Before the gold rush, Colorado did have boomtowns. One of the first was ideally situated where the Arkansas River spills onto the Great Plains.
In the autumn of 1842, fur trappers and their families built an adobe fort there. And by the next spring, there was a settlement. As mountain man Jim Beckwourth recounted, “we gave it the name Pueblo."
The word means both “village” and “people,” and has been used to name permanent villages of many native communities across the southwest. Eventually, this Pueblo would attract people from all directions, especially when the steel mills came to town. Pueblo became one of the most diverse cities in the West, with steelworkers speaking more than 40 different languages, with dozens of foreign-language newspapers keeping them informed; including "El Coloradeño" in Spanish, "La Voce Del Popolo" in Italian, "Pueblske Novice" in Slovenian, and for a few years in the 1880s, the English-language and aptly named "Pueblo Welcome."
About Colorado Postcards
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.
