Granite, CO

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Granite
Malta
Leadville
Dillon
Tennessee Pass
Redcliff
Belden
Minturn
Eagle
Glenwood Springs
Aspen
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Town View c1940

Town View 2001

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Granite, CO
Elevation 8,943 feet.
Population 79 (c1920)
Denver 257 miles.

By 1860 Granite was beginning life as an early mining camp. The miners camped by the river and later built cabins. Many early dwellers soon moved on to better diggings in California Gulch near Oro City (Leadville) but eventually gold was discovered along Cache Creek nearby and the town was quickly laid out after that in 1867.

Several stamp mills were constructed in the area to extract gold but placer mining was the biggest producer and went on from 1860 to 1889. After 1889 hydraulic placers came in scooping up the river beds until 1911.

In 1868 Granite became the Lake County Seat. The previous county courthouse located at Dayton was moved by dragging it on wooden skids into Granite.

Granite had difficulties holding the seat when Leadville began to grow. However, Lake County was divided into two halves and one half became Chaffee County of which Granite was the seat.

The D&RG built the railroad through Granite on its way to Leadville in 1880.

Also in 1880, Buena Vista won the county seat away from Granite by popular vote. However, Granite was none too keen about it and refused to turn over the records. Eventually the folks at Buena Vista hijacked a D&RG locomotive and drove it to Granite one night where they stole the records and tool them back to Buena Vista.

granite yard 1919.gif (12049 bytes)
Granite rail yard 1919