Pueblo

The American Guides Project

Railroad Station: B St. and Union Ave. for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry., Missouri Pacific R.R., Denver & Rio Grande Western R.R., and Colorado & Southern Ry.

Bus Stations: 7th and Main Sts. for Southwestern Greyhound Lines; Union Bus Station, SE. corner Court and 5th Sts., for Rio Grande Trailways, Santa Fe Trailways, Denver-Colorado Springs-Pueblo Trailways.

Airport: Municipal Field, Prairie St. and Small Ave., for Continental Air Lines; taxi 750 time 15 min.

Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, 5th St. between Court and Main Sts.; Rocky Mountain Motorists (A.A.A.), 9th and Main Sts.

Theater and Motion Picture Houses: Municipal Auditorium, Union Ave. and Grand St.; eight motion picture houses.

Golf: City Park Course, 800 Goodnight Ave., 18 holes, greens fee 50¢ weekdays, 75¢ Sun. and Holidays.

Swimming: Lake Minnequa Community Beach, 0.5 miles S. on US 85; free. Tennis: City Park, Boo Goodnight Ave.; Mineral Palace Park, ,5th and Main Sts.; Bradford Park, 1st St. and La Crosse Ave.; Mitchell Park, 11th St. and La Crosse Ave.; free.

Annual Events: Colorado State Fair, last week in Aug.; Mexican Independence Day Celebration, Sept. 16; Columbus Day, Oct. 12.

PUEBLO (Sp., town) (4,700 alt., 50,096 pop.), a manufacturing and trading center and the State's second largest city, lies at the confluence of Fountain Creek and the Arkansas River in a broad valley enclosed by low bluffs and rolling hills. Beyond stretch the tawny plains; to the west the Wet Mountains, named by early Mormon emigrants, are a purple outline against the sky. Approached from the north, south, or west, Pueblo appears to be an isolated community, an oasis in an arid land. Pennants of smoke from towering stacks are unmistakable evidence that here industry has obtained a firm foothold in Colorado.

Industry has brought men and women of many races and nationalities to Pueblo—Italians, Spanish-Americans, Austrians, Jugoslays, Czechs, Slovaks, Danes, Poles, and Negroes. Most numerous of these groups, which comprise approximately 20 per cent of the city's population, are the Italians and the Spanish-Americans. The latter came at two widely separated intervals; many settled in southern Colorado when the country was still Spanish and Mexican territory, and became citizens of the United States after the Mexican War. The second migration began toward the close of the last century when men were needed to work in the steel mills, on the railroads, and in the beet fields of the valley. They retain many old habits and customs; dressed in native costume, they annually celebrate Mexico's independence from Spain.

Many of the Italians find employment in the steel mills and live in the Bessemer district of South Pueblo, close to the plant. Others have turned to agricultural pursuits and cultivate small truck farms, an occupational trend accentuated by declining employment at the mills. Many of the city's professional men come from the Italian groups. Through their efforts the State established Columbus Day as a legal holiday in 1907. In the Grove district, at Santa Fe Avenue and Cork Street, named for the large cottonwoods that formerly stood along the banks of the Arkansas River, live most of Pueblo's residents of central European origin, the first of whom came in 1885 to work in the smelters.

The architecture of Pueblo has developed mainly along functional lines, with few embellishments. The newest and most impressive busi¬ness blocks are along Main Street between Union Avenue and Loth Street, but reminders of an earlier day exist in the low grimy brick buildings on Union Avenue, eastward from the river, which house a variety of loan shops, hotels, restaurants, saloons, and stores. The more attractive residential areas are in northern Pueblo and on the mesa west of the Union Station. The city's park system is being steadily enlarged.

Pueblo's history, as its name suggests, dates from Spanish occupation. As early as 1673, Spanish officials at Santa Fe heard reports that the French were advancing into the Indian country to the north and east. To check this advance, to search for gold in the mountains, and to Christianize and trade with the Indians, several expeditions were sent northward in the early part of the eighteenth century. In 1706 Juan de Uribarri came in search of Picuris Indian slaves who had fled from Santa Fe. The site of Pueblo provided a short resting place for these first recorded explorers of Colorado, who, after five days' journey to the eastward, recovered the runaway Indians, found proof of French infiltration into the country, and took formal possession of the "great settlement of Santo Domingo." Although not permanently settled, the site of Pueblo was frequented by traders, trappers, shepherds, padres, soldiers, and prospectors during the following century, for it was strategically placed in relation to Santa Fe.

