Wicked Old Colorado City: Colorado Springs' Wild Westside

Ferocity and Revelry on the Frontier

When Colorado Springs was founded next to the former territorial capital of Colorado City in 1871, the new town hoped that the old town would be absorbed or go away altogether. Yet Colorado City had survived since 1859 by offering what Colorado Springs would not: liquor, gambling, and wild women. Prairie Dog O'Byrne, Dusty McCarty, Laura Bell McDaniel, and a host of others added much color to more than two dozen saloons and a sizeable red-light district, while the enclave of Ramona was founded specifically for drinking and prizefights. Author Jan MacKell Collins recounts the personalities and persuasions that contributed to making Old Colorado City a raucous, albeit important, part of history in the American West.