Fremont County Heritage Landmarks

The Fremont County Administration Building was dedicated in 1961 and served as the County Courthouse until a new judicial building was built in 1999. Designed by the Denver architectural firm of Nixon & Jones, the building incorporates natural stone panels on both the interior and exterior walls that was quarried in the nearby Cowan Quarry. The building was designated a Fremont County Landmark in 2014.

The Prospect Heights Jail was built in 1906 and was the only municipal building for the Town of Prospect Heights, previously a Slavic enclave of mine workers near the Nonac Coal Mine. The enterprising residents incorporated in 1905 to take advantage of absence of saloons in the neighboring “dry” communities of Cañon City and South Cañon. The jail was built to incarcerate the disorderly drunks who frequented the seven or eight saloons and other establishments operating twenty-four hours a day.

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Greenwood Pioneer Cemetery is the second known burial ground in Cañon City and has a long and significant history. The persons buried there have shaped not only the local history of Cañon City, but in many instances the history of the state of Colorado.

Bell Tower Cultural Center served as the First Baptist Church of Florence from its construction in 1899 until it was donated by its congregation as an arts center to the Florence Arts Council in 2013. A basement was dug under the sanctuary in 1927 to provide Sunday School space. The bell was donated by a Pagosa Springs church in 1939. (Damon Kurtz photo)

Deputy Warden’s House was built in 1901 by architect C.C. Rittenhouse using prison labor to quarry the stone.  The three story tower that dominates the facade of the house is the most prominent architectural feature of the building.

This frame church was constructed in 1898 by it’s membership. During the Great Depression, the membership could no longer support a preacher so the little church was abandoned by the Free Methodist Conference.

St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in the Town of Brookside is an unadorned, Carpenter Gothic building with a steeply-pitched roof and square bell-tower that served from the late 1870s or 1880s as the Brewster Schoolhouse. In 1920, it was purchased and moved to Brookside by horse teams and rededicated as St. Anthony’s Catholic Church. From 1920 to 1988, it was a vital part of this largely Italian-American community and hosted numerous community events such as St. Anthony’s Day celebrations. Vacant since 1988, it was acquired by the Town in 2013 for future use serving the community.

Photo courtesy of the Royal Gorge Regional Museum & History Center.

The Julius M. Parker Homestead in Coaldale was patented in 1893. (Carol McNew photo)

The Reel California Girls built the 40-foot by 60-foot Vista Lodge out of local stone and cement in 1920 on the Priest Canyon Road going up to the Gorge and operated it for several years. The two women, Cora Augusta Beardsley and Ethelyndal McMullin, were both bit part actresses in silent films; Cora was also a camerawoman (one of the first) and Ethelyndal had been in vaudeville acts and plays. In the pre-Hollywood era, Cañon City was a center of production for silent films. The Reel California Girls arrived in Cañon City August of 1916 by automobile from Alameda, California. Later, they developed a set of plans and a dream to build a summer resort in the Royal Gorge Park near the north rim where they could promote their burlesque acts and provide a place for entertainment near the Gorge. The Vista Lodge was an accommodating, elegant place to visit and an impressive structure for its time, it included a 16-foot by 30-foot dining room with a hardwood floor for dancing. The nice sized windows were on three sides for cool breezes and a cozy fireplace for guests to sit by. Dinner was served from six o’clock until midnight and the featured dinner was “southern fried chicken” which was Ethlyndal’s specialty. Visitors from Colorado Springs and Denver were known to have driven to the Vista Lodge for just that special dinner. The two women would advertise in the local newspaper about having a five-piece orchestra from California play dance music. Furnished cabins were available for rent, there was a campground and picnic baskets filled with fried chicken or rabbit with all the trimmings could be purchased. They had a cistern close to the road for overheated automobiles (the road included a steep grade!) The building was destroyed by fire in 1925 and not rebuilt. What remained was further damaged by the Royal Gorge Fire of 2013.

The Cotopaxi Cemetery was started in 1882 on land donated by Emanuel H. Saltiel, a miner, promoter and entrepreneur, to bury four young residents of the Russian Jewish Agricultural Colony which he had drawn to the area. The Agricultural Colony struggled for a few years before failing, partially because of the lack of promised equipment and supplies as well as poor land. The Colonists were left to work for the Railroad, recently completed in the area, or Saltiel’s copper mine, located just west of the cemetery. Veterans from the Civil War (both Union and Confederate), Spanish American War, WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam were laid to rest here as well as pioneer families who homesteaded the land. The first white child born in the Pleasant Valley of Western Fremont County is here as are family members of Outlaw Gangs, who frequented this remote area in the early days. The cemetery is located on CR-12 just past the Cotopaxi school. The cemetery is open to visitors and many family plots are maintained with perennial irises and shrubs along with natural rocks over the graves. Many of the head stones are natural granite from the local quarries.

Early settler and one of Cañon City’s founding fathers, Anson Rudd built his log cabin on this site in 1860. In 1881, Anson Rudd constructed his stone house with stone quarried from the local prison right beside his cabin. A blacksmith by trade, Anson Rudd served as postmaster, county sheriff, a warden at the Territorial Prison, and as county commissioner. Rudd also helped to establish the boundaries of Fremont County. Both the Anson Rudd House and Cabin are listed on the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties.