Hughes played an important role in connecting the American West to the rest of the country with stagecoach lines, as well as in the early legal development of Colorado.

This small town in Eastern Kentucky had been founded just one year before his birth, when John Kincart donated land to facilitate the relocation of the county seat from Ellisville, 5 miles (8.0 km) to the north.

[13] Hughes' party, the Democrats, had just lost the 1848 United States presidential election to Whig nominee Zachary Taylor.

In 1855, he was involved in a land development and banking firm in the Kansas Territory with Alexander William Doniphan, who was also a law graduate from Augusta College.

Congressional proponents of the act had assumed that Kansas would permit slavery while Nebraska would prohibit it and therefore preserve the balance between slave and free states.

Immediately, immigrants supporting both sides of the slavery question arrived in the Kansas Territory to establish residency and gain the right to vote.

[26][27] On April 26, 1861, Bela Hughes was chosen as president and general counsel of the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company.

[4] In the years prior, the company had successfully operated the Pony Express as the fastest way to transmit information from east to west before the advent of the first transcontinental telegraph in October 1861.

However once the Pony Express stopped receiving government subsidies upon completion of the transcontinental telegraph, the business ran out of cash.

At that point Overland Mail put the contract up for bid and it was won by Bela Hughes' cousin Ben Holladay, who in prior years had loaned substantial amount to the company.

[28] On March 21, 1862, Holladay purchased the holdings of the C. O. C. & P. P. Express at public sale for $100,000 (equivalent to $3,052,000 in 2023) and incorporated it into his firm the Overland Stage Company.

[29] Hughes surveyed the Berthould and Boulder Pass for possible routes and in the following years he also made frequent trips to Denver, which was at the time an important town along the stagecoach line.

In a major setback for Colorado, Union Pacific Chief Engineer Grenville M. Dodge recommended to build the Transcontinental Railroad further north through Wyoming.

Denver's leading citizens, among them Governor John Evans, David Moffat, Walter Cheesman and Bela Hughes raised $300,000 (equivalent to $6,540,000 in 2023) capital in one week.

[33] On November 29, 1867, the Denver Pacific Railway and Telegraph Company was incorporated under the general laws of the Territory of Colorado.

By this time, Denver had established its supremacy over its rival as the population center and capital city of the newly admitted State of Colorado.

In 1872, former Governor John Evans decided to attempt to profit off freight traffic to Colorado's booming mining industry.

The Denver, South Park & Pacific Railway (DSP&P) was incorporated in September 1872 by Evans, David Moffat, Walter Cheesman, Leonard Eichholtz, Charles Kountze and Bela Hughes.

[4] The first sections of the track were laid in 1874 but due to bad management and worsening economic conditions the line reached its original target, the mining areas near Fairplay, Colorado, not before 1879.

[38] Bela Hughes was an important attorney in the early days of Colorado, when he was mostly involved in criminal and corporate law.

Hughes addressed the convention in a short note, that was published in the Rocky Mountain News on the same day:[44] It is my opinion that you would promote the interests of the people of Colorado by the advocacy of the State into the Union.

[45] In 1873, Bela Hughes was considered by the Rocky Mountain News as a worthy candidate for the office of Mayor of Denver.

On July 24, 1874, Hughes was a candidate for non-voting Delegate to the United States House of Representatives on seventh and eighth ballot at the Democratic Territorial Convention in Colorado Springs.

[47] Hughes send a note to the Rocky Mountain News stating that the "use of his name before the Democratic convention, at Colorado Springs, was wholly unauthorized by him, and against his expressed wishes.

While explicitly not endorsing his candidacy, he News noted that Hughes had been a War Democrat, "in favor of all measures to preserve and restore the union.

"[26] In the 3 September election, Hughes won the most votes in the district with 1,905, while Republican former Mayor of Denver Baxter B. Stiles was second with 1,882.

[56] On August 29, 1876, the Democratic convention met in Manitou Springs in order to nominate candidates for the first state elections on October 3, 1876.

The editorial also criticized Hughes' language, as he used phrases like "damned lie" and "the government is going to hell", despite the fact that there were around twenty women in the audience.

The Denver Mirror then used the image of Routt crawling through the fences to paint him in multiple cartoons as a carpetbagger, who had not been elected but appointed to the territorial governorship by President Grant after serving in different political roles in Illinois and Washington, DC.

[70] In October 1903, a bust of Bela Hughes was placed in the library of the Colorado Supreme Court commemorating his legacy.