A neighborhood in Colorado Springs, which is known today as "Old Colorado City", is the site of the oldest established city in the Pikes Peak region. Founded in 1859, the town was first called El Paso, a derivation of "el paseo", which is Spanish for "the way". El Paso sat at the base of Ute Pass, which was previously called El Puerto del Sierra Almagre, meaning "Doorway to the Red Ochre Mountains".
The town was renamed Colorado City in 1861 when it became the Territorial Capital of Colorado. It was incorporated in 1872 and lost the designation of "capital" to Denver when the territory became a state.
Meanwhile, the people who lived in or frequented Colorado City in the next decade characterized society of the Wild West.
Colorful gold seekers passed through in the tens of thousands to buy supplies from outfitters. They left their wagons and teams behind when they ventured up the Ute Pass Trail on mules headed for central Colorado and mineral fields in the Rocky Mountains. Roughly a quarter of the "Gold Rushers" were Southerners or Secessionists. Violence erupted between them and the Unionists with fists and pistols.
Homesteading farmers and ranchers (from the open plains to the east of town and the high mountain meadows to the west of Pikes Peak) supplied beef to the people who lived in town as well as to prospectors who stocked up on supplies there. (Samuel Hartsel was one such rancher: he established a 9,000-acre ranch west of Pikes Peak in 1863.) They also purchased wares from the merchants and small businesses lining the streets. Cobb's Grocery, built in 1859, was one such business.
The building operated as a saloon from 1870-1900, and stood until its demolition in 1959. The History Society stores some of the original timbers today.
Girls and women populated the saloons and brothels situated on the south side of Colorado Avenue. "Gentlemen" who lived in houses on the north side used tunnels that passed under the street to visit them unseen.
In 1866, the other city dwellers included the wives and children of the "gentlemen", shopkeepers and investors. The town had a general store, a hotel, a stage stop, a flour mill, a Methodist church and a few government buildings. The site took on the appellation, Old Colorado City, in 1917, and was declared an historic district in 1977. A cabin, which functioned as the El Paso County Seat, remains in Bancroft Park today.
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Written by: Janice E. Black