Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs is the second-most populous city in the state of Colorado and the county seat of El Paso County. With more than 456,000 residents, it is located about sixty miles south of Denver at the base of Pikes Peak, and ranks as one of the most popular tourist destinations in the state. During the 2020 United States census, the city had a total area of 195.761 square miles. It stands on a mesa at approximately 6,008 feet above sea level and was founded in 1871 as Fountain Colony by General William J. Palmer, builder of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, before being renamed for the nearby Manitou mineral springs. Today, Colorado Springs is known as "Olympic City USA" and serves as a hub for military installations, higher education, tourism, and technology industries.

Early Inhabitants and Indigenous History

The area of present-day Colorado Springs has a long history of human habitation, beginning almost 5,000 years ago with Paleo-Indian and Archaic-period people who hunted and gathered on the eastern slope of Pikes Peak. By the sixteenth century, the area was home to a group of Ute people who called the mountain Tava, meaning "Sun Mountain," and referred to themselves as Tabeguache, "the people of Sun Mountain." The Ute traveled in small bands across the seasons, using the Pikes Peak region as a vital resource landscape and ceremonial gathering place.

The Utes were not the only Indigenous people to live along the Front Range. The Comanche and Kiowa frequented the Colorado Springs area during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and by the early nineteenth century the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota were also present. Unlike the Cheyenne or Lakota, who mostly kept to the plains, the Arapaho routinely traveled to the high country to hunt. They called Pikes Peak by their own name, heey-otoyoo', meaning "long mountain."

Zebulon Pike explored the region in November 1806. Pikes Peak is named for Pike, but the U.S. Army Lieutenant never reached the summit of the mountain he referred to as the Grand Peak. Pike proclaimed the mountain unclimbable after his 1806 attempt failed during an expedition to locate the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red Rivers. His words were proven wrong in 1820 when Dr. Edwin James became the first known person of European descent to successfully reach the summit.

The Colorado Springs area remained the domain of Native Americans until the Colorado Gold Rush of 1858–59, when early white settlers founded Colorado City at the base of Pikes Peak to supply mining camps to the west. First called El Dorado, it was established in 1859 as a gateway to the mining camps in the central Rockies. The town was named the first capital of the Colorado Territory in 1861, but only held that status for a matter of months.

Founding and Early Development

General William Jackson Palmer, a Civil War hero and railroad magnate, established Colorado Springs in 1871. Palmer came to the region in search of possible railroad routes in 1869. One year later, he founded the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and purchased land to create what is now Colorado Springs along its route. Palmer planned the area as a health resort drawing people with its dry climate, clean mountain air, and natural beauty at the foot of Pikes Peak. He planted 10,000 trees, established many parks, and laid out wide boulevards drawn from European stylings.

So many immigrants from England had settled in Colorado Springs by the early 1870s that Colorado Springs was locally referred to as "Little London." From the start, it attracted wealthy residents and capitalists, as well as intellectuals, artists, writers, and inventors. The Palmers — both General Palmer and his wife, Queen — played an instrumental role in developing the Springs and surrounding communities. Many staples of the community today, including North Cheyenne Cañon Park, the Colorado Springs Gazette, and the Antlers Hotel, were built and orchestrated by the couple.

Colorado Springs itself emerged on July 31st, 1871, and was formally incorporated as a town in 1872 and as a city in 1886. The El Paso County seat shifted from Colorado City in 1873 to the Town of Colorado Springs. In 1917, Colorado Springs consolidated with Colorado City, which had been founded in 1859 as El Dorado City.

A notable chapter in the city's early cultural life came in 1893, when poet and author Katharine Lee Bates boarded a train in Massachusetts headed to Colorado Springs. Escaping the New England summer, she planned to soak up the region's dry, mild climate and serve as a guest lecturer at Colorado College. During her stay, she made her way to the top of nearby Pikes Peak where she stood in awe of the scenic grandeur of the surrounding mountains and plains. This view inspired her to write the poem "America the Beautiful."

The Health Resort Era and the Gold Rush

From its founding, Colorado Springs was a premier destination for those seeking treatment from tuberculosis. The dry, fresh mountain air offered many people respite from the disease, and once cured, many remained in the region with their families and businesses. At one point, a survey indicated that about 30% of the population was in Colorado Springs for that reason, and the city had over a dozen major tuberculosis treatment facilities. Sanatoriums, health cottages, and treatment huts proliferated across the Pikes Peak region, leaving a lasting architectural and demographic imprint on the city.

