The town sprang up almost overnight as a typical Wild West town, with the added attraction of a short lived gold strike.  The T&P Railroad built their line to Colorado making it West Texas’ first boom town, it developed quickly into the largest town between Weatherford and El Paso and the greatest shipping center in Texas.  Cattlemen prospered and the town grew.

   Cattle remained big business until the passing of the open range, and the town’s population dipped to near the 1,000 mark in the 1890’s.  At this tie, Col. Isaac Ellwood and J.F. Glidden, inventors of barbed wire, came to town.  The
settling of the West, the changing of the cattle industry and
the subsequent development of the farming industry was made possible.  Ellwood later purchased the Renderbrook Ranch near Colorado and established the “Spade” brand for several ranches scattered in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico.

   There are a lot of “firsts” connected with the community. The first white settlement, a Ranger camp, was set up in 1877. The first building was erected in 1880 by A.W. Dunn. The first train arrived in 1881 and the first cultural center, the Frenkel Opera House, seating 1500, was opened in 1884.

   Also notable is the fact 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.  He started the first school in March.

   This rich past is being actively preserved through the local museum and over thirty-nine historical markers. But statistics can not begin to tell the story of Colorado, known as the “Mother City of West Texas” and now called Colorado City. Life in West Texas cannot be explained but must be experienced.