Tourists, teetotalers and railroad boosterism defined Colorado Springs’ identity in the 1870s

By: Chase Woodruff

Outlets: Colorado Newsline

Published: July 17, 2026

Words: 746

Last Updated: 2 days, 13 hours ago

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Like many of the tens of thousands of new arrivals who swelled the Colorado Territory’s population in the early 1870s, Henry Austin, an El Paso County sheep rancher formerly of Chicago, had come west on the advice of doctors — “for the purpose of being cured of that terrible disease, the asthma,” a correspondent of the Rocky Mountain News reported.

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