Colorado City 
“Proud History - Promising Future”
In
the early 1800’s Comanche, Kiowa, Apache and Lipan Indians inhabited the
area. Mitchell County was organized January 10, 1881 and the town of Colorado
was designated as the county seat. The T&P Railroad built their line to Colorado
making it West Texas’ first boom town. The first train arrived in 1881.
In the 1890’s Col. Isaac Ellwood and J.F. Glidden, inventors of barbed wire,
arrived. Ellwood later purchased the Renderbrook Ranch near Colorado and established
the “Spade” brand. The first white settlement, a Ranger camp, was
set up in 1877. The first building was erected in 1880 by A.W. Dunn. The Rev.
O.F. Rogers preached the town’s first sermon in January 1881, in a saloon,
with the bar and its accessories covered with wagon sheets. Statistics cannot
begin to tell the story of Colorado, known as the “Mother City of West Texas”
and now called Colorado City. Chamber of Commerce, PO Box 242, Colorado City TX
79512, 325-728-3403, ccitychamber@sbcglobal.net