On his exploring expedition in 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike camped on this spot and built the first structure erected by Americans in Colorado. His men "cut down 14 logs, and put up a breast work, five feet high on three sides, and the other was thrown on the river." The party remained five days, during which Pike journeyed north and unsuccessfully attempted to scale the peak that bears his name. Major Jacob Fowler, trapper and trader, built a three-room log house here in 1822. It was well fortified, for, as Fowler charmingly wrote, "We think that a party of Spanierds may be Sent to take us prisnors—for Which Reason Intend makeing a Strong Hous and Hors Pen on the Bank of the River Wheare it Will not be In the Powr of an Enemy to aproch us from the River Side—and Shold the Spanierds appeer In a Hostill manner We Will fight them on the Ameraken ground. the River Hear being the line by the last tretey." Fowler's men remained through January 1822, moving down the Taos Trail, subsequently important as an early fur trade route, when news came that New Mexico had "de Clared Independance of the mother Cuntry and is desirous to traid With the people of the united States."

The settlement and naming of Pueblo are credited to James P. ( Jim) Beckwourth, a mulatto trader, at one time a war chief of the Crow, "whose mendacity was as illimitable as the plains . . . and whose credit for the same was as high as the mountains." Beckwourth and his party reached the Arkansas here in October 1842, and erected a trading post. They were soon joined by fifteen to twenty independent trappers, with their families. "We all united our labors, and constructed an adobe fort sixty yards square," wrote Beckwourth in his autobiography. "By the following spring we had grown into quite a little settlement, and we gave it the name of Pueblo." For once, "this boundless liar" appears to have told the truth.

To the Bostonian eye of Francis Parkman, who visited the Pueblo four years later, it was a wretched fort of primitive construction, "being nothing more than a large square enclosure, surrounded by a wall of mud, miserably cracked and dilapidated," inhabited by a few squaws and Spanish women, and a few Mexicans, "as mean and miserable as the place itself." Ushered into the state apartment of the Pueblo, he found it "a small mud room, very neatly finished, considering the material, and garnished with a crucifix, a looking-glass, a picture of the Virgin, and a rusty horse-pistol . . . There was another room beyond, less sumptuously decorated, and here three or four Spanish girls, one of them very pretty, were baking cakes at a mud fireplace in the corner. . . . Passing out of the gate, we could look down the little valley to the Arkansas; a beautiful scene. . . . Tall woods lined the river, with green meadows on either hand; and high bluffs, quietly basking in the sunlight, flanked the narrow valley. A Mexican on horseback was driving a herd of cattle towards the gate, and our little white tent, which the men had pitched under a tree in the meadow, made a pleasing feature in the scene."

Here, too, Parkman found the canvas-topped wagons of a large party of Mormons sent in advance of the main body of emigrants. They unyoked their oxen among the cottonwoods along the river on August 7, 1846, after an 800-mile journey from the Missouri River, and began building log cabins.

The settlement, the largest in the region until gold-rush days, served as a rallying point for the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican War; in 1847 the families moved on to join the main body in Utah. Nothing remains of Mormon Pueblo; even the graves of those who died here were soon obliterated by the flood waters of the Arkansas.

The Indian agent, Thomas Fitzpatrick, reported in 1847 that Pueblo was "becoming the resort of all idlers and loafers," and a depot "for the smugglers of liquors from New Mexico into this country." After his remarkable feat of driving 9,000 sheep from New Mexico to California, "Uncle Dick" Wootton, Mountain Man, trader, freighter, and herder (see Tour 12c), came in 1853 to trade with the many emigrants passing through Pueblo. He swapped fresh oxen for footsore and broken-down animals, usually obtaining three or four for one. He sent the lame cattle to his ranch, and after they had been pastured a few weeks, they were traded for other disabled cattle. "In this way I increased my herd very rapidly," wrote Wootton.

