Manitou Springs, Colorado

 city, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places

The city of Manitou Springs, Colorado.

www.manitousprings.org
www.manitouspringsgov.com

An "artsy, charmingly eccentric" town of 5000 people, and a popular tourist destination, located in a valley at the base of Pike's Peak, "America's most famous mountain". Named for its more than two dozen (existing or once-existing) mineral springs, which have played a central role in the town's rich history.

Known in the 19th century as the "Saratoga of the West" (a reference to Saratoga Springs, New York), and more recently as a "Hippie Mayberry".

Local tourist attractions (located in or around the town) include:

- The Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway to the summit of Pikes Peak
- The Garden of the Gods
- The Cave of the Winds
- Several popular hiking trails, including the Barr Trail to the summit of Pikes Peak, and the infamous Manitou Incline
- (currently) eleven publicly-accessible springs discharging naturally-carbonated mineral water, each with a different taste and chemical profile
- A lively downtown shopping district with many art galleries, curio stores, boutiques, and other tourist-oriented businesses
- Numerous historic buildings, including several "castles", and many well-preserved Victorian houses, of which several are now run as bed and breakfasts
- The Cliff House, a AAA four-diamond resort hotel
- The Manitou Springs Arcade, famous for its collection of vintage coin-operated games
- Annual events including the Emma Crawford Coffin Races and the Pikes Peak Marathon

A large section of the town is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a "multiple resource area", comprising 752 "contributing" buldings. Several buildings and sites are also listed on the Register individually.

History:

The naturally-carbonated mineral springs of Manitou were well-known long before the official founding of the town in 1872. They were considered sacred by the Indians, and were frequently visited by them, as they lied along the ancient trail over Ute Pass (the main route between South Park and the Eastern Plains, between which the Utes, among others, regularly migrated).

The earliest Europeans to visit the area were Spanish from New Mexico. In 1779, New Mexico Governor Juan Bautista de Anza led an army of about 600 Spanish soldiers, plus about 200 Ute and Apache allies, over Ute Pass from west to east, in a punitive expedition against the Comanche of the Eastern Plains.

By the early 19th century (or possibly even the late 18th), French fur trappers operating out of St. Louis had penetrated the area. They gave the name "La Riviere de la Fontaine Qui Bouille" (the river of the fountain that boils) to the creek now known as Fountain Creek, which flows through the town. (The "fountain that boils" was the Navajo Spring, which in its natural state emitted large amounts of carbon dioxide gas.)

In 1820 a US government expedition led by Major Stephen Harriman Long visited the springs, having been guided to them by the French fur trapper Joseph Bijeau. The team's surgeon, Dr. Edwin James, wrote about the springs in his expedition report, which first brought them to the attention of American geographers.

Other early American expeditions known to have visited the springs include those of Henry Dodge in 1835, Rufus B. Sage in 1842, and John C. Fremont in 1843. The English adventurer and travel writer George Ruxton helped to bring the springs into popular awareness with his writings after his visit in 1847.

In the spring of 1858, during the Mormon Rebellion, an army led by Colonel (later General) Randolph B. Marcy camped at the springs for a month while waiting for reinforcements, while on their way back to Utah after having withdrawn to re-supply in New Mexico.

Later that year, rumors of rich gold deposits brought several groups of prospectors to the mountains of what would later become Colorado, initiating what would grow to become the "Pikes Peak Gold Rush". One of these, the so-called "Lawrence Party", camped near the Garden of the Gods for several weeks in the summer of 1858. While there they sent at least two expeditions up Ute Pass to search for gold in South Park.

By the fall of 1858 it was apparent to many that Ute Pass would soon become a heavily trafficked route. To capitalize on this, two different town companies were organized with the goal of establishing a town near the base of the pass to serve as a supply hub. The first of these attempted to establish the town of "El Paso" on the site of what is now downtown Colorado Springs in November. The second attempted to establish the town of "El Dorado" on the site of what is now Old Colorado City in December. Both efforts were abandoned the following spring, however, when the expected traffic failed to materialize.

