The Cotopaxi Colony, by Flora Jane Satt

Part I, The Place

Cotopaxi, a small, unincorporated village on the banks of the Arkansas River, has been the scene of an unusual chapter in Colorado history. This oddly-named town, today just a "whistle-stop" on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, Thirty-three miles west of Canon City in Fremont Count, is mentioned in many encyclopedias and books on American agricultural colonies.1 Environmental factors are always important in analyzing an historical episode, but particularly in the case of the colony founded here because its failure has been attributed solely to these factors. The naming founding and description of its physical features are necessary for an appreciation of Cotopaxi's role in this history.

The man responsible for the strange name was Henry Thomas, known to contemporaries as "Gold Tom". He was an itinerant prospector who left the Central City gold camp in 1867, 2 and crossed the Divide to investigate the Upper Arkansas Valley around California Gulch. There he conceived the idea that some of the heavier gold might have washed downstream 3 so he continued south along the river, reaching the forks near the present site of Salida about 1870. At the same time, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad began its survey of a proposed transcontinental route through the Arkansas Valley.4 By October 31, 1872 track had been laid as far west on this route as Labran, seven miles east of Canon City, and Henry Thomas had taken a job with the railroad to augment his meager prospecting income. His duties included procuring timber for ties and this meant he had to scout not only the region the being graded but neighboring alleys and mountains. Particularly struck by one of these valleys as closely resembling an area he had once prospected in northern Ecuador, he named the Colorado counterpart after the dominant Andean geographic feature, a volcano called "Cotopaxi".5 At the juncture of the small tributary streams which flow into the Arkansas River at Cotopaxi, Colorado, looking westward through the narrow canyon of the river, one can see a conical-shaped peak, part of the Sangre de Cristo Range, framed by the steep walls of the canyon, Old residents of the area who knew Henry (Gold Tom) Thomas say that it is this unusual view which recalled to his mind the Andean volcano and caused him to call the little valley by the odd-sounding Spanish name. In 1873 he built a cabin there as a base for his prospecting in the surrounding hills. In 1874 he had filed several mining claims at Canon City and is credited with the discovery of the Cotopaxi Lode, one of the richest deposits of silver with zinc in Fremont County.

The small streams mentioned above are ephemeral, becoming quite dry in summer and fall, although they have been destructive during the spring flood stage. The northern one is known as Bernard Creek and the southern one, which flows out of the tip of (the) Wet Mountain valley, is called Oak Grove Creek. They join the Arkansas where a bend in the latter's course widens the valley floor to about one mile in width. This confluence of streams has cut an oval-shaped, flat-floored valley almost completely encircled by steep, rocky cliffs. So narrow is the canyon cut by the Arkansas immediately beyond Cotopaxi that the Denver and Rio Grande tracks run along a man-made ledge cut out of the rock walls. The town itself lies at an elevation of 6,718 feet above sea level, while the elevation of the transecting valleys rises in a steep gradient to 8,000 feet within four miles.6

There are several such valleys along the Arkansas River between Canon City and Salida and these wire first utilized by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad as sites for warehouses and for water, wood and coal storage. Henry (Gold Tom) Thomas built a shed to house his ties at Cotopaxi in 1874. It was not until late in 1878 that some of these storage sites became depots, post offices and townsites, due to the four-year delay caused by the famous "Royal Gorge War". Bitter legal battles in the courts and violent physical struggles along the right-of-way itself between the Denver and Rio Grande and the Santa Fe railroads divided the people of the region into warring camps. This controversy was held responsible for the retarded economic development of western Fremont County.7

Mineral resources did not attract population to Fremont County, at least in a manner experienced by other counties. It never became a center of refining or smelting as did Pueblo County, although early in the 1880's Canon City was vying with Pueblo for the title of "Pittsburgh of the West".8 The best source of gold and silver was in the southern half of the county, which was separated for the northern half in April of 1877. This new section was named Custer County and as the scene several years later of several spectacular mining booms.9

The only comparable gold and silver mines in Fremont County were the Gem and the Cotopaxi Lodes but considerable deposits of coal, oil and iron were found and developed elsewhere in the county. Also, unusual metals such as nickel, molybdenum and pure zincblende were mined. In general, mining laws in Fremont Count conformed to those and were patterned after the laws of other Colorado mining counties, except where coal and oil development required different provisions.

