I have been doing this column for about a year now! It does not seem so, unless you look at the ground I have covered. There are several items that spark my interest. One of those is the kind of thing that's forgotten as we get “modern.” Here is a puzzler that fits right in with that. Where does Colorado City end?
Well, going east, it used to end at about 21st street. Then by 1917, when Colorado Springs took us over, it was Limit, down near 8th street. To the west it has traditionally ended at 30th Street. West of where Safeway is now was a town called Arensdale. Some of the quarry workers lived there, but the area catered to the tourists in the summer. If you look north of the Safeway, you will see a building that sure looks like a school. Well, it was Arensdale School. When the town gave up, the kids started going to Colorado Springs' schools (Colorado City had already been annexed by then.)
Ever heard of Adams Crossing? I know many of you have, but do you know where the name came from? For those who do not know, on West Colorado Avenue, just before you get to Manitou Springs, the street has a bit of a kink in it. If you look, there are two parallel cracks in the pavement that run long-ways through the street, and there is a bridge where Fountain Creek passes under the road. Well, up until about 30 years ago there were railroad tracks in the street. They were all that was left of the Denver & Rio Grande's railway line to Manitou. This area, between Arensdale and Manitou, is Adams Crossing.
General Charles Adams had a fine home just off to the north, below Garden of the Gods. Wounded at Gettysburg in the Civil War, he was sent to Colorado as an agent for the White River Ute tribe in northwest Colorado. He retired and settled near where Monument is today. He later moved closer to town, in the spot between Manitou and Colorado City. He was called on several times to help negotiations between the Utes and Washington. The Utes, including Chief Ouray, had strong respect for Adams, calling on him to recover hostages taken in the massacre at Meeker, Colorado. He died in a fire in a Denver hotel in 1895. On occasion, in the years after Ouray also died, his widow, Chipeta, visited Adams' widow in the Adams home near Manitou.