COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., city and county-seat of El Paso County, on the Denver and Rio Grande, the Denver T. and G., the Santa Fe, Rock Island and Missouri Pacific and the Colorado Mountain railroads. It is situated on a plain at an elevation of 6,000 feet, near Pikes Peak, and has a world-wide reputa tion as a health and pleasure resort. Colorado Springs is an attractive city and is the midway gate to the western section of the State. The celebrated mineral springs of Manitou attract many visitors. Colorado Springs was settled in 1870 and its wonderful growth since 1892 may be largely attributed to the development of the Cripple Creek gold mines, which are 30 miles distant on the opposite side of Pikes Peak. A great deal of wealth flows into Col orado Springs, whose population has almost doubled in the past 15 years, and whose bank deposits have increased 600 per cent in the same period. The city has a great variety of manufactures, chief among them being pot tery and tiles, ore refineries and reduction works. The United States census of manufac
tures for 1914 records 75 industrial establish ments of factory grade, employing 742 persons, of whom 538 were wage earners, receiving annually $401,000 in wages. The capital in vested aggregated $2,090,000, and the year's output was valued at $1,908,000: of this, $1, 010,000 was the value added by manufacture. The city boasts a handsome opera-house and five clubs, one occupying an edifice worth $80,000, 17 fine school buildings, Colorado Col lege (q.v.), one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the State, with over 500 students, a State institution for the education of the blind and mute, sanatoriums, church edifices, 2 hos pitals, and 6 trunk lines, 28 miles of electric railway and a modern telephone system. The city was one of the first to adopt the commission form of government. Colorado Springs has a water supply costing over $3,000,000 and a sewerage system perfected at an expense of $10,000,000. Pop. 32,000.