Early Agriculture & Ranching

Eastern Fremont County’s rich, fertile soil supported early farming and ranching, beginning with Jesse "Uncle Jesse" Frazer, who came to Colorado during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, found no gold, and instead settled in 1859 on a ranch in what is now northwest Florence. Credited with making the first furrow of plowed ground in Fremont County, he used a plow made from a cottonwood branch and pulled by the oxen that brought his family to the area, and his earliest crops were vegetables and Mexican corn. As five or six other ranchers settled nearby, the area became known as Frazerville, later Florence. In 1867 Frazer went to St. Louis and bought 2000 seedling apple trees, planting what is considered the first apple orchard in Colorado, and through careful grafting he also produced the Colorado Orange apple. These developments helped launch a large farming industry in eastern Fremont County, with produce shipped by railroad throughout the United States. Florence, Canon City, and Penrose became prominent crop-producing communities, growing apples, cherries, celery, cabbage, sugar beets, wheat, hay, berries, lettuce, potatoes, broccoli, corn, and other crops. From 1929 into the early 1940s, poultry thrived across the area, while ranching included cattle, horses, goats, and mules. Today, cattle, horses, and goats remain on a limited basis compared with the early days, and the major crops are hay, clover, and alfalfa for cattle and horse feed, along with smaller apple orchards.

Florence, Colorado · United States