Canon City Al took a hike.

The dinasour museum has moved to this new location so I have moved the cache over here. There is a wonderful display on the second floor where you can learn more about the dinasours that lived here millions of years ago. These grounds have the old furnished homes that you may tour with a guide. Notice the handhewn logs of these wooden buildings. The stones for the house are from the wall behind the prison museum, another good place to go.

The al- oh- sore- us were the very first inhabitants in the Arkansas Valley. He and hundreds of other varities lived here for millions of years. Just north of town, in Garden Park, a huge graveyard of bones has been dug up and you can learn more about the 'bone wars' and all the discoveries that were found there that are on display throughout the country.

In the yard here at the museum is the cabin and home of one of the first families to settle here, when our town was named Gate City (gateway into the mountains). Anson Rudd Sr. was born in 1819 in Penn but he loved to travel (by ox-cart). He and his wife Harriet Spencer, (a decendent from a old Puritan family) had one son, the first white child to survive in Gate City (Canon City).

Canon City grew steadily when gold was discovered in Cripple Creek and Victor with many residents and two story buildings. As soon as the first shot was fired to begin the Civil War the entire population of the town and countryside packed up and returned to their roots. Most of them left during the night to avoid telling their neighbors and friends which side of the conflict they would be fighting on. One by one the town was deserted until Anson Rudd and his wife were the last people (excluding the deranged woman) in town. He guarded the homes and stores against roving gangs and when the owners began trickeling back after the war was finished. He told them that the only reason he stayed was because he was to poor to go.