Centennial State Lighting up the Fourth of July

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!”

__ Katharine Lee Bates

D. & R.G. Scenic Railroad Band in Monument

4th of July celebration, 1889 to 1900, Ouray

Crowds gather around the bunting-draped flagpole and grandstand on Main Street and Fifth (5th) Avenue, Ouray, Colorado; the Magnolia Band is in the center with parade floats on Main (Third, 3rd.) United States flags, streamers, and evergreens decorate the street for the Independence Day celebration. Shows a painted sign on the Hiebler building that reads: "Cabinet Club House" another advertises chewing tobacco., Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library.


Group near Palmer Lake, July 4, 1893

Six children, three girls and three boys, pose in the brush on a hillside on Independence Day (July 4th), Palmer Lake, El Paso County, Colorado. The girls wear long, ruffled dresses and hats; the boys wear suits, bow ties, and hats.  Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library.


Fourth of July festival, Victor, 1899
 

Bird's eye view of Fourth Street during 4th of July celebration, 1899, Victor, Colorado. Parade consists of horse-drawn wagons & floats marching underneath welcoming arch lettered with Florence & Cripple Creek and Golden Circle names; erected for 1899 festivities boasting 12 million dollars of production by mines in/around Victor. People crowd the boardwalks, businesses have awnings, a United States flag, and sign: "Mitchell's."  Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library.

Cripple Creek, July 4 - 1893 

J. G. Wilson, photographer. Crowded street scene with people and horse-drawn wagons and carriages for Fourth (4th) of July celebration on Bennett Avenue, Cripple Creek, Colorado; spectators stand on second story porch of Palace Hotel; striped bunting and United States flags are on commercial buildings; men and women use umbrellas for shade.  Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library.

Early Telluride, 1890 and 1895

Telluride Silver Cornet (?) Band parades west on Main Street (Colorado Avenue), Telluride, Colorado. Townspeople line street to watch Fourth of July parade. Businesses include: A. J. Vart, Merchant, two-story Sheridan commercial block, and buildings past First National Bank building. A dog walks with uniformed band with tubas, trombones, drum, horns and banner. Group of uniformed masons march behind band. A tall flagpole with inverted funnel shape platform shows in the middle of the street in background. Ajax, Ingram, and Telluride Peaks are in distance.  Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library.

Dolores, Fourth of July, 1893

 Please click on following to read about early days of Dolores

Monument Storm, Jan. 4, 1916

 Workers dressed in winter clothes pose on a Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company truck in Monument (El Paso County), Colorado. Wires, equipment, and a lamp hang from the truck with a sign reading: "American Telephone and Telegraph Co. and Associated Companies, Long Distance Telephone, Bell System." A worker hangs from a telephone pole in the distance. Colorado Historical Society, Mountain States Telephone collection

View of broken utility poles in Monument (El Paso County), Colorado. A row of poles lay in an open field. 

Colorado Historical Society, Mountain States Telephone collection

 View of broken utility poles in a field in Monument (El Paso County), Colorado. Telephone wires are draped on the ground. Shows a barbed wire fence and open field. Colorado Historical Society, Mountain States Telephone collection

View of a Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Company railroad car tipped over on the embankment in Monument (El Paso County), Colorado. The Monument train depot is in the distance.

Colorado Historical Society, Mountain States Telephone collection