Podcasting

media type="file" key="Georgetown podcast.mp3" width="424" height="59" Georgetown Colorado has a rich and wonderful history. It went from being a booming mine town to almost disappering into one of the many ghost towns of Colorado. This is a brief synopsis of its history. This podcast can be used to teach the history of Georgetown, for those who live there, or can be used as a teaching tool to teach about mining and the gold rush of the Rocky Mountains.

As a resident of Georgetown Colorado I already knew a bunch about its history. For additonal help I used Kenneth Jensens book __Georgetown: a Quick History__. The picture is of an old postcard of Georgetown Colorado found on the ePodnuck site.

A Brief History of Georgetown Colorado: Podcast

Georgetown Colorado is a beautiful mountain town located on the 1-70 corridor in an area deemed the gateway to the Rockies. The talk of gold in the Rocky Mountains brought people to Colorado to find their fortunes. Some did, but many did not. Georgetown’s founding fathers were two brothers who were on such a search. There names were David and George Griffith. They came to Central City to find gold for themselves. Deciding that central city was already maxed out, they pushed on until they reached Georgetown Valley. Panning the two creeks, they discovered gold, and then also started a mine. A town slowly grew around the gentlemen’s cabin. First the resident’s called it George’s town. Later it came to it’s current name Georgetown. Gold mining was not very profitable in Georgetown. The easy gold was mined quickly, and what was left was to hard to get too, or to costly to make a profit to obtain. The ore was too contaminated with silver, which at the time was not deemed valuable enough to mine. The Griffiths and many other inhabitants packed up and left Georgetown to find their fortune elsewhere. In 1864 the Civil War began and the value of silver increased. The small ghost town once again saw a boom! At this point Georgetown was split into two towns. The downtown area was called Georgetown, while the area where Georgetown Lake now exists was called Elizabethtown, after Elizabeth Griffith, George’s wife. The two town eventually merged into one. Georgetown was booming with a population of five thousand people. The town soon became known as the Silver Queen of the Rockies. It quickly became the county seat of clear Creek County, and at one point was even considered for the honor of becoming the capital of Colorado, of course Denver won, but what an honor. Georgetown was a thriving town with low crime, which in itself, is very odd for any mining town. However, it did have a few murders and hangings. One of the most famous incident involved a can of oysters, which was very hard to get all the way up in the mountains of Colorado. Needless to say, one man died, the other man was hung all over a card game where the winner won the can of oysters. I sure hope they tasted good! Georgetown is one of the few mining towns that still has the majority of it’s original buildings. This is because the town saw the need for multiple fire departments. There were at least 4 fire departments scattered throughout the mile long town. Each fire department was manned by local volunteers. A bell would alert the firefighters of any fire. They then would put the fire out before it spread through town. Most mining towns had to rebuild the whole town at least once, due to fires. Georgetown only had to rebuild individual buildings. In 1893 the value of silver depleted. It was no longer profitable to mine for silver. Georgetown’s population rapidly declined to only a few hundred people. The town was in danger of becoming a ghost town. It was not until after WWI that Georgetown’s demise would be reversed. Tourism and recreation in the surrounding mountains brought people back to Georgetown. In 1966 the Georgetown-Silver Plume area was deemed as a National Historic Landmark District, and in 1970 Historic Georgetown was established focusing on the preservation of the district and the restoration of residential buildings within Georgetown. It is because of Historic Georgetown that so many of Georgetown’s old Victorian houses live to their former glory. To this day Georgetown depends on tourism and recreation to stay alive. Many people come to tour or stay in the old Victorian houses and building. They come to tour our famous silver mines. They come from all over to ride the famous Georgetown Loop Railroad steam engine train, with the tallest narrow gauge tressel in the United States. Although the train now only follows a small section of the tracks that it was followed hauling ore from mines to town. They come to play in our mountains, hiking, hunting, camping and skiing. The history of mining, and the beautiful architecture that was brought with it will continue to be a draw for people to come to this quiet mountain town. In a very large way the history of Georgetown will bring it to it’s future.