In the 1890s, gold was discovered on the western slope of Pikes Peak in one of the richest gold strikes in American history. Almost overnight, the Cripple Creek Mining District grew from an isolated cattle pasture to the home of more than 50,000 people. People passed through Colorado Springs on their way up the pass, and many designated the city as their base for both families and businesses. After the 1891 discovery of gold in Cripple Creek, just to the west of Pikes Peak, even more wealth came to Colorado Springs. For a time, the city had more millionaires per capita than any other place in the country.

Inventor Nikola Tesla came to Colorado Springs in 1899 and built an experimental station in Knob Hill near present-day Memorial Park, where he conducted experiments, many centered around the region's lightning storms. Satisfied with his work, Tesla left the Springs in 1900, abandoning his lab and leaving unpaid bills behind, according to the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.

Many museums and cultural institutions trace their origins to this era. The Colorado Springs Museum, a regional history museum owned by the city, was founded in 1896 and is the oldest active collecting institution in the region.

Military Presence and the Cold War

A pivotal moment in 1941 saw the city's council authorize the purchase of thousands of acres of land south of downtown to make land available to the War Department for the creation of Camp Carson. This decision fundamentally reshaped Colorado Springs from a resort and health destination into one of America's most significant military centers. It was a decision on the part of local leaders to take a city that had never had a military presence and become a military town.

In November 1950, Ent Air Force Base was selected as the Cold War headquarters for Air Defense Command (ADC). The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) was established as a hardened command and control center within the Cheyenne Mountain Complex during the Cold War. The hollowed-out interior of nearby Cheyenne Mountain houses the command and control facilities of NORAD and of other agencies; since 1966 it has been a primary base for aerospace defense and for the tracking of orbiting objects.

Fort Carson (1942) is on the city's southern edge, while the U.S. Air Force Academy (1958) is set against a backdrop of the Rampart Range. Today, Colorado Springs is home to five major military installations, including Peterson Space Force Base, Schriever Space Force Base, Fort Carson, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.

New ways of treating tuberculosis were largely driven by medical advancements made during World War II, meaning that the same event that brought Camp Carson — later Fort Carson — to Colorado Springs also led to the demise of the sanatorium era. The city's economic identity shifted dramatically as military employment replaced the health-resort economy.

Geography, Climate, and Natural Attractions

Colorado Springs lies in a semi-arid steppe region, with the Southern Rocky Mountains to the west, the Palmer Divide to the north, high plains further east, and high desert lands to the south. Colorado Springs has a cooler, dry-winter monsoon-influenced continental climate, and its location just east of the Rocky Mountains affords it the rapid warming influence from chinook winds during winter but also subjects it to drastic day-to-day variability in weather conditions.

The Garden of the Gods, a 1,350-acre natural park with red sandstone monoliths, now a national landmark, is one of many scenic attractions in the area. The park draws millions of visitors each year and offers hiking, rock climbing, and geological interpretation programs. Pikes Peak itself — rising to 14,115 feet — remains one of the most visited summits in the country, accessible by the Pikes Peak Highway or the Pikes Peak Cog Railway.

In 2012, the Waldo Canyon fire destroyed 346 homes and killed two people in the city, underscoring the persistent wildfire risks associated with Colorado Springs' dry climate and proximity to forested terrain. The city has since invested in increased firefighting resources and forest management programs.

Education, Culture, and the Olympic Legacy

The city is the site of Colorado College (1874), the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (1965), and Nazarene Bible College (1967). Colorado College, a liberal arts institution founded just three years after the city itself, remains one of the most prominent private colleges in the Mountain West.

Of cultural and historical interest are the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, and the May Natural History Museum. Colorado Springs has taken several steps to protect its local historic resources, including the implementation of a Historic Preservation Plan and a Historic Preservation Ordinance. The city was designated a Certified Local Government in 1994 and initiated a survey and inventory of historic resources in 2004.

In 1977, most of the former Ent Air Force Base became the first U.S. Olympic Training Center, and the U.S. Olympic Committee moved there in 1978. The U.S. Olympic Training Center has been home to the U.S. Olympic Committee since 1978. The committee chose Colorado Springs as their training destination because of the high elevation, which many believe improves the effectiveness of an athlete's training. The city now carries the official designation of "Olympic City USA," a title that reflects both its institutional role and its culture of athletic achievement.

Like other cities along the Front Range, Colorado Springs experienced tremendous growth in the 1980s and '90s. Within a span of seven years — from 1990 to 1997 — the population increased from about 280,000 to more than 330,000, and much of the city's large, formerly open, incorporated area was developed during this time. The city has continued to expand, cementing its role as the anchor of the southern Front Range Urban Corridor.