There was no placer gold to attract large "rushes" of "Panners" and "Fly-by-nighters" as in Clear Creek or Gilpin Counties. No one except Carl Wulsten prospected for silver in Fremont County before 1872. 10 When silver was discovered in large quantities in the region, it proved to be vary difficult to mine (with the exception of the horn silver at Silver Cliff), requiring skilled labor, considerable capital investment, as well as metallurgical experience to handle the ore in reduction works. The coal and oil deposits were mostly accidental discoveries, made while surveying for farms or digging artesian wells or irrigation ditches.11

Despite the altitude and aridity of the Fremont County section of the Arkansas Valley, it was early considered to be favorable for agriculture. The arable valleys were settled early in Colorado Territory's history and the abundance of water was looked upon as a decided advantage over the lower, but drier, sections downstream. Nevertheless, these other regions soon surpassed Fremont County in agricultural production. Historians have offered many reasons for this situation. Hubert Howe Bancroft cited the delay in rail connection caused by the "royal Gorge War" as the main deterent.12 Alvin Steinel, professor at Colorado Agricultural College, pointed to the engineering difficulties of getting the water, admittedly most abundant, up on the plateaus where it was needed. These difficulties prevented cultivation.13 B.F. Rockafellow, an early settler in the county, remarks on the lack of mills and other processing facilities as the cause of Fremont Count's slow development.14

During the 1860's corn and wheat were planted in Fremont County, but weather and soil conditions were found to be unfavorable to them. Then fruit-raising, particularly apples and pears, was attempted and soon supplanted all else in the region. The pioneer in horticulture was Jesse Frazer, known throughout the United States as the developer of the "Colorado orange apple". 15

However, it was not until later that fruit-raising was recognized as the proper agricultural pursuit for Fremont County, after group attempts in the early 1870's with grain crops had failed. These groups had felt that the collective method of the "agricultural colony" would aid them in solving those larger problems of irrigation and finance that the individual farmer could not surmount. The first of these was the German Colony at Colfax in [the] Wet Mountain Valley. 16 The second was the Mormon Colony which located near Ula in 1871. 17 Then a group of English people settled near Westcliffe in 1872. 18 Some ten years later still another agricultural colony was established in Fremont County, the Russian Jewish one, which came to the Cotopaxi area and farmed lands along Oak Grove and Bernard Creeks controlled by Emanuel H. Saltiel.

Saltiel was a Portuguese Jew from New York City who had come to Colorado in 1867. 19 By 1876 the Cotopaxi area had begun to attract a few settlers and many mining prospectors. Several shafts had been opened and sluices put in operation at the site of Gold Tom's first strikes. Saltiel became interested in the Cotopaxi Lode, particularly when he learned that the discoverer, Henry Thomas, did not have the capital or experience to work it. Saltiels's business and political contacts in Denver were well-know in Fremont County and his influence with officials of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad was sufficient to have that company designate his newly-acquired property around Cotopaxi as a major stop on their run to South Arkansas (Salida), build there a large depot and call the stop "Saltiels". 20

Saltiel had filed on 2,000 acres of Government land and made token payments at the county clerk's office in Canon City by 1878. This acreage was a long, narrow strip running north and south Oak Grove Creek and Bernard Creek. Within his "property", which he defined as a "town and land company" development, Saltiel also filed at least seven separate mining claims. These claims were quite clear and indisputable, for shortly after registering them at the County Clerk's office in Canon City, he had his workers construct shafts and tunnels and other improvements on the vein outcrops and had spent well over the minimum of $500 required by the Law of 1872, 21 thus acquiring a clear patent to the mineral lands thereon. These seven claims, all located within the broader boundaries of his proposed town-site, were along the streams, using their scant water for sluicing and other mining operations.

The appellation "Cotopaxi" clung to the area despite the honor bestowed on its leading citizen by the railroad when it built the depot and warehouses and named the stop "Saltiels". By 1879 eight permanent buildings had been constructed and more were in the offing. Several large residences were built. Elaborate plans for a plaza or public park were drawn up and commerce got under way with a hotel, blacksmith shop, general store and a saw-mill. Efforts to establish a saloon and gambling hall were thwarted by the virtuous townspeople, but a meeting house which served as school and church were built that year. At the same time, the government established a post office in the town, but changed the name back to Cotopaxi. By 1880 the town ranked sixth in population in Fremont County.22 Saltiel had his assay office, mine and milling headquarters in a small building adjacent to the hotel which he owned in connection with one of his partners, A. S. Hart. 23

Saltiel was generally credited with the discovery and exploitation of most of the important mineral veins in the region, particularly the famous Cotopaxi Lode and the Enterprise Mine.24 But since Henry (Gold Tom) Thomas had been prospecting the area since 1873 and had filed mining claims thereon with the County Clerk in 1874, there seems to be sound basis for a claim controversy. It is recorded that Saltiel bought out Thomas' rights for insignificant amounts, in relation to what was taken out. However, there was little alternative for the independent, small-time miner, owing to the nature of the ores involved, all of which required much capital equipment and complicated processes to refine. Saltiel's experience business connections and vast wealth put him in a superior position in this respect.

However he soon ran into other difficulties. With the discovery of much richer lodes in southern Fremont County (Custer County now) labor supply became practically nonexistent in the Cotopaxi area. Saltiel had always been reluctant to pay adequate wages, in relation to neighboring mine owners. "Help-wanted ads" began appearing in the Denver and eastern papers, but even his eloquence there could not buck the competition of the simultaneous strikes in Leadville, Rosita, and Western Slope camps. In addition, those who did not care for a miner's life could take jobs with the railroads which were then also expanding at a prodigious rate. Saltiel's ingenious solution to this seemingly insurmountable problem was to import his own labor supply from Europe.