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“Bite-Size Bits of Local, National, and Global History”
Southeast Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado — The American Mountains (Southwest)
 

Nikola Tesla

Tesla Experimental Station Colorado Springs

 
 
Nikola Tesla Marker image. Click for full size.
1. Nikola Tesla Marker
Inscription.
The Tesla Experimental Station was a laboratory built by Nikola Tesla in 1899 in an empty site on Knob Hill in Colorado Springs. The experimental lab stood north of this location on North Foote Avenue. The lab was operational from May 1899 to January 1900.

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Croatia and emigrated to the United States in 1884. He became a U.S. citizen in 1891, and that same year he invented the Tesla coil. Tesla coils are a type of electrical circuit used to generate low-current high-voltage electricity.

Tesla invented, predicted or contributed to development of hundreds of technologies that are part in our daily lives, such as the remote control, neon and fluorescent lights, wireless mechanisms, computers, smartphones, laser beams, x-rays, robotics and, most notably, alternating current, the basis of our present-day electrical system.

The Tesla Experimental Station possessed the largest Tesla coil ever built, over 49 feet in diameter. This coil reproduced the effects of lightning and its accompanying thunder. The lab's primary purpose was to conduct experiments with high frequency electricity, research into wireless transmission of electrical power, and attempts to send a signal from Pikes Peak to Paris, France.

Even though Tesla was in Colorado Springs for only 9 short
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months, he felt that he made some of his most significant discoveries at this lab. Several years later the building was torn down and the lumber reused. The laboratory equipment was sold at a sheriff's auction.
 
Erected 2017 by Al Packer Chapter 100, Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus.
 
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: CommunicationsIndustry & CommerceScience & Medicine. In addition, it is included in the E Clampus Vitus series list. A significant historical month for this entry is January 1900.
 
Location. 38° 49.984′ N, 104° 48.07′ W. Marker is in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in El Paso County. It is in Southeast Colorado Springs. It is on Pikes Peak Avenue east of Hancock Avenue, on the right when traveling east. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Colorado Springs CO 80909, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Colorado’s Front Range and in Pikes Peak Region. It is also in the American Mountain West. Globally, it is in North America, the Rocky Mountains, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Comancherνa.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: TACP (approx. half a mile away); Misty (approx. half a mile away); In Honor of Those from El Paso County (approx. half a mile away); Special Forces Monument (approx. half a mile away); Forward Air Controllers Monument (approx. half a mile away); In Pursuit of Peace (A La Poursuite de la Paix) (approx. half
Nikola Tesla Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed by Craig Baker, 2018
2. Nikola Tesla Marker
The marker is in Memorial Park.
a mile away); The 89th Infantry Division (1942-1945) (approx. half a mile away); The Freedom Memorial (approx. half a mile away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Colorado Springs.
 
Also see . . .  Tesla’s Colorado Springs Lab Site and former marker. The original commemorative marker at the same spot was destroyed in a violent wind storm in January, 2017. (Submitted on August 23, 2021, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.) 
 
<i>Nikola Tesla</i> image. Click for full size.
Bain News Service (courtesy of the George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress), circa 1890
3. Nikola Tesla
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on February 5, 2026. It was originally submitted on October 21, 2019, by Frank Gunshow Sanchez of Hollister, California. This page has been viewed 7,516 times since then and 594 times this year. Last updated on October 24, 2019, by Craig Baker of Sylmar, California. Photos:   1. submitted on October 21, 2019.   2. submitted on October 24, 2019, by Craig Baker of Sylmar, California.   3. submitted on October 23, 2019. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.
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Jun. 7, 2026