Julesburg, CO
with others
It may not be able to claim nine lives, but Julesburg had four incarnations, refusing to succumb to the trials of frontier life. In the late 1700s, the area was a favored hunting and camping ground of the Cheyenne, Sioux, Pawnee and Arapahoe. The first town of Old Julesburg was named after Jules Beni, who established a trading post near where Lodgepole Creek enters the South Platte River on the old overland stage route.
The area proved popular with pioneers headed to California and the Pikes Peak region of Colorado in search of gold. They traveled many of the trails through the area, and in 1860 Julesburg was the only stop on the Pony Express in all of Colorado.
In February 1865, Julesburg was attacked and burned by a coordinated attack of the Arapahoe, Oglala Sioux led by Red Cloud, and Cheyenne led by Big Crow. The attack was retaliation by the natives for the Sand Creek Massacre in the fall of 1864. The townspeople fled to nearby Fort Sedgwick.
The town was rebuilt four miles east, just outside the Fort Sedgwick Military Reservation boundary. In 1867, a third move was underway, this one influenced by the arrival of Union Pacific June 24, 1867, just north of the river. Julesburg moved to the rail head.
By then, the town had developed a well-deserved reputation as the "Wickedest City in the West." Saloons and gambling houses dotted the landscape and did a thriving business as the town's population soared to nearly 5,000. It's said that of the 1,200 building in the town, at least 900 were devoted to vice of some kind. When the railroad tracks stretched further west, Julesburg remained an important shipping point.
In 1881, a Union Pacific branch line was built to Denver and, once again, Julesburg was re-established several miles east of "Denver Junction." Throughout all these moves, the name prevailed, with the fourth and final location simply called Julesburg.