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The City of Colorado Springs is the second most populous city in the State of Colorado and the 49th most populous city in the United States. The city is the county seat of El Paso County. Colorado Springs is located just east of the geographic center of the state and 63 miles (101 kilometers) south of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. At an elevation of 6035 feet (1839 meters), Colorado Springs is well over one mile above sea level, though some areas of the city are significantly higher. The city is situated near the base of one of the most famous American mountains, Pikes Peak, at the eastern edge of the Southern Rocky Mountains. The United States Census Bureau estimates that in 2005 the population of the City of Colorado Springs was 369,815 (49th most populous U.S. city),[1] the population of the Colorado Springs Metropolitan Statistical Area was 587,500 (84th most populous MSA), and the population of the Front Range Urban Corridor was 4,013,055.[2] Today, Colorado Springs has many features of a modern urban area, such as parks, bike trails, urban open-area spaces, business and commerce, theatres and other entertainment. It was first established as a posh resort community and the tourist industry has remained strong and offers many activities and attractions. In July 2006, Money magazine ranked Colorado Springs the best place to live in the big city category, which includes cities with 300,000 or more people. [1] Colorado Springs also is not exempt from the problems that typically plague cities that experience tremendous growth: overcrowded roads and highways, crime, sprawl, and government budget issues. Many of the problems are indirectly or directly caused by the city's difficulty in coping with the large population growth experienced in the last 20 years and the annexing of the Banning Lewis Ranch area for 175,000 future residents. In 2004, the voters of Colorado Springs and El Paso County established the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority [2] and adopted a 1% sales tax dedicated to improving the region's transportation infrastructure. Together with state funding for COSMIX (2007 completion) and the I-25 interchange with Highway 16 (2008 completion), significant progress has been made since 2003 in addressing the transportation needs of the area. A large number of religious organizations and churches make their headquarters here, particularly evangelical Christians. Several high-tech businesses have resided in the city, including a number of computer chip manufacturers (e.g. Intel, and the legendary chip foundary INMOS). The Mountain West Conference has its administrative headquarters in Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs is also home to a large number of military installations and important national defense agencies. It is also home to the United States Air Force Academy.
History
General William Palmer, City FounderColorado Springs was founded in August 1871 by General William Palmer, with the intention of creating a high quality resort community, and was soon nicknamed "Little London" because of the many English tourists who came. Nearby Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods made the city's location a natural. Within two years his flagship resort the Antlers Hotel opened, welcoming U.S. and international travelers as well as health-seekers looking for the high altitude and dry climate, and Palmer's visions of a thriving, quality resort town were coming true. Soon after he founded and owned the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, a critical regional railroad. Afterwards he maintained his presence in the city's early days by making many grants or sales of land to many important civic institutions in the community. Palmer and his wife saw Colorado Springs develop into one of the most popular travel destinations in the late 1800s United States. The town of Palmer Lake and a geographic feature called the Palmer Divide (and other more minor features) are named after him, and a bronze sculpture of Palmer on a horse with one leg raised (denoting seriously being wounded in a battle that later in life caused death), is prominently displayed downtown in the center of a busy intersection. America the Beautiful was written by visiting English professor Katharine Lee Bates in August 1893, while she stayed at the Antlers Hotel after visiting the top of nearby Pikes Peak. Old Colorado City and the Pike's Peak Gold RushColorado Springs' present downtown location, where General Palmer first founded the city, is due to Palmer's dislike of nearby rough-and-ready Colorado City and its many saloons; Palmer ensured his new city stayed alcohol free by buying a huge tract of land to the east of Colorado City and in fact, Colorado Springs stayed dry until the end of Prohibition in 1933. In its earliest days of 1859-1860, Colorado City was a major supply route of supplies for miners in the South Park, where a major strike in the Pike's Peak Gold Rush was found. Routes further north from present-day Denver's area proved more effective, and as only a few very minor gold finds were made in the Pikes Peak region, commerce instead shifted towards serving the agriculture of Colorado's eastern plains. (Eventually General Palmer's Denver & Rio Grande Railroad would snake from Denver into the South Park.) Colorado City was the county seat of El Paso County until 1873, when the courthouse moved to Colorado Springs. Colorado City also briefly (and unofficially) served as Colorado's territorial capital starting on July 7, 1862. By this time the town's fortunes were already waning. The territorial legislature met in a log cabin, that still stands on Colorado Avenue, and on August 14, 1862 the legislature approved an act which named Golden as the territorial capital. Colorado City was never recognized by the Federal government as the territorial capital. In 