Pueblo County CO Archives History .....Pueblo In 1871 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 17, 2009, 10:12 pm

PUEBLO.

   This valley county lies on each side of the Arkansas river, and is bounded,
north, by El Paso; east, by Bent and a corner of Greenwood; south, by Huerfano;
and west, by Fremont. It is one of the finest agricultural counties in
Colorado—containing over 1,200 square miles of exceedingly fertile land, and
including, within its borders, several of the richest valleys yet brought under
the hand of the husbandman, west of the Mississippi. The numerous tributaries of
the Arkansas—principal of which are the Fontaine qui Bouille, St. Charles, Chico
and Greenhorn—cut up this county into a series of valleys, with intervening mesa
or table-lands, most of which can be easily irrigated. These undulated uplands
form excellent natural pastures, all the year round, for stock, while the
valleys are readily cultivated, and yield immense crops of vegetables and grain.
Eastern and Northern travelers here first meet with those large ranches, so
common further south, on which native Mexicans are employed to perform all the
the labor. Some of these farms contain several thousand acres, and, in several
instances, fifteen hundred acres are in cultivation on a single ranch. The
Mexican laborers occupy these lands as tenants, and, in case of the larger
farms, are so numerous as to constitute, each, a hamlet of several hundred souls.

   The county contains a population of over three thousand, and is rapidly
increasing. Agriculture and stock raising are the chief pursuits, and both yield
large returns to the industrious husbandman. Stock raising has recently been
attracting more attention than farming, and may now be fairly stated as the
leading pursuit of this county. The vast mesas lying between the streams furnish
pasturage for more cattle and sheep than it will be possible to produce for many
years to come.

   There are two military posts in Pueblo county—Fort Reynolds, at the junction
of the Huerfano and Arkansas, and Fort Lyon, near the mouth of the Purgatoire or
Las Animas.

   Water-power abounds along the various streams, and will, some day, form an
important element in the industries of the Arkansas valley.

   The chief town of any importance in the county is Pueblo, which is the county
seat, and is beautifully situated on the Arkansas, just above the mouth of the
Fontaine qui Bouille. Pueblo has long been known as a distributing centre for
the Mexican trade, and a rendezvous for the various stage lines traversing
Southern Colorado. It is a thriving town of nearly 1,000 inhabitants, and, next
to Denver, is growing more rapidly than any other town in the Territory. Already
it possesses good schools, several fine churches, and numerous elegant private
residences. The Colorado Chieftain, a weekly newspaper, is published here, and
merits the praise of having made itself decidedly the best local paper in Colorado.

   The following exhibit is an approximate statement of the business of Pueblo
for 1870:

Value of merchandise sold                                               $500,000
Bushels of grain sold                                                    260,000
Sacks of flour sold                                                       13,000
Feet of lumber sold                                                    1,500,000
Value of goods manufactured—tinware, harness and saddlery, boots and
shoes, furniture, and agricultural implements                            $70,000
Number of pounds of freight received                                   2,200,000
Amount paid for freight                                                  $92,000
Cash receipts of hotels                                                   55,000
Cash receipts of stage, offices for passenger and express fare            50,000

   When this county shall possess an outlet by rail—which it will shortly have,
either by direct connection with the Kansas Pacific at Bent's Fort or Kit
Carson, or by means of the Denver and Santa Fe line, which is now being graded
and is expected to reach Colorado City during the coming season—its trade and
prosperity will increase a hundred fold.



Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

THE
Rocky Mountain Directory
AND
Colorado Gazetteer,
FOR 1871,
Comprising a brief history of Colorado, and a condensed but comprehensive
account of her Mining, Agricultural, Commercial and Manufacturing Interests,
Climatology, Inhabitants, Advantages and Industries, together with a complete
and accurate

DIRECTORY OF DENVER, GOLDEN CITY, BLACK HAWK, CENTRAL CITY, NEVADA, IDAHO,
GEORGETOWN, BOULDER, GREELEY, COLORADO CITY, PUEBLO, TRINIDAD, ETC.
First Year of Publication.

S. S. WALLIHAN & COMPANY,
COMPILERS AND PUBLISHERS
DENVER.


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