Description

Glenwood Springs was originally known as "Defiance". Defiance was established in 1883, a camp of tents, saloons, and brothels with an increasing amount of cabins and lodging establishments. It was populated with the expected crowd of gamblers, gunslingers, and prostitutes. Town Founder Isaac Cooper's wife Sarah was having a hard time adjusting to the frontier life and in an attempt to make her environment somewhat more comfortable, persuaded the founders to change the name to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, after her beloved hometown of Glenwood, Iowa.[8]

The Glenwood Hot Springs Bathhouse, was built in c. 1888.

The City's location at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Roaring Fork River as well as gaining a stop on the railroad historically made it a center of commerce in the area. The city has seen famous visitors including President Teddy Roosevelt who spent an entire summer vacation living out of the historic Hotel Colorado. Doc Holliday, a wild west legend from the O.K. Corral gunfight, spent the final months of his life in Glenwood Springs and is buried in the town's original Pioneer Cemetery above Bennett Avenue. Infamous serial killer Ted Bundy was imprisoned in the Glenwood Springs jail until he escaped on the night of December 30, 1977, an escape which went undetected for 17 hours.[9]

Geography [edit]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.8 square miles (12 km2), of which, 4.8 square miles (12 km2) of it is land and 0.21% is water.

Glenwood Springs is one of the most walkable towns in America, a distinction that has been recognized by PBS[10] and Walking Magazine.

The town itself is situated in the river valleys at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Roaring Fork River. The area surrounding Glenwood Springs is steeply contoured on all sides with numerous caves to be found.

--from Wikipedia