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Florissant & Teller County

Florissant

An early settler from Florissant, Missouri named this area after his hometown. 34 to 35 million years ago, this valley was dominated by Lake Florissant, stretching 12 miles through an ancient forested valley and averaging 1 mile in width. Lush ferns and shrubs lived beneath redwoods, pines, cedars, and a mixed-hardwood forest. There were thousands of insects in the humid climate. Mollusks, fish, birds, and mammals lived in or around the lake. Again and again volcanic mud flows blanketed parts of the valley, one of them responsible for the creation of the lake. Now, each time the volcano erupts it showers the area with tons and tons of ash and pumice. Each rainfall washes the fine ash into the lake where it slowly covers the remains of creatures that have died and sunk to the bottom. Eventually these sediments become shale, transforming the buried remains into fossils.

Today, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument preserves this internationally renowned site. More than 50,000 specimens have been collected by paleontologists working here. As so much of the lake life is preserved here, very little of the other forms of life that inhabited the area are preserved. Unless a bird or mammal died in or near the lake, its chances of preservation were very slim.

Florissant Information

Teller County

Teller County begins 20 miles West of Colorado Springs and is accessed via State Highway 24 West. It is almost directly in the center of the State of Colorado at elevations ranging from 8,000 feet in Woodland Park to over 14,000 on the back side of Pikes Peak.

Teller County is named after one of Colorado's first U.S. Senators, Henry Teller, and was formed on March 23, 1899. Land to form the County was given by El Paso and Fremont Counties. Teller County encompasses an area of 559 square miles. Gold was discovered in Cripple Creek, which is the Teller County seat, in 1890 by cowboy and part time prospector, Bob Womack. This discovery forever changed the area which was to become Teller County. By 1900 more than 50,000 people called "the district" home. "The district" refers to the entire gold mining area (approximately 3 square miles) and includes Victor, Cripple Creek, Goldfield, and many towns which have disappeared. The value of the gold mined in Teller County is greater than all other gold mining operations ever conducted in the United States combined. Today Teller County is a vibrant, diversified community combining it’s heritage with modern amenities. Teller County is a great place to live, work and play.

Teller County

Teller County Information