[2] It is estimated that the Pike's Peak Gold Rush drew about 100,000 people to Colorado.

[3] In 1859, a branch of the trail away from the South Platte River was established in the wilderness near the present day city of Fort Morgan during the gold rush to reduce the length of the trip to Denver.

Fort Morgan was established in the mid-1860s as a defensive measure against the threat of attack by Native Americans.

Made a permanent fort with adobe and sod buildings in July 1865,[5] the fort was manned that year by Confederate prisoners of war, nicknamed "galvanized rebels", who had enlisted in the Union Army rather than continue their fate as POWs.

[7][8] The Union Pacific Railway was built in the area and began offering rail service, which made the fort unnecessary by May 18, 1868 when it was abandoned.