Article by Martha and Ed Quillen
History – March 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
OUR FORAY INTO Latin a little more than a year ago produced this word for “125th anniversary,” formed in the same way as “sesquicentennial” for 150th anniversary.
Last year, Leadville, Alamosa, and the Jackson Hotel in Poncha Springs celebrated their quarquicentennials, since they all got going in 1878. By 1879, there was more development hereabouts, so there will be more quarquicentennials this year.
Chaffee County has already celebrated, with cake and a party on Feb. 3. The actual date was Feb. 8, which fell on a Sunday.
The county’s birth was a bit confusing. At the time, current Chaffee and Lake counties were all in Lake County, whose county seat was Granite. The legislature split them, so that the miners flocking to the silver rush in Leadville would have a county courthouse nearby.
At first the south part (which is now Chaffee) was Lake with its seat at Granite and the north part (now Lake) was a new county called Carbonate, with its seat at Leadville.
Shortly thereafter, someone noticed that the namesake of Lake County — Twin Lakes — had actually ended up in Carbonate County. So Carbonate County was renamed Lake County, and the short-lived southern Lake County was renamed Chaffee County. Its namesake was Jerome B. Chaffee, a capitalist and major donor to the Republican Party. (Who says that selling “naming rights” is new?)
Today, Lake County is rightly and properly older than Chaffee County, having been established in 1861. But would it have been older if it had been renamed when the county was divided? Chaffee, after all, was purportedly established in 1879.
Unlike children, communities are not born in one piece on a specific day. In fact, it’s sometimes difficult to know how old a town is — a situation which could prove flattering to elderly humans — but leads to fighting between municipalities, which generally seem to prefer being older.
In a previous issue, we explored whether San Luis was really the oldest town in Colorado, or a mere pretender to the title. In the case of San Luis, having the oldest established water right in the state corroborates its claim as eldest — even though several communities were established at about the same time.
But miners didn’t always put irrigation ditches in first. So the date a town was established can reflect when the first settlers arrived; or when the first public building or project was initiated; or when the first post office was established. Very few Colorado communities, however, count from incorporation, which can happen years or decades after a town is established — or never.
FOR OUR PURPOSES, we’ve accepted whatever date a town or establishment celebrates its birthday. But when we weren’t sure of that, we consulted home references — which seldom agreed.
To move on, Buena Vista also turns 125 this year. It acquired (some sources stay “stole”) the county seat from Granite shortly after the county was formed in 1879, and was incorporated on Oct. 29, 1879. Thus most of the official celebration is planned for October with a town party, although there will be historical tours and programs.
Tincup was also established in 1879, but as Virginia City.
Although Crestone was there by 1879, it didn’t get a post office until 1880.
Poncha Springs has more birthdays than Zsa Zsa Gabor, but one of them is 1879. A Roadside History of Colorado merely highlights the first building there, which was built in 1865. The Burnetts, the McPhersons and the Hutchinsons all homesteaded there in the 1860s. And both Virginia Simmons and Sandra Dallas concur that Poncha Springs was established in 1868 as South Arkansas.
By the 1870s Poncha Springs was booming, and the Jackson Hotel was finished in 1878. But in Colorado Place Names, George Eichler says Poncha Springs was established in 1879, and incorporated in 1880. And Colorado’s Headwaters of Adventure website says it was founded in 1880 as a “railroad, travel hub.” Although Poncha Springs is clearly older, according to our visitors’ center, it shares a birthday with Salida, which wasn’t incorporated until 1891.
Minimizing one’s age is clearly not the way of towns, but since Poncha Springs frequently has, we think the community should take advantage of its situation and celebrate its quarquicentennial this year and next year, and then it can start celebrating its sesquicentennial in 2015 and just keep celebrating it until 2030.
As for another almost birthday, Silver Cliff was incorporated in 1879. But its first post office was established in 1878, so the town is really 126 this year.
But the Leadville Herald-Democrat, will be celebrating a quarquicentennial this fall. Its first edition appeared on Oct. 21, 1879. Other Cloud City institutions celebrating 125th birthdays include St. Vincent’s Hospital, the Pastime Bar, and the Silver Dollar Saloon. If the latter two establishments were in any other town, we might wonder whether they had operated continuously because Prohibition should have interfered, but knowing Leadville, we figure they found a way to quench the public thirst.
And while we’re noting anniversaries, the Saguache Crescent is now in its 125th year, still being produced with equipment that a printer of 1879 could walk in and operate.
The Fairplay Flume & Park County Republican is also turning 125 this year.
And Colorado Central turns 10 with this edition; the first one was dated March, 1994. In the Latinate way, we must be holding our decennial, although we haven’t scheduled any celebrations. ยจ
