Shawnee Historic District

Shawnee Historic District. . In 1886, James W. Price homesteaded here and in 1889 built the Grandview Hotel. In 1900 he and the Colo. and Southern Railway developed Shawnee and built Shawnee Lodge which burned in 1929. In 1900 Price built the Shawnee Mercantile Co. Store and moved the Slaght's Post Office to Shawnee. W.H. "Harry” Price, J.W. Price's son, became Shawnee Postmaster in 1900, serving until 1940. Shawnee became a popular summer resort as the slow meandering river was great for fishing. The local economy was tourism, ranching, farming, logging and winter jobs at the Maddox Ice Co. which vanished with the railroad in 1937. The Shawnee Water Consumers' Association was formed in 1929 by C.O. Cook, W.W. Garwood and Roger D. Knight., [Reverse] The Shawnee Cemetery is 350 feet to the east. Since 1895 settler families of Tyler, Bonnifield, and Price have been interred. Civil War Union veterans, Private W. A. Bonnifield rests there. Prior valley history includes: Ute hunting ground, a route to South Park's 1859-60s gold rush and route of the 1878 Denver, South Park and Pacific narrow-gauge R.R. Homesteaders Azel and Alice Slaght, arrived in 1859-61. Long known as "Slaght's Valley", Slaght's Ranch, located ½ mile to the SE, was also called: Granite Vale Post Office, 1861-70; Slaght's Stagestop, 1862-78; Fairville Post Office and Townsite, 1878-82; Slaght's P.O., 1882-1900.