Georgetown, CO: A Prestige Imports Profile
Georgetown, CO: A Prestige Imports Profile
This weekend, Prestige Imports will host its 5th Annual Winter Driving Event on Georgetown Lake in (you guessed it) Georgetown, Colorado. Since you already can find summaries and explanations of previous years’ events, I thought it might be interesting to provide a little background on the city of Georgetown in honor of the upcoming festivities.
No doubt, many people who live in Denver or along the Front Range think of Georgetown as, merely, a good place to gas up as they alight for a mountain getaway. And for some savvy travelers, the city’s frontage road might serve as an escape from I-70’s bumper-to-bumper, weekend traffic. But Georgetown is more than just a pit stop or shortcut. In fact, it is a mountain gem with over one hundred and fifty years of rich history.
Spurred on by dreams of gold and adventure, George and David Griffith left their Kentucky home in the late-1850s and headed west. Soon thereafter, they found themselves in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The brothers decided to stay and mine the area, as several other prospectors recently had discovered gold.
While George and David never unearthed any gold, they did found The Griffith Lode, which helped establish the region as one of the nation’s prime silver repositories. In 1860, the brothers staked their claim in the Valley of Seven Mountains, naming their homestead ranch George’s Town. Four years later, the city was officially incorporated as Georgetown and dubbed “The Silver Queen of the Rockies.” Two years afterward, it absorbed the bordering city of Elizabethtown.
Over the course of the next several years, the population of Georgetown continued to grow, attracting miners, “shady ladies,” and “Soldiers of the Lord.” By 1880, the city boasted a population of 3,000 residents and, for a brief moment, was the third largest city in the entire state.
Today, Georgetown is home to approximately 1,000 people. With entertainments like the Georgetown Loop Railroad, it serves, primarily, as a tourist attraction. But it also acts as a passageway to several of Colorado’s most picturesque, outdoor activities, such as the turning of the aspens on Guanella Pass and the summitting of Grays and Torreys.
For, perhaps, the most quaint hype material ever created, check out Georgetown, CO’s promotional video:
IMO, it’s impossible not to be impressed with those mist-covered pine slopes in the opening shot–they’re pretty freaking gorgeous.
For more information about the city’s history and tourism industry, visit Georgetown’s official site. A thorough guide and history page (from which a lot of information in this post was culled), its Wikipedia page, and Colorado.com host additional information as well.
While reservations for our 5th annual Winter Driving Event in Georgetown, CO are completely full, you can always stop by Prestige Imports to test drive one of our Audi or Porsche vehicles on the thoroughfares of Denver. We are located at 9201 West Colfax Avenue between Kipling Wadswordth. To schedule an appointment with someone in our Sales Department, call us at (833) 825-5423.