The expected traffic finally materialized in August of 1859, following the discovery of the "Tarryall Digings" in South Park. Another town company was quickly organized, which succeeded in founding the town of Colorado City.

Meanwhile, at some point in 1859 a claim was staked out by Richens Lacey "Uncle Dick" Wootton for a 160 acre tract which included the main cluster of mineral springs in Manitou. In support of the claim he built a cabin, which is believed to be the first building built in Manitou.

In the summer of 1860 a team from the Colorado City Town Company, led by Anthony Bott, built the wagon road over the pass (which incorporated the future Manitou Avenue).

In 1869 a Kansas Pacific Railroad survey team led by Civil War General William Jackson Palmer visited the area. He and the team's photographer, English physician Dr. William Abraham Bell, together made plans to develop the area into a resort. Palmer envisioned a "Newport of the Rockies" (a reference to Newport, Rhode Island), focused on outdoor recreation and the area's natural scenic beauty, while Bell envisioned a health resort centered on the mineral springs, much like Saratoga Springs, New York, where he had previously lived and worked.

The success of their proposed resort depended critically on rail access. This was to be provided by a new railroad that Palmer and Bell founded, the Denver and Rio Grande, which began building a line south from Denver (the western terminus of the Kansas Pacific) in 1871.

Also in 1871, Palmer and Bell founded a company called the "Colorado Springs Company", to develop the new resort area (encompassing both Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs). The CSC built the first hotel in Manitou, a temporary structure called the "Rustic House", located in what is now Soda Springs Park. Palmer himself lived at the Rustic House while work began on his future "Glen Eyrie" estate, located north of the Garden of the Gods.

The CSC hired former Chicago parks superindendent John Blair to design the layout for Manitou Springs (then known as "La Font"), and divide it into lots. The completion of this work in 1872 is usually taken as the official founding date of the town of Manitou Springs.

The name "Manitou", first adopted that year, was proposed by the English financier William Henry Blackmore, a business associate of Palmer and Bell, and inspired by the poem "The Song of Hiawatha" by Longfellow. (Although the town was popularly known as "Manitou Springs" since soon after its founding, the official name was "Manitou" until 1935.)

1872 also saw the construction of several notable buildings in Manitou, including a second, more permanent hotel called the "Manitou House" (located in what is now Seven Minute Spring Park), the first bath house (located on the south bank of Fountain Creek between the Navajo and Shoshone Springs), a house called "Pine Cottage" that would later become the Barker House hotel, and Bell's original cottage at what would become his "Briarhurst Manor" estate.

Palmer and Bell's original, ambitious plans had to be scaled back after the Panic of 1873. Despite the economic downturn, however, Manitou grew quickly. Several more large resort hotels were built between 1873 and 1891, including the Cliff House, the Manitou Mansions, the first and second Iron Springs Hotels, the Mineral Springs Hotel, the Sunnyside, the Ruxton House, and the Grand View. Many of the visitors and new residents were tuberculosis sufferers, attracted to the area for its high altitude and cool, dry mountain air.

The town government was incorporated in 1876.

In 1883 a second, much larger bath house was constructed just across the creek from the old one, at what is now the Cañon parking lot. The old bath house was converted to a bottling plant, which in 1889 was replaced with a much larger plant, built on the same site by Jerome Wheeler's Manitou Mineral Water Company. Another bottling plant, located at the northwest end of town, was built in 1891 by the Pikes Peak Bottling Company, which would later become Jacob Schueler's Ute Chief Mineral Water Company.

The Cave of the Winds (discovered in 1869) opened to tours in 1881. A second cave, the Manitou Grand Caverns, opened to tours in 1885. (It was later discovered to be connected to the Cave of the Winds.)

