Rosita, Colorado | |
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— Town — | |
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Coordinates: | |
Country | United States |
State | Colorado |
County | Custer County[1] |
Founded | 1872 |
Government | |
• Type | ghost town |
Elevation[1] | 2,685 m (8,809 ft) |
Time zone | MST (UTC-7) |
• Summer (DST) | MDT (UTC-6) |
ZIP code[2] | Westcliffe 81252 |
Area code(s) | 719 |
GNIS feature ID | 0192319 |
Rosita was a silver mining town — now a ghost town — in Custer County, Colorado, United States. Rosita is Spanish for little rose. Although the old town has almost entirely disappeared (the former post office building is now an operating restaurant),[3] the surrounding area has been largely developed into semi-rural home sites.
The town was used in the filming of the 1958 western movie Saddle the Wind.
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Rosita was founded in late 1872 by prospectors attracted by discoveries of silver. The town was composed of tents and log cabins, but soon had stores, carpenters, a hotel, saloon, blacksmith shop, and an assayer. By 1874 the town had more than a thousand residents and 400 buildings. A US post office opened in 1874, and in September 1874 the Rosita Index began as a weekly newspaper. Rosita took the seat of Custer County away from Ula (now also a ghost town) in 1878.
Despite some rich strikes in the Pocahantas and Humboldt mines, the silver veins around Rosita ran out of ore in a few years. In the early 1880s, Rosita was surpassed by the nearby mining towns of Querida and Silver Cliff. After a bitter four-year fight, Silver Cliff took the county seat from Rosita in the 1886 election, and Rosita declined further. The US post office was closed in 1966.[4] ZIP code 81252 now serves Rosita, but mail must be addressed to Westcliffe.[2]
Rosita is at an elevation of 8809 feet (2685 m), at .
List of ghost towns in Colorado
Historical populations | |||
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Census | Pop. | %± | |
1880 | 1,008 |
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1890 | 304 | −69.8% | |
1900 | 110 | −63.8% | |
1910 | 42 | −61.8% | |
1920 | 45 | 7.1% | |
1930 | 27 | −40.0% |
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