 3d of that year, ratifying a treaty with
698 HISTORY OF COLORADO
the Utes, under which the latter ceded that portion of the reservation to
the United States, it was thrown open to permanent occupation by whom-
soever desired to enter and take possession. During the next twelve
months, a swarm of prospectors staked out mining-claims, many of which
later proved to be of great value. The miners were accompanied by al-
most an equal number of homeseekers, who planted themselves upon the
rich valley-lands, in advance of surveys, but holding the soil under rights
that were conceded to such "squatters ;" and soon afterward stockmen
appeared with their herds and flocks. ' Although the country was far
isolated from the conveniences of civilization, and was very difficult of
access, it prospered steadily, and by the end of the decade of the '"70s
the need for a capital city had been developed. Near the end of the
summer of 1880 an association to provide for that need was formed under
the name and style of "The Durango Town Company" to lay out a city
on land already selected for that purpose. The site was surveyed and
platted in the follo^\'ing September ; and by the end of that month the
nucleus of a town had arisen upon the land. In the meantime the Den-
ver & Rio Grande Railway Company had begun constructing an exten-
sion of its system into the "San Juan Country" on a course lying along
the Colorado-New Mexico boundary. The road was completed to Durango
on July 27, 1881 ; and before the end of the following March it was
extended to Silverton and opened to traffic to that point also. Durango
now entered iipon a period of abounding prosperity, in which it grew
rapidly, and presently became a great center of smelting operations, as
well as of widespread commercial relations — a position it has held ever
since. It is a beautiful and well-built city, in a fine situation, and its
borders join highly cultivated and highly productive lands in the valley
of Los Animas River.
Another important consequence of the widespread activities in Colo-
rado in the period which we are considering here was the formation of
a corporation to develop the great coal mea.sures of southern Colorado and
to build at Pueblo a large establishment for converting iron ore into the
various merchantable forms of iron and steel. For this purpose the
"Colorado Coal & Iron Company" was incorporated in 1879 by interests
more or less associated with those identified with the Denver & Rio
Grande Railway Company. Having acquired a large area of land ad-
joining Pueblo, on the southward side of the Arkansas River, the Coal &
Iron Company, in 1880, began the erection of its plant on a part of the
tract, and on another laid out a town — now incorporated in the City of
Pueblo — for the accommodation of its future employees, and to wliich
was given the name "Bessemer." Within a short period afterward the
task of opening and equipping coal mines in the southern district was
put under way. During the years that have passed since that time the
operations of the corporation (now the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company)
have been expanded to vast proportions. Its manufacturing establish-
ment at present is one of the Nation's great producers of iron and steel,
and the annual yield of its coal mines aggregates an enormous tonnage,
which is distributed over Colorado and other far-western States.
These enterprises were followed by the construction of smelters and
various other industrial establishments at Pueblo, and which, by their
development and that of tlie iron and steel works, have made that city
one of the great centers of manufacturing between the Missouri River
and the Pacific coast.
But not all of the thought and energies of our people were applied
to locating and operating mines of the precious metals and of coal, to
the founding of towns, to establishing great manufacturing and com-
mercial enterprises, or to other economic undertakings, in the early years
of Colorado's Statehood. In the midst of the hurry, enthusiasm and
bustle of those vcars there were some who gave much effective attention
to the interests and welfare of Education.
The first of these that are to be considered are the members of the
HISTORY OF COLORADO 699
State's First Gcnerai Assemljly. ilaking use of the wise "Act to provide
for Common Schools"' by the Eighth Legishitive Assembly of the Terri-
tory, approved by Governor ]\IcCook on February 11, 1870, and to which
I have referred in a preceding chapter of this volume, our first State
Assembly, by an "Act to Establish and Maintain a System of Free
Schools," approved liy Governor Routt on ^larch 20. 1877, broadened and
strengthened the provisions of the Territorial legislation in behalf of
popular education.
The act of Congress to enable the people of Colorado to form a State
Government and to be admitted into the Federal Union, together with
the State's Constitution framed thereunder, had prepared the way for
establishing and maintaining public schools in the new State. The
enabling act provided :
"That sections and 3G in every township (of land), and where
such sections may have been sold or otherwise disposed of by any act
of Congress other land eclui^ralent thereto in legal subdivisions of not
more than one quarter section, and as contiguous as may be, are hereby
granted to said State for the support of common schools.
"That the two sections of land in each township herein granted for
the support of common schools, shall be disjjosed of only at public sale
and at a price not less than two dollars and fifty cents pei* acre, the pro-
ceeds to create a permanent school fund, the interest of which to be
expended in the support of common schools."
I may remark here, in passing, that of the lands thus granted, the
State still owns more than three millions of acres ; and of these holdings,
about two-fifths are leased for productive purposes.
The State's Constitution contained, among other provisions concern-
ing public schools, the following:
"The public school fund of the State shall consist of the proceeds
of such lands as have heretofore been, or may hereafter be, granted to the
State by the general government for educational piirposes ; all estates that
may escheat to the State ; also all other grants, gifts or devises that may
be made to this State for educational purpose.''
"The public school fund of the State shall forever remain inviolate
and intact; the interest thereon, only, shall be expended in the mainte-
nance of the schools of the State, and shall be distributed amongst the
several counties and school districts of the State, in such manner as
may be prescribed by law. No part of this fund, principal or interest,
shall ever be transferred to any other fund, or used or appropriated ex-
cept as herein provided.''
"Neither the general assembly, nor any county, city, town, township,
school district, or other public corporation, shall ever make any appropria-
tion, or pay from any public fund or moneys whatever, anything in aid
of any church or sectarian society, or for any sectarian purpose, or to
help to support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, uni-
versity, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church
or sectarian denomination whatsoever; nor shall any grant or donation
of land, money, or other personal property, ever be made by the State, or
any such public corporation, to any church or for any sectarian purpose.
"N"o religious test or qualification shall ever be required of any per-
son as a condition of admission into any public educational institution
of the State, either as a teacher or student; and no teacher or student of
any such institution shall ever be required to attend or participate in any
religious service whatever. No sectarian tenets or doctrines shall ever be
taught in the public schools, nor shall any distinction or classification
of pupils be made on account of race or color."
The Second General Assemblv of the State, by an act to amend the
act of March 20, 1877, still further amplified the State'-s provisions for
free education, and also reinforced the authority of those charged with