The town has a rich history from its days during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush, when it began as a mining camp, holding the county seat.

In 1868 the county seat was moved to Granite from the neighboring town of Dayton near present-day Twin Lakes, no longer in existence.

[10] The vigilante committee had been trying to rid the county of "lawbreakers" using illegal arrests, coerced confessions and forced exile as tools in its campaign.

In a much-publicized scandal Tabor divorced his wife and married young and beautiful Elizabeth "Baby Doe" McCourt, twenty years his junior.

Baby Doe lived in squalid conditions in the tool shed of the mine for thirty years and was found dead in 1936.

[14] Granite declared the election fraudulent and refused to give up its position, so late one night a group of men from Buena Vista took matters into their own hands.

So a group of men led by Ernest Wilbur "borrowed" a locomotive and flat car and went up to Granite late on the night of November 12, 1880.

Sheriff John Mear and his wife investigated the noise and were forced at gunpoint to watch the removal of all the county records by the Buena Vista men.

[17] Granite lies at the center of the Colorado Mineral Belt (CMB), a 50 mile-wide strip that runs north and south for 300 miles.

The primary ores of the CMB were generally deposited as mixed metal sulfide mineral veins containing pyrite, galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, and gold, silver, and copper.

[20][21] In many Colorado mining districts the easily discovered and worked placers were the first big strikes of a typical gold rush.

The earliest mode of transportation used by the growing number of settlers in Granite and the surrounding area was horseback and pack mules or burros.

[24] Traces of the old stage road are still visible, as are the remains of bridges that once crossed the Arkansas River north of Buena Vista near the Colorado Midland Railway tunnels, from east to west at Pine Creek (called "La Plata" in the photo at right), and a final crossing to the east side of the Arkansas just north of Clear Creek, about a mile south of Granite.

Tracks were rapidly being laid in southern Colorado as the Denver & Rio Grande Western and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe fought for control of newly discovered mineral and coal deposits and ranching and farming areas.

With the boom, Leadville had rapidly become the third largest city in Colorado and the newly made millionaires had money and they wanted to spend it.

[28] Over a hundred years later the D&RG would comment (on their website): "The Royal Gorge Route has, quite possibly, one of strangest histories of the entire Rio Grande system.

In part this was done to handle the heavy freight coming out of Leadville, but primarily it was done to provide a standard gauge route west in order to compete effectively with the ever-expanding Colorado Midland.

It ran from Colorado Springs through Granite and Leadville, crossed the divide at Hagerman Pass, and went on to Aspen and Grand Junction.

[34][35] The old Midland grade is still evident in Granite and sections of bridge can be seen about two miles south where the track crossed over to the west side of the river at Clear Creek.

[36][37] On August 20, 1925, there was a head-on collision between two passenger trains on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad near Granite, which resulted in 2 deaths and the injury of 107.

The speed on this and all other sharp curves on this railroad is restricted to 30 miles per hour, and in view of the fact that an elevation of only 4 inches is provided for it is not considered that the prescribed limit can with reasonable safety be exceeded.

Although prospecting took place in this area as early as 1867 when the gravel bar reaching out into the Arkansas was found to be rich in placer gold, the real activity didn't take off until 1879 when the canyon exploded with mines everywhere.

This early report goes on to list the colorfully named mines of that time: The Mint, Prince Albert, Thunderbolt, Sixteen String Jack, Sunrise, Bluebird, Siamese Chief, Minnehaha, Silver Crop, Cinderella, Birdie Boy.

Winfield included three saloons, three stores, a post office, two hotels, a boarding house, mill, smelter, ore concentrator, church, and a school.

Early miners packed in Balm of Gilead (balsam poplar) trees on the backs of burros and planted them to line the street.

[55][56] One of the earliest graves is that of Pat Casey, a gandy dancer (section crew worder) who was murdered in 1888 when his throat was slit by Niccolo Feminello, also a railroad worker.

Known locally as "Old Man Franklin", he lived in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor located on the Arkansas River near Clear Creek, just south of Granite.

The following year Frank Churchill, another never-married miner, was found dead in Clear Creek near his cabin; it was some time before his body was discovered.

[57] Dave Jardine, another old miner, lived in a log cabin situated on Pine Creek, south of Granite, till his death in 1953.

[62] The Cache Creek area remains of interest to modern-day prospectors looking for the placer gold that was left behind when mining operations ended in 1911.