10 events in Canon City

On this page I will tell you the first 5 events I know about Canon City.

Cañon City was settled in 1859-1860 and the first known burials were of the Bowen family (1861, 1863, and 1864).Those graves were moved from the original site to Lakeside Cemetery in 1992, making Greenwood Pioneer Cemetery the oldest extant burial ground in Cañon City.



Much of Cañon City's downtown was built between 1899 and 1910. It was during that time that the gold and silver barons infused the city with their newfound wealth from the nearby mining camps of Leadville and Cripple Creek. While these towns were still booming, many of Colorado's high country mining towns had peaked and were suffering the disastrous effects of the Silver Panic of 1893, after which US currency was no longer based on silver. In its place, gold became king.



In 1861 our little town Canon City raised two companies of volunteers for service with the Second Colorado Infantry in the American Civil War. The regiment fought battles in nearby New Mexico and as far east as Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma)and Missouri before mustering out of service in 1865.



In 1862, A. M. Cassaday drilled for petroleum six miles north of town, near an oil seep. He struck oil at a depth of 50 feet, and completed the first commercial oil well west of the Mississippi. He drilled five or six more wells nearby, and refined kerosene and fuel oil from the petroleum, and sold the products in Denver!



Founded in 1892 as a professional association, the Cañon City Chamber of Commerce has become a very progressive and active organization in the area. The current home of the Chamber offices is the Peabody Mansion, an attraction in itself.

Canon City had something to do with the KKK (Ku Klux Klan).Goldberg's study of the KKK in Colorado found that ``despite coal strikes in 1921, 1922, and 1927, which primarily involved foreign-- born miners, the Klan never resorted to the language of the Red Scare.'' During the Wobbly-led strike of 1927, in fact, the Canon City Klan formed an alliance with the IWW against their common enemy, the ruling elite.

About 7 miles away from Canon City is a small town called "Florence". This small town is the home of United States Penitentiary. The United States Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado is located in southern Colorado 45 miles south of Colorado Springs. This high-security prison houses approximately 1000 adult male inmates. [1] The Penitentiary is a part of the Florence Federal Correctional Complex, which is situated on 49 acres of land and houses different facilities with varying degrees of security. The United States Penitentiary is located adjacent to ADX Florence, the Supermax underground prison. USP Florence was opened in January 1994.[1] In the early years of the penitentiary, a group of officers known as the Cowboys were indicted and then convicted of abusing inmates.

In our small town, we have a canyon called the Royal Gorge. The Royal Gorge (also Grand Canyon of the Arkansas) is a canyon on the Arkansas River near Cañon City, Colorado. With a width of 50 feet at its base and a few hundred feet at its top, and a depth of 1200 feet in places, the 10-mile-long canyon is a narrow, steep gorge through the granite of Fremont Peak.About 3 million years ago as the Rocky Mountains rose from the surrounding plains, a small rivulet that would become the Arkansas River rose with them. Over the millennia, it cut a deep channel for itself through the surrounding granite, at a rate of about one foot every 2,500 years. The gorge's peculiar shape, contrasted to broad canyons such as the Grand Canyon, can be attributed to this long, direct erosion through hard rock.

In our town, we have a fun experiance called "Buckskin Joes". Buckskin Joe Frontier Town and Railway is an authentic old west theme park located 8 miles west of Cañon City, Colorado, on the road to the Royal Gorge. Features of the park include gun fights, 30 authentic buildings from the Colorado 1800's frontier, themed entertainment, full service saloon and restaurant. There is also the Mystery House and a horse-drawn trolley ride that help to complete this uniquely wild west experience.Buckskin Joe was built in 1958 and will celebrate its 50 year of operation in 2008. It is a renowned western movie filming location with 21+ films to their credit. Such great films like "Cat Ballou", "The Cowboys" and "The Sacketts" have been filmed on location at Buckskin Joe. This town has also been featured on the History Channel's "Haunted Rockies Series" for the unexplained happenings that have been prevalent throughout the years.

We also have a small railroad.The Royal Gorge Route Railroad is a heritage railway in Cañon City, Colorado.
The Railroad transits the Royal Gorge on a 2-hour scenic and historic train ride on the most famous portion of the former Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The 1950s era train departs the Santa Fe depot in Canon City daily.