Old Trail Through Jimmy Camp

The old trail which passed through Jimmy Camp was given various names over the years depending largely on who was using it at the time. In the early 19th century it was called the Taos (or Trappers') Trail. By mid century it became known as the Cherokee Trail. With the coming of the pioneers in the 1860's & 70's, the name was gradually changed to the Jimmy Camp Road.br>

By whatever name, the divide trail proceeded north from Jimmy Camp by way of a natural gateway of rock and up a long hill to a high, rolling prairie. It traversed this high plateau to Black Squirrel Creek at the edge of what was early on called the pinery, known today as Black Forest. In the forest, the trail headed Cherry Creek; it followed this creek to its mouth at the present site of Denver, then turned north along the east side of the South Platte River.

Trail Crossing of Black Squirrel Creek

To the south of Jimmy Camp, the old trail climbed a high divide between two valleys. It came down off the high land at the present town of Fountain, then struck due south along the east bank of Fountain Creek towards the site of the old Pueblo on the Arkansas River.

This trail had undoubtedly begun as an Indian trail, directly linked to the old Ute Trail into the mountains by two cutoffs: one from the northeast near the edge of Black Forest, the other from the southeast along the north side of Fountain Creek.

By the time Jimmy first brought his goods to the Pikes Peak region, the trail had already been rutted and scarred by the iron-clad wheels of trading wagons. Subsequent to the building of Fort Laramie in present eastern Wyoming in 1834, a trading route was established between it and Taos in the Mexican settlements. This became known as the Taos (or Trappers) Trail, and it incorporated along its route the old Indian trail that passed through Jimmy Camp.

By the late 1830's four more trading posts were established on the South Platte above present Denver. Each spring the traders would bring wagonloads of buffalo robes down the trail on their way to St. Louis and markets in the east; each fall they would return with kettles and scarlet cloth and whiskey for trade with the Indians. Over the years they established a series of campgrounds along the trail, each a day's journey from the last. And the most desireable campground of all - known for its cold spring water, its forest of pine, its green pastures and its abundance of game - was that area later known as Jimmy Camp.