Old Colorado City

The base of the Rocky Mountains was a natural stopping off place for prospectors in search of the elusive mother lode, and by the winter of 1861 there were 300 residents in what was to become the town of Colorado City.

 

Recognized as a Territory in the same year, the first Colorado Territorial Legislature meeting was held in Colorado City at the log cabin home of Dr James Paul Garvin.   As the building was too small and there wasn’t enough lodging in town, the legislators moved to Denver, but for years afterwards the building was wrongly referred to as the first state capitol.

 

In 1869 it became the pioneer county office and has also been used as a Chinese laundry and antique shop. 

When Colorado Springs was founded in 1872, its residents referred to Colorado City as Old Town, it was annexed by Colorado Springs in 1917.   After declining during the 1970’s, Old Town underwent urban renewal and became known as Old Colorado City, in 1982 Old Colorado City became a National Historic District.

Needless to say it didn’t take long for us to drive there.   On a weekday parking was easy to find and free for 3 hours, but, the sign warned, was strictly monitored.   I can’t remember what happened after 3 hours, but if it’s anything like home you probably get a massive fine.

With lots of interesting shops, it’s a nice town to stroll around.   I found a lovely shop called the Holly Leaf, full of unusual Christmas decorations.   Although I don’t really buy souvenirs as such any more, I do buy things to hang on our Christmas tree, so each year it’s covered with decorations from all the different places we’ve visited. 

We also found a great local coffee shop called Jives, I tried the Jives spicy mocha, luckily I had a small one, as although I like spicy things, this contained cinnamon and cayenne pepper, the pepper proved to be a bit too much for me.   DB had the right idea and stuck with normal coffee.

 

Have fun, we are!