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Description

The earliest obtainable birdseye view of Colorado Springs, Colorado City and Manatou.

The view shows the 3 towns, with the Denver & Rio Grand Railroad in the middle and 2 views of local buildings, along with a key identifying placenames on the map.

Colorado Springs was founded on July 31, 1871 by General William Palmer, with the intention of creating a high-quality resort community, and was soon nicknamed "Little London" because of the many English tourists who came. Nearby Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods made the city's location a natural choice. Within two years his flagship resort the Antlers Hotel opened, welcoming individuals seeking the high altitude and dry climatee. Soon after, he founded the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, a critical regional railroad. He maintained his presence in the city's early days by making many grants or sales of land to civic institutions.

Colorado Springs' present downtown location, where General Palmer first founded the city, was partly due to Palmer's dislike of nearby rough-and-ready Colorado City (now called Old Colorado City) and its many saloons. Palmer ensured his new planned city stayed alcohol free by buying a huge tract of land to the east of Colorado City. Legally, Colorado Springs stayed dry until the end of Prohibition in 1933, but practically, alcohol was readily available.

In its earliest days of 1859-1860, Colorado City was a major hub for sending mining supplies to South Park, where a major strike in the Pike's Peak Gold Rush was found. After the Cripple Creek gold discovery in 1891, ore mills in Colorado City processed much of the gold ore at the Golden Cycle Mill using Palmer's railroads. The affluent, who made money from the gold rush and industry, did not stay in Colorado City but built their large houses in the undeveloped downtown area of Colorado Springs (i.e. Wood Ave.). Colorado City remained the county seat of El Paso County until 1873, when the courthouse moved to Colorado Springs

The view is rare, with Reps locating only 3 examples.

Condition Description
Trimmed to neatline lines. Flattened, archivally backed and laid on a larger sheet of paper. Evidence of old folds.
Eli Sheldon Glover Biography

Eli Sheldon Glover (1844-1920) was one of the great viewmakers of the golden age of American bird's eye views. He began his career working for Albert Ruger in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 1866. He was primarily a sales agent for Ruger but probably also helped him in the actual production of city views. Two years later Glover went to Chicago to become a printer and publisher under his own name, but his Merchants Lithographing Company was shortlived; it was destroyed by the 1871 Chicago Fire after only three years of operation. The Great Fire caused Glover to look farther afield, and he began making views in Ontario and Kansas. Slowly he made his way west, producing Colorado views in 1873-'74. In 1874, while based in Salt Lake City he traveled the Rocky Mountains and produced views in Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. In 1876 and '77, the Glovers lived in Los Angeles and Eli produced a total of 16 views of California cities. In the last period of his active career, he focused on views in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. His second to last view was in Alabama, and his final view, in 1912 after a long hiatus, was Port Arthur, Texas.