The D&RG built a spur line to Manitou from Colorado Springs in 1880. It ended at a depot located where the Villa Motel now stands.

Another railroad, the Colorado Midland, built a line through Manitou and up Ute Pass in 1886. It had two depots in Manitou, one located just behind (south of) the Elementary School, and the other in what is now a horse corral at the lower (northeast) end of Iron Springs.

The Cog Railway to the summit of Pikes Peak was completed in 1891.

The Colorado Springs Rapid Transit Company streetcar line (later the Colorado Springs and Interurban) was extended to Manitou in the early 1890s, originally ending near the D&RG depot. Circa 1895 a spur line called the "Dinky Trolley" was built through Manitou, ending at the Cog Railway depot in Iron Springs.

Two funiculars, the Mount Manitou Incline and the Red Mountain Incline, were built in 1907 and 1912 respectively.

In the early 20th century, automobiles began replacing the railroads as the primary means by which tourists travelled to Manitou. A string of auto camps, and later motels, grew up along Manitou Avenue on the eastern side of town. Increasingly, middle-class vacationers began to replace the wealthy health seekers who were the primary visitors in earlier years.

These trends continued after World War 2, as good quality highways were built through the Great Plains and Mountain West, and direct railroad service to Manitou ended. (The D&RGW Manitou spur stopped operating in 1946, followed by the Midland Terminal (the successor to the Colorado Midland) in 1949. The streetcar line had been replaced with busses in 1926.) The Pikes Peak area became particularly popular as a destination for relatively inexpensive car-based vacations for families mainly from the Midwest and South Central states. Health tourism mostly died out, as effective treatments for tuberculosis were developed, and mineral hydrotherapy lost credibility as a mainstream medical practice.

The remaining grand hotels of the 19th century (those which hadn't already burned down) went into decline. The Cliff House and Barker House became apartment buildings, while the Grand View became the headquarters for a fundamentalist Christian organization.

The counterculture arrived in Manitou in the 1960s, and never left.

In 1987 the Mineral Springs Foundation of Manitou Springs was established, with the mission of restoring the city's historic mineral springs. New publicly-accessible fonts were built for several springs that had long been inaccessible.

In 1999 the Cliff House was restored and modernized (after sitting vacant for 16 years due to a fire), and once again emerged as a premier resort hotel.

Major improvements to the city streetscape were made beginning in 2002, including widening sidewalks and burying phone and power lines.

Historic Plaque Walking Tour: www.manitouspringsgov.com/library/documents/general/map...
Wikipedia article about the Manitou Springs Historic District: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manitou_Springs_Historic_District

The Springs:

Currently there are eleven publicly-accessible, developed springs in Manitou Springs:

- The Soda Spring, located in the rotunda (front foyer) of the Spa building
- The Navajo Spring, located on the back wall of Patsy's Candies (near the Arcade)
- The Cheyenne Spring, located in Cheyenne Spring Park (next to Patsy's Candies)
- The Shoshone Spring, located in Shoshone Spring Park (next to the Manitou Lofts and Shops at Fountain Creek)
- The Stratton Spring, located at the Loop (the intersection of Manitou and Ruxton Avenues)
- The Twin Spring, located in front of a shop on the south side of Ruxton Avenue
- The Iron Springs Geyser, located under a pavilion in Iron Springs
- The Wheeler Spring, located in Wheeler Spring Park (near the post office)
- The Ute Chief Spring, located at the former Ute Chief Trading Post (near the Ute Chief bottling plant)
- The Seven Minute Spring, located in Seven Minute Spring Park (near Memorial Park)
- The Navajo Geyser, located in the Manitou Outpost (near the Barker House) (publicly accessible during business hours only)

The Mineral Springs Foundation: manitoumineralsprings.org
Brochure with a map of the springs: www.manitoumineralsprings.org/pdf_files/brochure_web.pd...
A detailed analysis of the individual springs and their histories: www.manitouspringsgov.com/library/documents/general/min...