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Buckskin Joe is an
The area was first inhabited by Non-Native Americans in 1859 during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, when 
The placer and vein gold deposits were rich, but were quickly exhausted. By 1866, the town was reported to be deserted, and the courthouse building was moved down the valley to the new
State of Colorado
History Colorado
{{authority control 1861 establishments in Colorado Territory Former county seats in Colorado Former populated places in Park County, Colorado Geography of Park County, Colorado Ghost towns in Colorado Mining communities in Colorado Pre-statehood history of Colorado Populated places established in 1861
extinct
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
gold mining town located in Park County, Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, United States. The town was founded in 1860 as Laurette in what was then the Kansas Territory
The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Slave and ...
. The Territory of Colorado
The Territory of Colorado was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 28, 1861, until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to the Union as the 38th State of Colorado.
The territory was organized i ...
was created on February 28, 1861, and the Laurette post office opened on November 14, 1861. Laurette was elected the Park County seat on January 7, 1862. The post office name was changed to Buckskin on December 21, 1865, although the town was popularly known as Buckskin Joe. The county seat was moved to Fairplay
FairPlay is a family of digital rights management (DRM) technologies developed by Apple Inc. for protecting videos, books and apps and historically for music.
Music
The initial version of FairPlay was created to protect music on the iTunes S ...
in 1867, and the Buckskin post office closed on January 24, 1873.
History
The area was first inhabited by Non-Native Americans in 1859 during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, when gold
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
was discovered along Buckskin Creek, on the east side of the Mosquito Range
The Mosquito Range (elevation approximately 14,000 ft) is a high mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States. The peaks of the range form a ridge running north–south for roughly 40 mi (64 km) fr ...
. At the time of its first settlement, the town was in the western part of Kansas Territory
The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Slave and ...
.
The town was formally organized in September 1860 and named Laurette, a contraction of the first names of the only two women in the camp, the sisters Laura and Jeanette Dodge. But it was always more popularly known as Buckskin Joe, after Joseph Higginbottom, an early trapper and prospector. Little is known for certain about Higginbottom. Some accounts refer to him as an African-American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
; some accounts say that he was the one who first discovered gold in the vicinity of the town.
Mining shifted to rich hardrock deposits in the Phillips lode and other vein
Veins () are blood vessels in the circulatory system of humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are those of the pulmonary and feta ...
s. By 1861, when the Laurette/Buckskin Joe Post Office opened, in the newly formed Colorado Territory
The Territory of Colorado was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 28, 1861, until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to the Union as the 38th State of Colorado.
The territory was organized ...
, the town boasted two hotels, fourteen stores, and a bank. On January 7, 1862 the county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of Park County moved to Buckskin Joe from Tarryall, now also a ghost town. At its peak, the town was credited with a population of 5,000, but historian Robert L. Brown considers this number far too large.
The placer and vein gold deposits were rich, but were quickly exhausted. By 1866, the town was reported to be deserted, and the courthouse building was moved down the valley to the new county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of Fairplay
FairPlay is a family of digital rights management (DRM) technologies developed by Apple Inc. for protecting videos, books and apps and historically for music.
Music
The initial version of FairPlay was created to protect music on the iTunes S ...
. In the late 1950s, Horace Tabor's general store was dismantled, hauled away, and reassembled at the tourist attraction and movie set also called Buckskin Joe
Buckskin Joe was a Western-style theme park and railway in Fremont County, Colorado, United States, about west of Cañon City.
Description
The park was located south of U.S. Route 50 along the road to the Royal Gorge Bridge. Features of t ...
, away from the original site. It remained there until 2011 when it, along with the entire tourist attraction and movie set, was sold to a private collector and moved to a private ranch in western Colorado.
Geography
Buckskin Joe is located about west ofAlma, Colorado
Alma is a statutory town in Park County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 296 at the 2020 United States census. Alma is located West and South of the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range ...
at coordinates at an elevation of .
Notable residents
*John Lewis Dyer
John Lewis Dyer (1812-1901), "The Snowshoe Itinerant," was a circuit rider, that is, a preacher who rode from one church to the next. He was a Methodist.
Biography
Dyer was born in Franklin County, Ohio, spending most his early years in Illino ...
, Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
circuit rider missionary, also arrived in Buckskin Joe in 1861, having migrated from Minnesota
Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
.
* Frank H. Mayer, former U.S. marshal in Buckskin Joe, former buffalo hunter
*" Silverheels" (proper name unknown) was a popular dance hall
Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for Dance, dancing, but usually refers to a specific type of twentieth-century venue, with dance clubs (nightclubs) becoming more popular towards the end of the century. The palais de danse was a term ap ...
girl at Buckskin Joe and the subject of many apocryphal stories. Mount Silverheels
Mount Silverheels is a high and prominent mountain summit in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The thirteener is located in Pike National Forest, northeast ( bearing 41°) of the Town of Alma in Park County, Colorado, ...
is named in her honor.
*Horace Tabor
Horace Austin Warner "Haw" Tabor (November 26, 1830 – April 10, 1899), also known as The Bonanza King of Leadville and The Silver King, was an American prospector, businessman, and Republican politician. His success in Leadville, Colorado's si ...
, later a mining millionaire and U.S. senator
The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...
, arrived in Buckskin Joe in 1861 and ran a store with his first wife.
See also
*Bibliography of Colorado
This is a bibliography of the U.S. State of Colorado.
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General history
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*Sibley, George. ''Water Wranglers - The 75-Year History of the Colorado River District: A Story About the Embattled Co ...
*Geography of Colorado
The geography of the U.S. State of Colorado is diverse, encompassing rugged mountainous terrain, vast plains, desert lands, desert canyons, and mesas. Colorado is a landlocked U.S. state. In 1861, the United States Congress defined the boun ...
*History of Colorado
The region that is today the U.S. state of Colorado has been inhabited by Native Americans and their Paleoamerican ancestors for at least 13,500 years and possibly more than 37,000 years. The eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains was a major mi ...
*Index of Colorado-related articles
This is an alphabetical list of articles related to the U.S. State of Colorado.
0–9
* .co.us – Internet second-level domain for the State of Colorado
* 4 Corners
** 4 Corners Monument
* 6th Principal Meridian
* 10-mile Range
* 10 ...
*List of Colorado-related lists
The following two master lists include links to lists related to the United States, U.S. Colorado, State of Colorado.
#Colorado-related lists by topic
#Alphabetical list of Colorado-related lists
Colorado-related lists by topic General lists
*Bib ...
**List of county seats in Colorado
This is a list of the county seats of the U.S. State of Colorado and its two predecessors: the extralegal Territory of Jefferson and the official Territory of Colorado.
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Territory of Jefferson
On August 24, 1859, voters of the Pike' ...
**List of ghost towns in Colorado
This is a list of some notable ghost towns in the U.S. State of Colorado. A ghost town is a former community that now has no year-round residents or less than 1% of its peak population. Colorado has over 1,500 ghost towns, although visible remai ...
**List of post offices in Colorado
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*Outline of Colorado
The following Outline (list), outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the U.S. state of Colorado:
Colorado – List of U.S. states and territories by population#State and territory rankings, 22nd most populous, the Lis ...
References
External links
State of Colorado
History Colorado
{{authority control 1861 establishments in Colorado Territory Former county seats in Colorado Former populated places in Park County, Colorado Geography of Park County, Colorado Ghost towns in Colorado Mining communities in Colorado Pre-statehood history of Colorado Populated places established in 1861