A Brief History
A Convergence of Indigenous People, Traders, Gold Seekers, and Settlers, Pre-1860
The Episcopal Church in Colorado encompasses territory first inhabited by the Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Shoshone, and Ute peoples. The San Luis Valley, ringed by the staggeringly beautiful Santo de Cristo mountain range is home to farmers and ranchers themselves descended from the first Spanish residents of the region, then called Santa Fé de Nuevo México. In 1851 a group of pioneers from Taos ventured north into the San Luis Valley, where they established the town of San Luis—Colorado's first permanent European settlement. By then, French and Anglo fur trappers and hunters had also reached the interior, building trading depots along the Arkansas and Platte river valleys. These supplied travelers and itinerant residents along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, particularly along the Oregon and Santa Fe trails. These early traders and trappers would later serve as scouts for U.S. military expeditions into the North American interior and later lead convoys of civilians west. The first westbound groups—principally Mormons and Forty-Niners—were careful to circumnavigate Colorado's imposing cordillera, with 58 mountain peaks surpassing 14,000 feet. "Colorado" itself is the Spanish term meaning 'red,' for the reddish silt coloring the Colorado River.
In 1858 the "Pike's Peak" Gold Rush would draw a number of new hopeful immigrants to the gold camps in what was called the Kansas Territory. Most of the newcomers set their hats for camps named Empire, Cripple Creek, Breckenridge, Idaho Springs, and Fairplay, some of them deep in the mountains. It was here where most of the gold and silver ore (and, later, other precious metals) was to be found. But Denver City, too, became a destination. At the confluence of Cherry Creek and the Platte River, Denver transformed itself into supply depot and transshipment operation—and home to thousands of new families.
