Eldora

Legend told of a city of gold — so much gold, its king was covered in it, head to toe. They called him, and the city El Dorado. Centuries after the fever to find El Dorado first took hold, miners struck gold up Middle Boulder Creek in Colorado. A camp called “Happy Valley” boomed. To attract investors, they renamed it Eldorado. And the population grew tenfold into a town with a bank, a newspaper, a post office. But in an age before ZIP codes, the mail kept showing up in Eldorado, California. So in 1897, the USPS offered a quick fix: cut the last two letters and re-rename it "Eldora." A decade later, the last mine closed for good, and Eldora may have become just another ghost town. Except fortunes turned again–thanks to snow and snow-making. Eldora is today the nearest ski resort to Boulder and metro Denver.

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Colorado Postcards are snapshots of our colorful state in sound. They give brief insights into our people and places, our flora and fauna, and our past and present, from every corner of Colorado. See more postcards.