The Ute in the vicinity were acting suspiciously just before Christmas Day, 1854, and Wootton cautioned the inhabitants not to allow the Indians to come into the fort, but Wootton's advice was disregarded. "Taos lightning" flowed freely that day; all of the 17 Mexicans in the fort got gloriously drunk and invited the "friendly" Indians to enter. The latter turned upon their hosts and killed all but a young Mexican girl, two children, and one man, Romaldo, who lived long enough with a bullet through his tongue to tell the tale in Indian sign language. The massacre marked the end of Pueblo as a rendezvous for the Mountain Men. Passing by in 1855, Lieutenant E. G. Beckwith reported that a Spaniard named Massalino and his Pawnee wife were the only occupants of the Pueblo, which was avoided by the Mountain Men because it was believed to be haunted by headless Mexican women.

A party of prospectors from St. Louis in 1858 concluded that "they could more profitably and easily mine gold by starting a town and engaging in a good game of 'swap' with the natives." They utilized material from the walls of the old pueblo in building 30 adobe, log, and jacal houses in their new town, which they named Fountain City, now part of Pueblo. A cattle corral and store were the first mercantile establishments, and trade was carried on with the Arapaho, who pitched eight tepees near by during the winter months. In January 1859, a man from the Cherry Creek diggings at Denver stumbled freezing from the mountains, dying just as he reached the town, and thus the settlers "were providentially enabled to start a graveyard." Fountain Creek was tapped for irrigation the following spring. The first definite proposal for a new State originated with the citizens of Fountain City, who on April 7, 1859, "without distinction of party, unanimously declared in favor of a new state." Seventy-five registered citizens exercised their franchise that fall to select a governor and legislature for the provisional and extra-legal government of "Jefferson Territory." Hickory Rogers, sent from Denver to canvass the vote, stopped on his way back to Denver and wrote 1,150 additional ballots.

The rival town of Pueblo City was laid out by Denver promoters in 1860; one of its earliest establishments was Jack Allen's "Taos lightning factory." The new town quickly absorbed the residents of Fountain City, which was soon occupied by Spanish-American farmers. In the early 1860's there was considerable gun-play and several lynchings. A post office was established in 1863; the contents of the mailbag were dumped on the floor and "them that could read" helped themselves. A gristmill was opened the following year, and a hotel of logs, a "hospitable old caravansary, with its great, comfortable fireplace and its sufficient force of sleek, well-fed bedbugs." Here settlers enjoyed their first dances as the fiddler, "perched on a candle box in the corner, . . . shut his eyes, called so he could be heard to the St. Charles, and made the catgut howl." His favorite tunes were "The Arkansaw Traveler," "Five Miles from Town," "The Devil's Dream," and "Soapsuds Over the Fence."

The first issue of the Pueblo Weekly Chieftain appeared on June 1, 1868, carrying a notice of the death of Kit Carson. Some of the early issues were printed on brown wrapping paper when Indian uprisings on the plains cut communication with the East. Four years later the newspaper, which is still published, became a daily.

By 1870, when it was incorporated as a town with a population of 700, Pueblo was a quiet settlement of adobe houses. When General William J. Palmer's narrow-gauge Denver & Rio Grande Railroad was extended to Pueblo in 1872, the little engine Ouray puffed in from Denver at 20 miles an hour and was greeted with a joyous celebration, although few realized what a marked change it would make in the town. The railroad and the supply of coal at Trinidad to the south made Pueblo a workshop for the mines in the mountains. Pueblo was incorporated as a city in 1873 ; building and population rapidly increased ; the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, known locally as the "Banana Line" because of its yellow cars, reached Pueblo in 1876, and was extended to Denver a year later. The Colorado Coal & Iron Company, subsequently the Colorado Fuel & Iron Corporation, blew in its Minnequa blast furnace in 1881. The Mather and Geist smelter was built in 1882, the Eilers smelter the next year, and the Guggenheim smelter in 1888. Coal from Trinidad was used to smelt ores from Leadville, for Pueblo occupied a strategic position on the rail lines. The steel company, operating its own coal mines, became the largest coal and steel concern in the West. Pueblo's population rose from 3,217 in 1870 to 24,588 in 1880—an eight-fold increase.

The 1890's were a difficult decade for Pueblo, as for the rest of the State; the panic and unrest were reflected in the railroad strike of 1894, which tied up traffic at Pueblo and its coal supply base, Trinidad. The Cripple Creek gold strike in 1893, however, stimulated the city's growth, and as farmers continued to settle in the Arkansas valley, Pueblo realized that it also commanded a rich agricultural market. To meet the demands of a constantly enlarging consumer area, numerous small and medium-size factories were established here.

On July 3, 1921, the Arkansas River, swollen by cloudbursts, over ran its banks and inundated a large part of the city. The next morning houses and business buildings were floating in the swirling waters, which covered the lower business section to a depth of 12 feet. More than 600 houses were swept away; 350 business houses were badly damaged and had to be condemned ; property loss was estimated at $16,000,000, while loss of stock and equipment, accounts and business, brought the total to $30,000,000. Perhaps 100 people—the exact number has never been ascertained because many of the families living along the river bottom were migrants—lost their lives. To guard against a repetition of the disaster, the river was diverted in 1924 to a new channel and imprisoned behind reinforced concrete levees.

Industrial progress has been maintained in recent years with the establishment of a meat packing plant, flour mills, brass and iron foundries, various food products establishments, and factories producing brooms, paints and varnish, culverts, and flumes. Some local products have achieved wide recognition ; two saddlery shops export leather goods, principally to the Argentine. In 1926 Pueblo became the southern terminus of the first air mail service in Colorado, which connected the city with Denver and Cheyenne, Wyoming. After a period of declining production, the local steel mills are again going full blast, stimulated by the outbreak of the European War in September 1939.

1. The MINERAL PALACE (open 11-5 weekdays, 2-5 Sun., June-Oct.), in Mineral Palace Park, entrance 15th and Main Sts., housing one of the most complete mineral collections in the United States, was built during the city's lustiest era by a group of enthusiastic business men; the latter included W. H. (Coin) Harvey, later identified with the campaign for free coinage of silver, who was selling local real estate and his "elixir of life," reputed to be of such potency that it would change a hardened criminal into a useful citizen overnight.

The building, as originally planned, was to be one of the wonders of the western hemisphere; it was to focus the eyes of the world on Colorado's greatness as a mining State. "The edifice itself will be of sheet or frame work of wood, plated inside and out with colored marbles and slates, porphyries and jaspers, and encrusted with mosaics of mica and spar, pyrites and quartz, onyx and crystal, and sheets of pollished metal ; and all harmoniously combined to make as magnificent and dazzling a sight as mortal eye ever witnessed."

Lack of funds caused the project to fall lamentably short of this rainbow vision, but the Palace, opened with great fanfare on July 4, 1890, remains interesting not only for its exhibits of ores but its design. Twenty-five highly ornamented domes, the largest 70 feet in diameter, surmount the structure, the interior of which is decorated in great detail with metal leaf, bronze paint, and molded plaster, done under the direction of Morris B. Levy of New York City. According to the architect, O. Bulow of Pueblo, the style of the building was modernized Egyptian; in any case, it is arresting. Around the east, south, and west sides of the building runs a colonnade of 28 brick columns supporting the roof ; at each corner, forming part of the column, is a globe, io feet in diameter, painted to represent the earth. The outside walls are flimsily sheathed with galvanized iron. One of the oldest buildings of the city, the palace is now a sad relic, its condition defying rehabilitation. Since its acquisition by the city in 1897, its roof has been repaired four times in an effort to protect the interior. As the building has no heating plant, it is closed in winter.

Two objects of interest here are King Coal and the Silver Queen. The former is a fourteen-foot figure of bronze and painted canvas, the latter a sixteen-foot bronze figure seated under a canopy of tin. King Coal was fashioned at Trinidad; his consort came from Aspen, where 17-year-old Molly Gibson served as the model. Among the exhibits is a section of Pueblo's Big Tree, the destruction of which in 1883 resulted in a historic feud between citizens of South Pueblo and their officials. The tree, a giant cottonwood that stood almost in the middle of Union Avenue, between C and D Streets, was an object of intense pride, but as it obstructed the view of the post office, it was cut down. A wag commented bitterly:

Mineral Palace Park serves as a nursery supplying flowers and plants for all city parks and parkways. The greenhouse contains 237 varieties of cacti.

