Buckskin Joe, Park County, Colorado

This article is about the ghost town. For the Western-style theme park, see Buckskin Joe. For the unincorporated community in Fremont County, Colorado, see Buckskin Joe, Fremont County, Colorado.

Buckskin Joe, Colorado
Laurette, Buckskin
ghost town
The Park County courthouse, originally built in Buckskin Joe, was later moved to Fairplay, and is now in the South Park City Museum in Fairplay.
Buckskin Joe
Location of Buckskin Joe, Colorado.
Buckskin Joe
Buckskin Joe (Colorado)
Coordinates: 39°17′35″N 106°05′17″W / 39.2931°N 106.0881°W / 39.2931; -106.0881 (Buckskin Joe, Colorado)
CountryUnited States
StateColorado
CountyPark County[1]
Elevation
10,761 ft (3,280 m)

Buckskin Joe is an extinct gold mining town located in Park County, Colorado, United States. The town was founded in 1860 as Laurette, Kansas Territory. The Territory of Colorado was created in 1861, and Laurette served as the county seat of the Park County, Colorado Territory, from January 7, 1862, until November 7, 1867. On December 21, 1865, the Laurette, Colorado Territory, post office was renamed Buckskin,[2] although the town was popularly known as Buckskin Joe.

History

The area was first inhabited by white Americans in 1859 during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, when gold was discovered along Buckskin Creek, on the east side of the Mosquito Range. At the time of its first settlement, the town was in the western part of Kansas Territory.

The town was founded in 1860 as Laurette, Kansas Territory, its name a contraction of the first names of the only two women in the camp, the sisters Laura and Jeanette Dodge.[3][4] But it was always more popularly known as Buckskin Joe, after Joseph Higginbottom, an early trapper and prospector. Little is known for certain about Higginbottom. Some accounts refer to him as an African-American; some accounts say that he was the one who first discovered gold in the vicinity of the town.

The Territory of Colorado was organized on February 28, 1861, and on November 1, 1861, Park County, Colorado Territory was created with Tarryall as the county seat. The Laurette, Colorado Territory, post office opened on November 14, 1861,[2] and on January 7, 1862, Park County voters moved the county seat from Tarryall to Laurette. The post office name was changed to Buckskin on December 21, 1865, although the town was popularly known as Buckskin Joe. On November 7, 1867, voters moved the county seat to Fair Play. The Buckskin post office finally closed on January 24, 1873.[2]

Mining shifted to rich hardrock deposits in the Phillips lode and other veins. By 1861, when the Laurette/Buckskin Joe Post Office opened, in the newly formed Colorado Territory, the town boasted two hotels, fourteen stores, and a bank. On January 7, 1862, the county seat of Park County moved to Buckskin Joe from Tarryall, now also a ghost town.[5] At its peak, the town was credited with a population of 5,000, but historian Robert L. Brown considers this number far too large.[6]

The placer and vein gold deposits were rich, but were quickly exhausted. By 1866, the town was reported to be deserted, and the courthouse building was moved down the valley to the new county seat of Fairplay. In the late 1950s, Horace Tabor's general store was dismantled, hauled away, and reassembled at the tourist attraction and movie set also called Buckskin Joe, 70 miles (110 km) away from the original site. It remained there until 2011 when it, along with the entire tourist attraction and movie set, was sold to a private collector and moved to a private ranch in western Colorado.[7]

Geography

Buckskin Joe is located about 2 miles (3 km) west of Alma, Colorado at coordinates 39°17′35″N 106°05′17″W / 39.2931°N 106.0881°W / 39.2931; -106.0881 (Buckskin Joe, Colorado) at an elevation of 10,761 feet (3,280 m).[8]

Notable residents

See also

References

  1. ^ "Colorado Counties". Colorado Department of Local Affairs. Retrieved February 3, 2025.
  2. ^ a b c Bauer, William H.; Ozment, James L.; Willard, John H. (1990). Colorado Post Offices 1859–1989. Golden, Colorado: Colorado Railroad Historical Foundation. ISBN 0-918654-42-4.
  3. ^ "From the silver mines," Daily Rocky Mountain News, 18 Sept. 1860, p. 2.
  4. ^ Muiriel Sibell Wolle, "From 'Sailors' Diggings' to 'Miners' Delight," Western Folklore, 1954, v.18, p.44.
  5. ^ Park County Local History Archives: Hiking through history Archived July 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved November 29, 2008.
  6. ^ Robert L. Brown (1968). Ghost Towns of the Colorado Rockies. Caxton Press. p. 69. Retrieved November 30, 2008. ghost towns of the colorado rockies.
  7. ^ Wineke, Andrew (August 29, 2011). "Mystery buyer for Buckskin Joe revealed to be billionaire Koch brother". The Gazette. Colorado Springs, Colorado. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  8. ^ "Geographic Names Information System". United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
  9. ^ "Biography of Famous Preacher Father Dyer Part 1". trivia-library.com. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  10. ^ Laura King Van Dusen, "Colonel Frank Mayer: Buffalo Hunter, Civil War Drummer Boy, Author, Met Dancehall Entertainer Silverheels When U.S. Marshal of Buckskin", Historic Tales from Park County: Parked in the Past (Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press, 2013), ISBN 978-1-62619-161-7, pp. 53-58.
  11. ^ Robert L. Brown (1968). Ghost Towns of the Colorado Rockies. Caxton Press. pp. 71–73. Retrieved November 29, 2008. ghost towns of the colorado rockies.
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