Georgetown (Colorado)

Clear Creek County

08-29735

Georgetown is a small community in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is located about 70 kilometers west of Denver in the Front Range on Clear Creek.

History

Georgetown was founded in 1859 during the Colorado Gold Rush by George and David Griffith, two prospectors from Kentucky and named in memory of the older of the two brothers after this. However, the settlement grew until 14 September 1864 when James Huff 15 km above the valley - in the region of Argentine Pass - came across silver. In the following years, gold and silver ore were mined in countless mines near Georgetown and the settlement quickly became a center of prospectors and Erzschürfern. Located in the valley floor, Georgetown was not itself a mining camp, but nevertheless the business and entertainment center for the mining workers.

1868, the settlement of the new municipality Georgetown was pooled and these snatched in the same year the adjacent ( and now larger ) Idaho Springs the administrative seat of Clear Creek County. The building of the narrow gauge railway Colorado Central Railroad from Denver about Golden and Georgetown to Silver Plume in the 1870s assured the community at the time a key position in the region. The majority of the route was later dismantled, the remaining section of Georgetown to Silver Plume is now used for tourist purposes.

In the 1880s, Georgetown was already reached with the greatest growth and prosperity at the height of its short history, and vied with Leadville for the status of " mining capital " of Colorado. Before the silver boom in 1893 finally collapsed, it brought the community to around 10,000 residents and a local movement was considering even briefly attempt to Colorado's capital Denver " disempower " to.

After the end of the silver boom, the population went back steadily. In the 1950s began the first efforts in the countless winter athletes who pass the church on their way to the ski resorts at Loveland and Guanella Pass to entice with an après ski in the place. In the tourism business set henceforth displaced the once dilapidated facades from the 19th century and secured her a still to this day important economic factor.

The historic center of George Town was in 1978 as a backdrop for a scene in the movie The Man from San Fernando with Clint Eastwood. It is the birthplace of actor Arthur Hoyt.