Milestones Icon: Chicago-Colorado Colony

William Byers, owner of the Daily Rocky Mountain News, traveled to Illinois in 1870 on a recruiting mission. Byers wanted to repopulate the Colorado Territory after it suffered through the gold and silver bust in the late 1860s.

He pitched the territory’s other virtues: agriculture, new business opportunities, breathtaking scenery and an ideal climate to a group of prominent men in Chicago. Byers’ sales pitch worked; the Chicago-Colorado Colony was quickly founded, funded and a plan for a town was drawn up.

The only thing the Colony was missing was land on which to build its town. The Colony originally was invited…