Before there was Breckenridge, there was Fort Mary B.
“It was founded Aug. 15 of 1859, so it predated Breckenridge by a couple of weeks,” local historian Bill Fountain tells Krystal 93. “They were concerned about the Ute Indians, who actually turned out to be friendly in this part of the state.”
Fountain is the co-author of the new “Historic Landscape” series from Summit Historical Foundation.
“Two weeks later some capitalists out of Denver, a fellow by the name of Spencer, was sent up with a group to lay out a town because the gold was discovered (near Breckenridge),” Fountain says. “They knew that people would be rushing here. They did that, of course, to make money, and so Breckenridge was laid out about the end of August of 1859.”
In his books, Fountain tells the story of Summit County boom towns. He pulled almost entirely from handwritten minor logs – the notes taken by miners themselves at mining district meetings.
“The miners actually worked very well together,” he says. “The meetings seemed to be conducted very, very well, and they were very organized.”
In the 1860s, Breck was one of many boom towns. Fountain has identified the written or physical evidence of 27 towns in the Blue River valley, of which only Breck exists today. He details where they are and, more importantly, how he learned about them in his books.
For a time, Breckenridge was not even the county seat of Summit. That was long-gone Parkville.
“It had a thousand people in the vicinity,” Fountain says of Parkville, quoting from a news article from the time. “There were tens of thousands coming and going almost on a weekly basis.”
Fountain admits he would never want to be a gold rush miner. But to be a fly on those cabin walls?
“Would I love to go back and observe and see what was going on?” he says. “I think of that every time I’m in the backcountry.”
The Historic Landscapes series is planned for seven books. The first three are available now through Summit Historical Society. The fourth book, on Parkville, should debut next summer.