2. The four-story PUEBLO COUNTY COURTHOUSE, NW. corner 10th and Main Sts., built of Turkey Creek sandstone and completed in 1912, neoclassic in design, is adorned with Corinthian columns and a terra cotta dome. Pink Colorado onyx has been used extensively for interior decoration, the murals in courtrooms and offices, depicting early southern Colorado historical scenes, are by Charles Schnorr of Pueblo.

3. COLUMBUS MONUMENT, NE. corner Union and Abriendo Aves., a 15-foot stone shaft supporting a bronze bust of the discoverer of America, was designed by Pietro Piai, New York sculptor, and dedicated by Italian citizens on Oct. 12, 1905. Italian societies of Pueblo hold patriotic services here annually on Columbus Day.

4. The McCLELLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY (open 9-9 weekday, 2-6 Sun.), NW. corner Abriendo and Union Ayes., a two-story gray sandstone building erected in 1904, has 42,000 volumes. A MUSEUM (open 3-5 Tues., 7-9 Thurs.), on the second floor, exhibits a miscellaneous collection of mounted birds and animals, Indian jewelry, a Chinese wishing block, a ceremonial mask from Ceylon, and Egyptian coffins.

5. The MINNEQUA STEEL PLANT (tours 10 and 2 week days; guides), offices Bay St. and Abriendo Ave., covers 600 acres at the southwestern edge of the city, being the largest west of the Mississippi. Products range from heavy steel rails to chemical fertilizers. Among the busiest units are the rod and wire mills, which manufacture nails of all sizes, barbed and woven wire, other types of fencing, and cables. Rolls of wire are heated, placed in lime to soften, and drawn into the desired size by pulling the wire through holes of varying dimensions. For certain uses the products are galvanized. The foundry produces pipe of all sizes, from bronze bell and spigot types for water, to 24-inch sewer pipe. Cast iron fittings of many kinds are also made.

The steel mills were established in 1881 by the Colorado Coal & Iron Company, and came under the control of the Gould and Rockefeller interests in 1892. The plant was expanded and later electrified throughout. The mills reached their peak production between 1914 and 1929, when 6,000 men were employed and 600,000 tons of steel manufactured annually.

6. The CORWIN HOSPITAL MUSEUM (open 2-4, 7-8 weekdays), in Corwin Hospital at Lake and Minnequa Ayes., has a miscel¬lany of articles gathered on his world travels by Dr. Richard Corwin—World War relics, South Seas, Australian, and South American curios, and mounted butterflies and moths from many countries.

7. The COLORADO STATE FAIR GROUNDS (free camp¬ground), Summit and Beulah Ayes., a 40-acre tract, is the scene of the annual Colorado State Fair in late August. On the grounds are a grandstand, a one-story Exposition Building of red brick, and long rows of stone stables. Livestock, poultry, farm products, horticulture, floriculture, apiary and dairy products, needle and fancy work, industrial and fine arts from every county in Colorado and from neighboring States are exhibited during the fair when horse races and a rodeo are held.

8. The SOUTHERN COLORADO JUNIOR COLLEGE, Arthur St. and Orman Ave., housed in an adobe building in the Spanish manner, erected by the Work Projects Administration in 1937, provides two years of general college work, and special technical and business courses. Enrollment approximates 300.

9. CITY PARK, entrance Goodnight and Calla Ayes., a 100-acre tract, has recreational grounds and picnic facilities. The stone AVIARY exhibits many varieties of native and tropical birds. In the small Zoo and adjacent fenced inclosures are buffalo, elk, deer, bear, monkeys, coyotes, and eagles.

10. The COLORADO STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE (open 9-4 daily), 13th and Frisco Sts., a group of red brick buildings occupying a 500-acre tract, was established in 1879 and cares for more than 4,000 patients.

Goodnight Ranch, 2 miles (see Tour 8a); Muldoon Hill, 14 miles, Pueblo Mountain Park, 26.5 miles (see Tour 8A) ; San Isabel National Forest, 26.7 miles (see Tour 11B); Lake Minnequa, 08 miles (see Tour 12c).