The Castello family may justly be regarded as the pioneers of Florissant. In fact, the town site was once the Castello Ranch, which occupied a picturesque valley in the northwestern part of El Paso County, thirty-five miles from Colorado Springs, at an elevation of 8,096 feet. The valley is watered by excellent springs, and in the neighborhood are opal beds, fossiliferous shales, and the great sequoia stumps of the Petrified Forest. Here in the month of June, 1870, Judge James Castello came to settle, naming the tract Florissant, after his old home in Missouri. During the month of November following, he brought his wife and two sons from Fairplay. Mrs. Catherine Castello came to Colorado in 1863, crossing the plains in a wagon drawn by oxen, despite the rigors of winter, to join her husband in the wilderness which is now Park County. Mrs. Castello was one of the brave women of those dauntless days. She kept the home for husband and children in the utter solitude (her nearest neighbor eleven miles away), and often remained alone with her boys for days at a time in that Indian haunted region, when her husband was absent for supplies. Now, at the age of three score and ten, she has lived to see that wilderness blossom into scores of homes, where hers once stood alone.

In 1868 an early Indian encounter is remembered, when a band of forty Arapahoe Indians came from the plains to South Park on a raid. On Twin Creek near Florissant, they met Surveyor General Lessig and party, who were returning to Denver via Colorado City. The hostiles took possession of the horses of Lessig's party, but after examination concluded they were too poor to serve their purpose, and returned them. They possessed themselves, however, of General Lessig's fine Navajo blanket, the provisions, and even the horse feed.

Among other early settlers who were "neighbors" were E. J. Smith, five miles distant on the Platte Crossing, Milton Pulver, eleven miles west (who came in 1867). R. Marcott and family, John Westal, and M. Riggs were settled on Four Mile Creek, having come there in the autumn of 1870.

A post office was established at Florissant in 1873. Before that, any traveler who chanced to come from Fairplay, fifty miles away, was impressed as mail carrier.

In the winter of 1874-75 Ouray with a band of six hundred Utes camped at Florissant for several months. One day, Mr. Marksberry, a ranchman living on Tarryall Creek, rode up to the post office, tethered his horse, and went within the building. The pony attracted the attention of an Indian named Antelope, who claimed the animal as his own. slipped off saddle and bridle, and jumping on its back, rode away.

Marksberry and a friend determined to recover the pony, followed the band to their new camp, in Beaver Park, south of Pike's Peak. Marksberry found his pony with the Indian herd, caught it, and was turning away, when Antelope, hidden behind a tree, shot and instantly killed him. Chief Ouray, always ready to "travel the white man's road," gave up Antelope to justice. He was afterward acquitted by Denver authorities.

For a number of years the Castello Ranch was a stopping place for travelers to South Park and many tourists sought the neighborhood because of the mineral wonders in the vicinity. Such gathered round the Castellos' hospitable board, graced with the famous silver and Bohemian glass caster — a well known heirloom. But with the advent of the Midland Railroad. Florissant became a town (though not yet incorporated.) It has a population of two hundred persons, a good school with two teachers and eighty scholars. Florissant has two hotels, two general merchandise stores, two drugstores, two meat markets, two feed stores, one shoe shop, three blacksmith and wagon shops, two livery stables, one restaurant and several boarding houses, one barber shop, two doctors and one lawyer. The Order of Modern Woodmen of America has been established recently with a membership of twenty-five. The Odd Fellows have also organized, with forty members.

The M. E. Church is the only one in town at present, and the school building is used as a place of worship. The Crystal Park "Beacon," a weekly newspaper, has been started.

Situated in a lumber district, Florissant has several sawmills in operation, shipping an average of 20,000 feet of lumber each. Florissant is now the Midland's principal town, between Manitou and Buena Vista.