Homes for sale in Teller County and the Pikes Peak Region Real Estate

TELLER COUNTY COLORADO
TELLER COUNTY HISTORY

Teller County begins 20 miles West of Colorado Springs and is accessed via
State Highway 24 West. It is almost directly in the center of the State of
Colorado at elevations ranging from 8,000 feet in Woodland Park to over 14,000
on the back side of Pikes Peak.

Teller County is named after one of Colorado's first U.S. Senators, Henry Teller,
and was formed on March 23, 1899. Land to form the County was given by El
Paso and Fremont Counties.   Teller County encompasses an area of 559
square miles.

Gold was discovered in Cripple Creek, which is the Teller County seat, in 1890
by cowboy and part time prospector, Bob Womack. This discovery forever
changed the area which was to become Teller County.   By 1900 more than
50,000 people called "the district" home. "The district" refers to the entire gold
mining area (approximately 3 square miles) and includes Victor, Cripple Creek,
Goldfield, and many towns which have disappeared. The value of the gold
mined in Teller County is greater than all other gold mining operations ever
conducted in the United States combined.

Today Teller County and it's cities are home to over 20,000 people. It faces the
very real challenges brought about by rapid growth and the demand to
preserve the natural habitat which drew folks to the area in the first place.

We hope our web pages will assist you with answers to some of your questions
and provide you with additional information that you didn't know you needed.
Included here are pictures from many of our beautiful areas. Spend some time
browsing and let us know which areas of the Web Page you visited!

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Teller County was formed from the western portion of El Paso and the northern
portion of Fremont counties and officially became a County on March 23rd,
1899. Before 1890 most of what is now Teller County was uninhabited, was an
area that people traveled through to get somewhere else. This area was known
mostly for the old Ute Pass Trail which was an important route because it
offered passage through the front range of the Rockies for Indians, buffalo,
explorers, prospectors, and cowboys and their cattle.
The first permanent settlement in Teller County occurred around 1870 and was
at the summit of the Ute Trail in what is now Divide. After having many names,
like Rhyolite, Belleview and Theodore, Divide stuck because the Arkansas and
South Platte watershed divide in this area.
As the tracks of the Colorado Midland Railroad neared Divide in 1887 boarding
houses, saloons and restaurants sprang up to meet the demand of railroad
workers.
Woodland Park, originally called Manitou Park, was laid out along the Midland
Railroad tracks and was quickly discovered by tuberculosis patients looking for
a place to recover. The town became a popular spot for pleasure seekers and
train passengers when the new Harvey House was opened in 1890. At that time
there were 120 residents in Woodland Park.
During that same year, 1890, Teller County was changed forever by a cowboy
and part-time prospect named Bob Womack. Bob owned a cattle ranch,
bisected by a small stream known as Cripple Creek, on the remote south slope
of Pikes Peak.   It was here he discovered a rich vein of gold ore which changed
the character of the entire Pikes Peak Region, and some say, the United States.
At this time there were less than two dozen people living in the four-mile wide
by six-mile long area that was known as the Cripple Creek Mining District. By
1900 more than 50,000 people lived in "the District."
Within a few short years there were 12 towns in the area ranging from the larger
population centers of Cripple Creek and Victor to several other towns which
grew up around mining centers. These were named Goldfield, Elkton, Altman,
Independence, Anaconda, Gillette, Cameron, Beaver Park, Arequa and
Lawrence. Goldfield and Gillette are the only two which remain.
The gold mining operations required a great deal of outside support and several
areas came to the rescue. Woodland Park had 5 saw mills producing millions of
feet of lumber per year, much of which was timber for the mines. 200,000
railroad ties were shipped out annually.
Divide was also an important lumber and supply town, but also became known
for its high-quality, disease-free potatoes and for its fine crops of lettuce. Each
fall, produce was crated and shipped to Cripple Creek and other locations
around the United States. Ice to keep lettuce fresh while being transported was
cut from ponds in and around the area.
No other town in the Pikes Peak region benefited from Cripple Creek mining like
Colorado Springs.   Stratton, Burns, Tutt and Penrose all made their fortunes in
Cripple Creek and then made their homes in Colorado Springs. The Myron
Stratton Home (named for Winfield Scott Stratton's father), the Broadmoor
Hotel, built by Spencer Penrose, and many of the mansions in Colorado
Springs' north end were all built with Cripple Creek gold.
Five reduction mills were constructed in Colorado City during the turn of the
century and began processing the bulk of Cripple Creek ore. Colorado City
offered water, coal and convenient rail access.
Tension escalated between Cripple Creek and Colorado Springs in the 1890's.
Mine owners, miners and residents in "the District: grew tired of watching tax
revenue from their mines go to Colorado Springs, which was (and is) the seat of
government for El Paso County. They wanted a Courthouse closer to mining
operations because of the number of county transactions that needed to be
carried out.   And so, after much arguing on both sides, the Colorado
Legislature created Teller County, named for Senator Henry M. Teller, one of
Colorado's first senators.

Cripple Creek in 1904

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Legend of the Tommy Knockers
Printed with permission from:
Rhymes of the Mines, Life in the Underground
by H. Mason and Janice Coggin, 1999
Cowboy Miner Production
317 East Griswold, Phoenix AZ. 85020

The ballad that follows is a superstition started by Cornish miners. These
experienced miners feared nothing about a mine except the "TOMMY
KNOCKERS." Their ballad and belief in the Tommy Knockers became famous
among miners everywhere and the belief in Tommy Knockers among many
miners of all nationalities grew from superstition into belief.

They believed that while working down in a mine the ghosts or spirits of dead
miners who had been killed in mines would come to claim their souls. When all
was quiet down in the mine shaft sometimes the miners would hear a taping,
the sound of a pick hitting rock. This was the sound of a Tommy Knocker and
many, many times when this sound was heard there would soon be a cave in of
the mine and many miners lost their lives this way. Therefore, when the miners
heard this sound those who believed in the Tommy Knockers would run from
the mine and would not return to work in it again.

It is believed by others that the sound that the superstitious miners heard was
actually rocks falling from the ceiling of the tunnel away from where the miners
were working and thus, could not be seen by them. These rocks would fall and
land on other rocks causing the taping sound that sounded like a pick striking
rocks. This loose rock would fall from unstable areas that had been dug
through and was at times followed by a cave in when to much earth gave way.

The men who worked down in the mines and had heard the Tommy Knockers
while down there and lived to tell about it would argue with any other
explanation other than it was the ghosts of dead miners known as the "Tommy
Knockers!"