1891, major gold strikes were made in Cripple Creek and Victor, on the other side of Pike's Peak from Colorado City, and suddenly supplies were needed for this last major phase of the Colorado Gold Rush and the town's big boom was on. Eventually Colorado City was processing much of the gold ore at the Golden Cycle Mill using Palmer's railroads. Colorado City was the location of a 1903 strike that spread to Cripple Creek and eventually led to the Colorado Labor Wars. W. S. Stratton, early benefactorIn 1891, Winfield Scott Stratton discovered and developed one of the richest gold mines on earth in the nearby Cripple Creek and Victor area, and was perhaps the most generous early contributor to those communities and to Colorado Springs. After he made his fortune he declined to build a mansion as the other gold rush millionaires were doing; instead, in later years, he lived in a house in Colorado Springs he had built when he was a carpenter in pre-gold days. In Colorado Springs, he funded the Myron Stratton Home for housing itinerant children and the elderly, donated land for City Hall, the Post Office, the Courthouse (which now houses the Pioneer Museum), and a park; he also greatly expanded the city's trolley car system and built the Mining Exchange building, and gave to all three communities in many other ways, great and small. Unfortunately, as Stratton's generosity became known, he also was approached by many people looking for money, and he became reclusive and eccentric in his later years. Spencer Penrose, early benefactorSpencer Penrose also made his mark on Colorado Springs in its early years—though not until two decades after its founding. Penrose started as a ladies-man and an adventurer who made a huge fortune in the gold fields of nearby Cripple Creek in the 1890s, then married Julie Villiers Lewis McMillan, and settled down considerably. Penrose used his vast amounts of money to invest in other national mineral concerns and financed construction of the Broadmoor Hotel, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, the Pikes Peak Highway, an important local hospital, and established the El Pomar Foundation, which still oversees many of his contributions in Colorado Springs today. The End of the Colorado Gold Rush and the Start of Health TourismThe flow of gold and silver ebbed as the decades passed, and Colorado City's economic fortunes faded with it; the miners and those who processed the ore left or retired. Because of the healthy natural scenic beauty, mineral waters, and extreme dry climate, Colorado Springs became a tourist attraction and popular recuperation destination for tuberculosis patients. The healthy waters in Colorado Springs contained so much natural fluoride, that some people’s teeth developed Colorado Stain. In 1909, Dr. Frederick McKay of Colorado Springs discovered the Colorado Stain connection and that a little fluoride added to water would prevent cavities. During this time, the city of Roswell was annexed and in 1917, Colorado Springs absorbed Colorado City and is now called "Old Colorado City.” This area still retains its quaint old Victorian and brick neighborhood in the west part of Colorado Springs, with National Historic District status and a bustling main street of businesses, tourism, antique shops, and Victorian charm. Latter 20th century military boomColorado Springs saw its first military base in 1942 shortly after Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was during this time the U.S. Army established Camp Carson near the southern borders of the city in order to train and house troops in preparation for the Second World War. It was also during this time that the Army began using at what was then and still is the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport. It was renamed Peterson Field and used as a training base for heavy bombers. The Army then began expanding Camp Carson, a venture that increased growth in Colorado Springs and provided a significant area of industry for the city. After World War II the military stepped away from the Springs and it seemed the city's military boom was over, Camp Carson was declining and the military was activating and deactivating Peterson Field irregularly. That all changed when the Korean War erupted and the declining Camp Carson of 600 was revitalized, along with many other parts of the Springs. In 1951, Ent Air Force Base (named for Major General Uzal Girard Ent, commander of the Ninth Air Force during World War II) was opened when the United States Air Defense Command moved to Colorado Springs. After the Korean War, Peterson Field was renamed Peterson Air Force Base and was permanently activated. In 1954 Camp Carson became Fort Carson, Colorado Spring's first Army post. Later that same year, President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose, out of 300 other sites around the nation, Colorado Springs to be the site of the Air Force's military academy. With a new and growing Army post, an Air Force Base, and the Air Force's military academy, Colorado Springs' growth was jump-started. The military boom continued and in 1963, NORAD's main facility was built in Cheyenne Mountain. It placed NORAD directly next to Colorado Springs and permanently secured the city's military presence. During the Cold War the city greatly expanded due to increased revenue from various industries and the prevailing military presence in the city. In the mid 1970s, Ent Air Force Base was shut down and later converted into the United States Olympic Training Center. Military presence was further increased in 1983 with the founding of Schriever Air Force Base (formerly Falcon Air Force Base), a base primarily tasked with missile defense and satellite control. Fort Carson and Peterson are still growing and continue to contribute to the city's growth. Headquarters, Air Force Space Command, is located on Peterson AFB. Research Tips
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