CANON CITY, a city of south-central Colorado, U.S.A., at the entrance to the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas river (I,Iooft. deep) and at the head of the beautiful irrigated Arkansas valley, which is covered with gardens, farms and orchards; the county seat of Fremont county. It has an elevation of 5,344ft.; is on Federal highway 50; and is served by the Denver and Rio Grande Western and the Santa Fe railways. A picturesque highway con nects it with Cripple Creek, and another with the top of the gorge, which is spanned by a suspension bridge 1,500 ft. long and I,053 ft. above the bed of the river. Population in A rich coal-field to the south produces about 800,000 tons a year, and there are sandstone quarries and lime kilns near by. The city has smelters and brickyards. There are hot mineral springs in the vicinity, and the city natatorium is supplied with hot water from Artesian wells. The State penitentiary is located here. On Oil Creek, 8–Iom. N.E., is a spot called Garden park, which has furnished many museums with skeletons of armoured dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Adjoining the city on the south is the San Isabel National forest.
Lieut. Pike, after whom Pike's Peak (q.v) is named, camped here in 1806. A town sprang up during the gold rush of 1859-60, and its early growth was stimulated by the discovery of oil in the county in 1872.