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GARFIELD COUNTY, COGENWEB PROJECT |
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MAPS |
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Thumbnail |
Description (Click on thumbnails to see a larger image) |
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After the Ute Indians were removed, settlement was rapid. An executive order
August 4, 1882 made the former Ute lands available for homestead. Garfield
County was created February 10, 1883. That provided squatters and homesteaders a
place to record their ownership. Abram Maxfield first arrived August 2, 1882,
just two days 'early.' He staked his claim then returned to his then home Battle
Mountain. A few weeks later he returned bringing his son Clinton, and together they built a log house. They then went back to Battle Mountain. The following July, Maxfield moved his family down arriving September 25, 1883. He homesteaded 160 acres with four 40 acre tracts lined up on top of each other extending one mile north from the river. |
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1885 map from Crofutt's Grip-Sack Guide |
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Circa 1888 - Map of New Castle. Due to the size of this map it is difficult to
get the clarity from this post to truly show the amazing historic value it
contains. This is a copy of the earliest known map of the town, it includes the
Coryell Addition which was not part of the town at the time and commonly
referred to as Coryell Town (the Coryell Addition was platted in 1887). The map
also shows the original flow of Elk Creek. West of Elk Creek you can see lots
and blocks platted where the rail lines that fed the Consolidated Mine were
located (Elk Creek Elementary School located there today). What makes the map
very special are the early business advertisements around the border of the map.
These are the earliest businesses in New Castle as well as some from Glenwood
Springs. I (Steve Rippy) believe this map was put together for the marketing of
the new town. Approximately 25 years ago, while serving as the town's Mayor, I came across a box that had the pieces of this map in the Town's vault. The pieces were only a copy of the original, I was not able to find the original map and was certain the original was long gone. I spent the next several weeks using tape and white-out to put the map back together and had a copy made which is reflected here. |
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Map from an 1895 Atlas (56kb) |
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1899 Railroad Map for Garfield County |
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Modern road map (75kb) |
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Modern Garfield Map |
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Homestead Plats Garfield County Colorado |
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Homestead Plats Garfield County Colorado |
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1909 topo map of the Hogback with coal resources overlaid. See the legend on the
right side. X's are coal prospects. Crossed picks are mines. The green lines are the elevation from sea level of the top of the principle coal bed. |
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1912 map of New Castle, by the Colorado Midland Railroad. Six years later, CMRR
was bankrupt and shut down. They were a casualty of government mismanagement of rail traffic while taken over for WWI. The CMRR was denied freight, it all went on the D&RG. |
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The black data is from 1952, all field checked. Purple is a 1982 revision from 1979 photos, not field checked |
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This map illustrates the distribution of over 11,000 metal mines in the state of Colorado. Yellow dots are mines with gold as a primary commodity, black dots are mines that have produced commodities other than gold. |
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The Midland was an extraordinarily difficult railroad to operate because it had very little level track. In crossing Colorado, the line made three summits – at Hayden Divide, west of Colorado Springs, at Trout Creek Pass, and at Hagerman Pass on the Continental Divide. The Hagerman Tunnel was completed in 1887. In 1891, it was replaced by the Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel which was at a lower altitude. This shortened the line and made the grade easier, but the approaches to these summits were severe: eastbound trains faced an ascent of about twenty miles of three percent grades in the climb from Basalt to the western portal of the tunnel at Ivanhoe West bound I-70 - each mountain peak labeled for reference by Ariel F. Patz
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© Copyrighted 1998 to by Vikki Gray for the benefit of the COGenWeb Project, all rights reserved. Should you feel like helping out in COGenWeb Project please contact the State Coordinator or Assistant State Coordinator by visiting the main website for the
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