Roswell, now annexed into the city of Colorado Springs, Colorado,[1][a] was a coal mine settlement near the northern bluffs of Colorado Springs[1] and a 19th-century railroad junction.[4] The town was located at roughly the present intersection of Fillmore Street and North Nevada Avenue in Colorado Springs.[5]
The town of Roswell, built 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north of Colorado Springs in 1889,[6] was named for a man from New York, Governor Roswell P. Flower,[7] who felt that Colorado Springs' climate was only second to Saranac, New York for its curative benefits for tuberculosis patients. (See Tuberculosis treatment in Colorado Springs).[8]
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By 1899, he was an investor in mining[9] and the Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway.[10] The town was located on Monument Creek at the junction of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RG) and Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroads (CRI&P).[6] The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad had reached the area about 1875[11] and in 1889, Roswell had a Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P) yard.[12][b] Roswell had a stone Rock Island Round House and an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway bridge over the CRI&P railway.[14]
There were 448 residents in 1900.[15] In 1902, Roswell was a "considerable settlement".[16] Its streets included: Brewster, Cable, Elm (a northern city boundary), Holly, Laurel, Low, Myrtle, Parker, Poplar, Rock Island, Roswell, Sage, and part of Cedar.[1] Roswell had a school,[1] Methodist Episcopal Church,[13] and the Roswell Hotel by 1903.[13] That year, the 26.04-acre (10.54 ha) Roswell Park had an equestrian race track[1][c] and a ballpark.[18]
According to the 1910 United States Federal census, there were 426 residents in Roswell (El Paso County precinct 22).[19] By 1911, the population had reduced to 250 people.[20] By 1919, Roswell was a transfer station for coal loads from the Pikeview mine to the north and the Keystone mine 4.5 mi (7.2 km) to the east.[21][22][d] In the 1940s, the Roswell race track was used as an automobile speedway.[24]