Interesting Facts About Colorado Springs (Estes Park: school, cabins, rich)

[TCHP]

Since this is October... here is a tid bit about Mesa Cemetery in Cos, in the area near Mesa Rd and Fontmore tucked away in a residential area now know as Pioneer Park.

Old Colorado City outdates Colorado Springs by about 20 years and it took another 20 years for Cos to absorb the earlier settled area. In that time, Colorado City had two cemeteries; Fairview and Mesa. Cos took over operation of the Fairview cemetery off 26th street, but let Mesa fall into disrepair. The place was overgrown and shabby by the WW1 era and depression era work projects started relocating the cemetery to Evergreen. However, not all the work was completed and while all of the headstones were removed, not all of the inhabitants were. The area was later purchased and subdivided by developers where construction of residential areas began in the 1960 and continued to now. The area that was the cemetery was been designed Pioneer Park in this residential area. Research in the 1970s showed that there are still around 100 burials still residing under the park. A monument listing those interred there has been erected in the park to commemorate those early pioneers.

Pioneer for more info. Reading some of the details here makes one wonder why the Watson family stuck it out since it appears they lost a family member every few years from 1875 to 1907.

[otowi]

There is also the Pauper Cemetery in Bear Creek park, which used to be, as my parents called it, a "poor farm".
The El Paso County Poor Farm | Radio Colorado College

There is also the Myron Stratton Home: Myron Stratton Home | Our History I had some cousins who were sent there when it was an orphanage when their father died. The boys would walk all the way from the Myron Stratton Home into North Cheyenne Canyon to hike. One day in the 30's one of my cousins, elementary-aged, did not return. His brother went to look for him and found that he had fallen at Helen Hunt Falls and died, still clutching an orange in his tiny fist.

[TCHP]

I remember my Grandparent telling me of the Poor farm and using it as leverage to increase my performance in school. I believe the building was standing until the mid 1980s before being torn down. Too bad. It would have made a nice visitor center for Bear Creek park.

Since it is the Halloween season, a couple of reads about the area that I can recommend are from local author Stephanie Waters. They are title "Haunted Manitou Springs" and "Ghosts of Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak Region". Should be obvious what their content is about. Interesting reads about aspects of early Cos and Manitou that are based on factual incidences with supernatural turnouts that reference many places still accessible and/or visible today. Not available on Amazon, but you can pick them up at Barnes and Noble.

[Christina S]

I think those books are being sold at the GOG visitor center.

[Miss Hepburn]

El Parque in the Old North End off of Wood Ave...is the Constance Pulitzer's Mansion...
d. 1938, married to William Elmslie.

It is broken up into various apartments now.
Lots of windows facing South because of a TB issue...as we know, CS,CO was
a mecca for TB patients.

Her famous son:
Kenward Gray Elmslie, writer, was born in New York City on April 27, 1929, to William Gray Elmslie, a British businessman, and Constance Pulitzer, daughter of newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer.
His early childhood was spent in Colorado Springs, Colorado

I've been in the house many times partying, hahaha! And have done some
gardening work for the owners...her sis is a friend and used to be the manager.Recently they can't use any of the fireplaces, a huge downer!!

Just south of 1932 El Parque St....big parking lot in front with ranch fencing.
Sorry can't rem the address if you want to drive by.

Oh, here it is 1918:

http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...7_M24583-19634

Looks like u get a great view of the parking lot! Ha!

[TCHP]

The large Colorado Springs stucco sign off I-25 near the Northgate area as the N installed upside down.

[Vision67]

Originally Posted by reginhild

This is a fun thread where you can post interesting and little known facts about Colorado Springs.

To start:

Serbian-born American physicist Nikola Tesla built a laboratory in Colorado Springs in 1899 for his experiments in the wireless transmission of electrical power. The site of the lab, the present intersection of Foote and Kiowa streets, is now a residential area.

https://gazette.com/life/where-was-t...0387ed8ca.html

Where was Tesla's Colorado Springs lab? | Did You Ever Wonder

Editor's note: Several years ago The Gazette's Linda Navarro wrote a short series on Colorado Springs historical facts and answered questions from readers about what was going on around town. Today we're restarting that series with a modern twist.

Nikola Tesla moved to Colorado Springs in 1899 to conduct experiments with electricity, but where was his lab?

Tesla's lab has often been been depicted in the mountains above Colorado Springs in film, but that was for dramatic effect and is a Hollywood-generated myth. For example, in the 2005 Christopher Nolan movie "The Prestige," in which Tesla is played by David Bowie, he has a mountain laboratory overlooking Colorado Springs.

Tesla, born in modern-day Croatia, was best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

According to the Pikes Peak Library District video "Tracing Tesla: The Search of his Lost Laboratory," the lab was on top of a hill near East Kiowa Street and North Foote Avenue. It was between the Union Printers Home and the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind.

Somewhat surprisingly, there is nothing marking the site although there is a plaque nearby in Memorial Park noting its general location. The area is now residential and is a short walk north from the park.

Have a question about Colorado Springs or its history? Send them to terry.terrones@gazette.com with Column Question in the subject line to avoid spam.

[skysoxwiz]

A few years ago a Gerardo-type special on TV: they dug up the yard (dramatically) and found.....NOTHING.
However at the NW corner of that property is a Little Free Library" nicknamed "Tesla Hill".

[TCHP]

Originally Posted by TCHP

The large Colorado Springs stucco sign off I-25 near the Northgate area as the N installed upside down.

With the recent remodel of this sign, this is no longer the case and the N has been corrected.

[mtngigi]

This book, "A Ladies Life in the Rocky Mountains" is a peek at what the Pikes Peak region (and other parts of Colorado) looked like in 1873. It's filled with facts of what was here in that time.

The author, Isabella Bird. was an Englishwomen who traveled through Colorado on horseback (alone) and shared her many adventures in letters to her sister back in the UK. Those letters make up this book. It reads more like a non-fiction travel book that a compilation of letters. It's a fascinating read by an adventurous woman who did things like climb Longs Peak with a notorious mountain man.

But the section I especially enjoy is when she traveled from Denver to the 'Springs (and her take on it) and arrived at what was still, in parts, a wild and untamed region. She mentions many spots by name:

Glen Eyrie, Garden of the Gods, *Colorado City - "I came upon a decayed-looking cluster of houses bearing the arrogant name of Colorado City", Manitou Springs and her trek up a dirt one-lane Ute Pass alongside the "raging" Fountain Creek. If you like Colorado history, check it out.