Buena Vista, Colorado

Buena Vista’s first natives were known as the Ute Indians but in 1725 explorers came and settled in the area. Around 1860 the first gold was found in Denver and therefore, many settlers came to Buena Vista for profitable mining.

Buena Vista was originally named Mahonville after James and Martha Mahon who left many descendants, some of whom still live in the area. In 1879 the citizens voted to rename the town Buena Vista which is Spanish for "beautiful view".

The town was noted for its wild and wooly early mining and railroad inhabitants and the railroads accompanying low types of people. It is said there were once 32 saloons, many dance-halls, and no churches.

In 1880, Buena Vista became the county seat and Granite residents refused to allow the records to be removed from their court house. Some impatient citizens of Buena Vista commandeered a railroad engine and flatcar and went up to Granite in the dark of night, kicked in the courthouse door and stole the records and all furniture that was not securely fastened to the floor. It is said they even took the pot-belly heat stove, with embers still in it. The records were stored in various Buena Vista business safes until the new court house at the east end of Main Street was built.

The Buena Vista Depot, built as the Denver, Leadville and Gunnison Depot in 1890-91, is all that remains of the bustling railroad trade that helped develop that Chaffee County town. It was a combination depot, meaning that it handled both freight and passengers-as well as providing living quarters for the railroad engineer. It may be the last surviving Denver, Leadville and Gunnison Depot.

The stout little building changed railroad company ownership several times until around 1910, when the track down Trout Creek near Buena Vista was washed out-effectively isolating Buena Vista from the rest of the line.

The already-struggling railroad company lost money and ultimately the Buena Vista line was abandoned in 1924.