First People, Explorers & Settlers

The Ute Indians inhabited this region long before European explorers arrived on this continent, and other tribes including the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Comanche moved through the area following buffalo herds. The Utes left traces of their culture in the landscape, and some of their stories became local legends. Spanish explorer Coronado claimed the area for Spain in 1540, and in 1806 American explorer Zebulon Pike led an expedition up the Arkansas River, camping at the entrance to the Grand Canyon of the Arkansas. The U.S. Government sent Major Stephen Long to study its new border with Spain in 1820, and John C. Fremont guided four expeditions through the region in the 1840s. Early fur traders established Fort Le Duc in 1838 and Hardscrabble in the 1840s in the eastern part of the county. After gold was discovered in Colorado in 1859, people flocked to the region seeking riches, the Cañon City Claim Club formed in 1860, and the town was plotted. The town's beginning was short-lived with the onset of the Civil War, as most residents left to serve and only a few people, including Anson Rudd Sr. and his family, remained. Following the war, Cañon City experienced renewed population growth and economic recovery, with both Confederate and Union veterans settling there, and the 1862 Homestead Act helped rebuild the town. On April 2, 1872, county commissioners met above Murray's Saloon at 305 Main Street to accept a request from local citizens to incorporate Cañon City. The spelling of Cañon City has long been debated, and the tilde over the first n is a Spanish diacritical mark that gives the name its pronunciation of canyon; the town likely took its name from early pioneers who settled at the entrance to the Grand Canyon of the Arkansas and recognized the region's Spanish past.

Cañon City, Colorado · United States