History

The winter snows stopped Ezra and Fedora's California journey in Golden City, the capital of the new Colorado Territory. A chance meeting with W.A.H. Loveland ended up in a job for Ezra as a right-of-way scout for the newly formed Colorado and Clear Creek Railroad. Within a few years, this meeting would make Ezra one of Colorado's early millionaires. Fedora delivered their first child, a son named Malachi in January of 1866. The baby succumbed to diphtheria before he was four weeks old. Over the next several months, Fedora grew increasingly despondent and Ezra feared for her safety. On April 11, 1866, while scouting rail rights-of-way between Golden City and Laramie, Wyoming, Ezra came across a large meadow between two rivers. The north west corner of the meadow was framed by a large L-shaped ridge. He returned with Fedora two days later, and she was uplifted by the tranquility of the meadow. Ezra christened the area Solace Creek and claimed 160 acres under the Homestead Act of 1862. He named the river to the west Little Solace, and the river to the east Big Solace.