From sweet overnighter last week, trying to find the old town site of Rosita. Some dirt road riding, some turning around, and then ahhhh, here is where it used to be!

A little background... Rosita, Colorado was once the Custer County seat, boasting a population of over a thousand in the 1870's, along with hundreds of structures. The discovery of silver nearby brought the people. Soon, larger lodes of silver bearing ores were discovered elsewhere in the vicinity, like in nearby Silver Cliff in the 1880's. Goodbye Rosita as many of the transient residents moved north 7 - 8 miles. I guess back then, commuting that kind of distance was a BIG deal. The county seat was relocated to Silver Cliff and by the 1890's Rosita was in a state of decline...





Ehhh, a bit of a change...




Here's the Google map location of the above... https://maps.google.com/maps?q=rosit...gl=us&t=m&z=11

By the way, one takes the Frontier Pathways Scenic and Historic Byway to get to Rosita. When coming from the east on Colorado 96 (see map link above), the rooftop peaks of the Sange de Christos Range fill the view above your handlebars. It is dramatic. In the morning, with the sun at your back, the view is postcard. But here it is with the late afternoon sun in front of me! :laugh



And if you have 4:28 to waste, a vid ride west on Colorado 96, over Hardscrabble Pass, to the pic above...

 

I see your a history buff! I've always had a yearning for American history & thats one reason why I love riding out west. Many years ago I got hooked on looking for Indian artifacts with friends that introduced me to the hobby. We would spend many a rainy day in the spring time here in Wisc. walking muddy fields waiting to see what would be laying right at our feet. Because of this hobby I started to research more on American Indians & now have a real reverence for the way they lived before European's arrived.By the way-great pictures.I hope to get plenty on my trip out west in August.COOOOL VIDIO!!!!

 

That's pretty cool. Amazing how many more trees there are today.

 

tourman, You have that right. The book is loaded with history. The Eastern Plains chapters cover rides to significant Indian battlefield sites. Great that you have this interest! Recently finished a book on Lewis & Clark, and now I want to go to St. Louis and follow their route along the Missouri and beyond to Oregon.

Here's a sampling of nearby Indian history. The Cheyenne Dog Soldiers (renegade Cheyenne warriors) were wreaking havoc at Kansas homesteads and had just killed two homesteading families, bringing the white women with them. At Summit Springs July 8, 1869, south of Sterling the 5th Cavalry caught up with them.

Here's an interpretive map provided by Lt. North of the 5th...


Here's the ride to the secluded battlefield site. Can tell this is a lonely and removed place. Enjoy this on your H-D! Actually, this two track can also be walked from where it begins in the distance...


Can see the cleft or "canyon" on the hillside, along with markers in the foreground. One marks the location of Tall Bull's tee-pee where he planted a tomahawk in the forehead of one of the women kidnapped from Kansas at the beginning of the surprise attack by the 5th Cavalry. Buffalo Bill is the one who had a hunch where they would be encamped in this shallow valley. The cleft in the hillside is where Tall Bull received a bullet to the forehead when he poked his head up. A dozen or so Cheyenne warriors jumped into this cleft with him, but their ammo ran out. None emerged alive...

 

sfarson - those are great now and then shots. and, as a csny and csn fan, really enjoyed the vid. didn't realize you had the camcorder helmet-mounted right away so those first glances/quick pans to the left were exciting : )

question: what was the source for the images of rosita? or do you know the dates those shots were taken? thanks, that was a fun adventure into the past.

 

iam... I found the Rosita images at the Denver Public Library's Western History Collection. A good way to find old images of any location is to simply enter the request in Google, like "Old Mammoth Lake Historical Images". According to the DPL, the Rosita images are from the 1880's with the second image above after a fire swept through town. Does look like there are some gaps between the structures.