In the 1880s, dozens Jews fleeing persecution in Russia landed in the rough Rocky Mountains near Pueblo, Colo. Things didn't go great for them there, but they went on to play a big role in the development of Denver. CPRNews
. They explore the significance of the Cotopaxi colony, and the impact it had on Colorado for years to come.In 1882, following the assassination of the czar, Jews were widely blamed for encouraging revolutionary anti-Western sentiment in Russia. There were a lot of anti-Semitic attacks called pogroms. And so given this kind of repression and violence, Jews start immigrating to the United States in massive numbers.In about 1880, there were only about 250,000 Jews in the United States.
There is this gentleman by the name of Emmanuel Saltiel. He was British, he was Sephardic Jew, and he found his way from England to the United States. He may or may not have been part of the Union Army prior to becoming part of the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He was captured, he was imprisoned, and he volunteered to serve the union and this freedom from prison. And that's how he made his way down to southern Colorado, where he became part owner of this zinc mine.
Nobody's got in touch with me, nobody at all. And I think if there was something that might have been there, it should have happened. On the other hand, it's a few years later. Let's try again. Hey, gang, the bounties are there.As long as these documents are missing and the bounties are out, Saltiel's legacy is bound to be contested. But regardless, there is one thing that pretty much everyone can agree upon. The Cotopaxi colony was so much more than a farming failure.
A previous version of this story identified Dr. Jeanne Abrams and Adam Rovner as professors at the University of Colorado — this has been corrected to the University of Denver. Two photo credits have also been updated to correctly identify the Beck Archives, Special Collections, University Of Denver Libraries as the source.
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