Since the second quarter of the nineteenth century, changing conditions have built and emptied small and large towns across the Colorado plains. At the time when Denver was little more than an overpopulated campsite along Cherry Creek, there were numerous other settlements to the east and south, each with its own dreams of growth, gold or silver strikes, railroad connections and rising influence over the surrounding territory. In Ghosts of the Colorado Plains, Eberhart traces some 150 of these ill-fated settlements, providing accounts of their birth, peak activity and ultimate demise.
As the early trapping, mining, cattle, farming and transportation industries brought successive waves of “easterners” into the territory, they created some of the most colorful communities of their time. The trail towns Boston and Trail City were reputed to be two of the roughest towns in the entire west. Real estate schemers and promoters offered dreams of civilization and respectability in the “con towns.” Elsewhere, the stage station, side of the road settlements and farm centers arose out of the basic necessities of commerce and from the simple desire of far-flung settlers, trappers, and others for a place to congregate, celebrate, trade, brawl and receive news from the east. Though the personalities and events which animated these communities are all but forgotten, the towns themselves are the legacy of the competing forces which opened and developed the Colorado territory.
Through historical records, vignettes of personalities and over 250 photos and 80 maps, Eberhart provides ready access to the towns and settlement sits of eastern Colorado’s past. For the traveler, Ghosts of the Colorado Plains offers numerous pleasant excursions and investigations; for those less inclined to take to the field in search of artifacts and sites, the book offers fascinating glimpses of Colorado’s disappearing past.
Swallow Press/Ohio University Press (1986)
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