El Chirado? More like El Ridiculo! Saddle up, pardners! We’re about to lasso ourselves a tale wilder than a bronco in a thunderstorm – the wacky story of the Chicago-Colorado Colony!
It’s 1870, and a bunch of Chicago fat cats are itching to make their mark on the untamed Colorado Territory. Inspired by that old coot Horace Greeley’s Union Colony, these city slickers decide to plant their own slice of paradise out West. They slap together the Chicago-Colorado Colony Company faster than you can say “land grab,” with Unitarian minister Robert Collyer as the big cheese and newspaper man Sidney H. Gay as his sidekick.
Now, who do you think they rope into this wild scheme? None other than our old friend William Byers, that ink-stained wretch from the Rocky Mountain News! Byers, slicker than a greased pig, leads a posse of would-be pioneers on a tour of the Front Range. They stumble upon a homesteader named Enoch J. Coffman, who’s growing wheat like it’s going out of style. Faster than you can spit, Byers and his gang decide this is the promised land.
These Chicago boys don’t mess around. They snatch up 23,000 acres from the National Land Company and wrangle another 37,000 from Uncle Sam and any poor sap willing to sell. But here’s the kicker – they’re not just in it for the money. Oh no, siree! They’ve got themselves a motto that’d make a preacher proud: “industry, temperance, and morality”. Ha! That’s just flowery language for “work your tail off, don’t drink, and don’t cause trouble.” It’s the 19th-century version of “shut up and dig.”
The Chicago-Colorado Colony wasn’t some kumbaya sing-along; it was a brazen land grab dressed up in pious garments. You think these “pioneers” were driven by pure hearts and noble intentions? Think again! They were driven by the scent of PROFIT, plain and simple! They weren’t sharing friendship bracelets; they were sharing the burden of digging ditches to make their investments pay off.
Byers, never one to let a good story go to waste, starts hollering about this new Paradise in every newspaper from Chicago to the Rockies. He’s promising “bountiful harvests and instant prosperity,” and wouldn’t you know it, folks are buying it hook, line, and sinker! Come March 1871, 250 greenhorns roll into town and start digging ditches and planting crops, ready to turn this patch of dirt into the Garden of Eden. They name it Longmont, on account of the view of Long’s Peak.Â
But hold onto your hats, ’cause this tale’s got more twists than a rattlesnake in a roller skate! Turns out, not everyone’s keen on that “temperance” part of the deal. A town full of teetotalers in the Wild West? By 1873, there are more saloons in town than you can shake a stick at.
So, there you have it, folks – the birth of Longmont, which will always be El Chirado to yours truly.
Sources
Colorado Encyclopedia. “Chicago-Colorado Colony.” Accessed February 18, 2025. http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/chicago-colorado-colony
Colorado Encyclopedia. “Longmont.” Accessed February 18, 2025. http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/longmont-0
Colorado Encyclopedia. “William N. Byers.” Accessed February 18, 2025. http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-n-byers
Boulder County Open Space. “A Planned Community of ‘Industry, Temperance and Morality.'” Accessed February 18, 2025. https://bouldercountyopenspace.org/i/history/a-planned-community/
Justia. Cowell v. Springs Company, 100 U.S. 55 (1879). Accessed February 18, 2025. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/100/55/
Longmont Museum & Cultural Center. “History of Longmont.” Accessed February 18, 2025. https://longmontcolorado.gov/museum/historic-collections/history-of-longmont
University of Colorado Boulder Libraries, Rare and Distinctive Collections Repository. “Chicago-Colorado Colony Records.” Accessed February 18, 2025. https://archives.colorado.edu/repositories/2/resources/1950
University of Colorado Boulder Libraries, Rare and Distinctive Collections Repository. “William N. Byers Papers.” Accessed February 18, 2025. https://archives.colorado.edu/repositories/2/resources/2017
Wikipedia – Robert Collyer. Accessed February 18, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Collyer
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