TELLER COUNTY HISTORY
Teller County begins 20 miles West of Colorado Springs and is accessed via State Highway 24 West. It is almost directly in the center of the State of Colorado at elevations ranging from 8,000 feet in Woodland Park to over 14,000 on the back side of Pikes Peak.
Teller
County is named after one of Colorado's first U.S. Senators, Henry Teller,
and was formed on March 23, 1899. Land to form the County was given by El
Paso and Fremont Counties. Teller County encompasses an area of 559 square
miles.
Gold was discovered in Cripple Creek, which is the Teller County seat, in 1890 by cowboy and part time prospector, Bob Womack. This discovery forever changed the area which was to become Teller County. By 1900 more than 50,000 people called "the district" home. "The district" refers to the entire gold mining area (approximately 3 square miles) and includes Victor, Cripple Creek, Goldfield, and many towns which have disappeared. The value of the gold mined in Teller County is greater than all other gold mining operations ever conducted in the United States combined.
Today Teller County and it's cities are home to over 20,000 people. It faces the very real challenges brought about by rapid growth and the demand to preserve the natural habitat which drew folks to the area in the first place.
We hope our web pages will assist you with answers to some of your questions and provide you with additional information that you didn't know you needed. Included here are pictures from many of our beautiful areas. Spend some time browsing and let us know which areas of the Web Page you visited!
Teller
County was formed from the western portion of El Paso and the northern
portion of Fremont counties and officially became a County on March 23rd,
1899. Before 1890 most of what is now Teller County was uninhabited, was an
area that people traveled through to get somewhere else. This area was
known mostly for the old Ute Pass Trail which was an important route because
it offered passage through the front range of the Rockies for Indians,
buffalo, explorers, prospectors, and cowboys and their cattle.
The first permanent settlement in Teller County occurred around 1870 and
was at the summit of the Ute Trail in what is now Divide. After having many
names, like Rhyolite, Belleview and Theodore, Divide stuck because the
Arkansas and South Platte watershed divide in this area.
As the tracks of the Colorado Midland Railroad neared Divide in 1887
boarding houses, saloons and restaurants sprang up to meet the demand of
railroad workers.
Woodland Park, originally called Manitou Park, was laid out along the
Midland Railroad tracks and was quickly discovered by tuberculosis patients
looking for a place to recover. The town became a popular spot for pleasure
seekers and train passengers when the new Harvey House was opened in 1890.
At that time there were 120 residents in Woodland Park.
During that same year, 1890, Teller County was changed forever by a
cowboy and part-time prospect named Bob Womack. Bob owned a cattle ranch,
bisected by a small stream known as Cripple Creek, on the remote south
slope of Pikes Peak. It was here he discovered a rich vein of gold ore
which changed the character of the entire Pikes Peak Region, and some say,
the United States. At this time there were less than two dozen people
living in the four-mile wide by six-mile long area that was known as the
Cripple Creek Mining District. By 1900 more than 50,000 people lived in
"the District."
Within a few short years there were 12 towns in the area ranging from the
larger population centers of Cripple Creek and Victor to several other towns
which grew up around mining centers. These were named Goldfield, Elkton,
Altman, Independence, Anaconda, Gillette, Cameron, Beaver Park, Arequa and
Lawrence. Goldfield and Gillette are the only two which remain.
The gold mining operations required a great deal of outside support and
several areas came to the rescue. Woodland Park had 5 saw mills producing
millions of feet of lumber per year, much of which was timber for the
mines. 200,000 railroad ties were shipped out annually.
Divide was also an important lumber and supply town, but also became known
for its high-quality, disease-free potatoes and for its fine crops of
lettuce. Each fall, produce was crated and shipped to Cripple Creek and
other locations around the United States. Ice to keep lettuce fresh while
being transported was cut from ponds in and around the area.
No other town
in the Pikes Peak region benefited from Cripple Creek mining like Colorado
Springs. Stratton, Burns, Tutt and Penrose all made their fortunes in
Cripple Creek and then made their homes in Colorado Springs. The Myron
Stratton Home (named for Winfield Scott Stratton's father), the Broadmoor
Hotel, built by Spencer Penrose, and many of the mansions in Colorado
Springs' north end were all built with Cripple Creek gold.
Five reduction mills were constructed in Colorado City during the turn
of the century and began processing the bulk of Cripple Creek ore. Colorado
City offered water, coal and convenient rail access.
Tension escalated between Cripple Creek and Colorado Springs in the
1890's. Mine owners, miners and residents in "the District: grew tired of
watching tax revenue from their mines go to Colorado Springs, which was (and
is) the seat of government for El Paso County. They wanted a Courthouse
closer to mining operations because of the number of county transactions
that needed to be carried out. And so, after much arguing on both sides,
the Colorado Legislature created Teller County, named for Senator Henry M.
Teller, one of Colorado's first senators.
Go to
your local library for many good books about Teller County and its history.
You can also visit the Rural Realities page, scroll
to the bottom, and get a list of recommended reading.
Cripple Creek in 1904
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Legend of the Tommy Knockers
Printed with permission from:
Rhymes of the Mines, Life in the Underground
by H. Mason and Janice Coggin, 1999
Cowboy Miner Production
317 East Griswold, Phoenix AZ. 85020
The ballad that follows is a superstition started by Cornish miners. These experienced miners feared nothing about a mine except the "TOMMY KNOCKERS." Their ballad and belief in the Tommy Knockers became famous among miners everywhere and the belief in Tommy Knockers among many miners of all nationalities grew from superstition into belief.
They believed that while working down in a mine the ghosts or spirits of dead miners who had been killed in mines would come to claim their souls. When all was quiet down in the mine shaft sometimes the miners would hear a taping, the sound of a pick hitting rock. This was the sound of a Tommy Knocker and many, many times when this sound was heard there would soon be a cave in of the mine and many miners lost their lives this way. Therefore, when the miners heard this sound those who believed in the Tommy Knockers would run from the mine and would not return to work in it again.
It is believed by others that the sound that the superstitious miners heard was actually rocks falling from the ceiling of the tunnel away from where the miners were working and thus, could not be seen by them. These rocks would fall and land on other rocks causing the taping sound that sounded like a pick striking rocks. this loose rock would fall from unstable areas that had been dug through and was at times followed by a cave in when to much earth gave way.
The men
who worked down in the mines and had heard the Tommy Knockers while down
there and lived to tell about it would argue with any other explanation
other than it was the ghosts of dead miners known as the "Tommy Knockers!"
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