|
Breckenridge, Colorado, is located on Colorado Highway 9 high up in the Rocky Mountains. Long before Anglo-Europeans appeared on the scene this was the traditional summer hunting grounds of the Ute Indian Tribe. In 1859 gold was discovered in the Blue River and General George E. Spencer founded the town naming it after Vice President John Cabell Breckinridge. With the outbreak of the Civil War a few years later, the Vice President sided with the South and the town changed the spelling of it's name by replacing the "i" with an "e." Breckenridge was designated county seat of Summit County and mining expanded into silver and other metals in succeeding years. In 1882 the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad pushed tracks through town and built a depot. Mining eventually petered out, and today Breckenridge caters to tourism with some of the very best skiing in the entire world just up the hill.
|
|
