Part 4 of 4:Aug. 12 will mark the 150th birthday of what is now called Old Colorado City. In this series, local historian Dave Hughes has outlined the early history of the old town.Today, Hughes hits a couple more historical highlights while laying out the schedule for Saturday’s Founders Day celebration.

The big day is coming! Founder’s Day is this Saturday, Aug. 8, in Bancroft Park at 24th Street and West Colorado Avenue!It is the 150th birthday of the original Colorado City, founded in 1859. Now it’s known as Old Colorado City, as well as a part of Colorado Springs.Here is the program for the sesquicentennial celebration of Founder’s Day:The popular Old Colorado City farmers market will open at 7 a.m. on 24th Street, adjacent to Bancroft Park.Though the market normally closes down by 1 p.m., this year all the food vendors, from La Baguette to the popular tamale seller, will remain until 3 p.m. when everything is over. You can grab breakfast or lunch and not miss anything in the park.The Founder’s Day activities start at 8 a.m., with 44 crafters’ booths set up and operating all day to 3 p.m.Two young west-side boys will be offering, for a $1 donation, the incredible large caricature sheet “SouvenirHistory of Colorado City,” made in 1977 by Jack Ekstrom and suitable for putting up on the wall of your children or grandchildren’s bedroom wall. The small proceeds will go to the nonprofit, self-supporting Historical Society, which organized the sesquicentennial celebration.During Founder’s Day you can also visit the all-volunteer History Center museum and bookstore, across the street from Bancroft Park at 1 S. 24th St..The 1859 Garvin Cabin will be open in the park, and you can take your children in to read and hear about it.On the cabin’s porch, a time capsule will be open so you can leave messages for the people of 2159, 150 years from now. The capsule will be closed, sealed and buried on Wednesday afternoon, the actual anniversary, in a commemorative brick patio at the History Center. You are welcome to attend that ceremony, too.Starting at 8 a.m., the Civil War Reenactors of Cañon City — turned out authentically as Captain Dodd’s Independent Company — will demonstrate models of firearms used in 1862 when Dodd’s company, and the entire 1st Colorado Volunteer Infantry Regiment, marched south through Colorado City en route to defeating the TexasConfederate Cavalry at Glorieta Pass, keeping them from seizing Colorado’s gold mines.Starting at 10:30 a.m., the Victorian Society of Colorado Springs will demonstrate 19th-century dances on the large dance floor.That will go on until noon, when a big treat will start. The 75-piece New Horizons Band will play a concert featuring many familiar old numbers.Have your tape recorder out at precisely 12:25 p.m., because you will hear a musical treat not played in public for over 100 years: the “Colorado Midland Band March,” written in 1899 by Edward Kloepfer especially for the famous Midland Union Band.That band played for 25 years, even at presidential inaugurations, until the Midland Railroad went bankrupt in 1920 and the band was disbanded.Music to the “Midland Band March” was lost for a century and only found six months ago, after 20 years of searching across the nation. The New Horizons Band agreed to practice it and play it at Colorado City’s sesquicentennial.Then at 12:30 p.m., the highlight of Founder’s Day will take place. The $40,000 Sesquicentennial Monument, a six-foot Rocky Mountain Rose Granite portraying 150 years of Colorado City and west-side history, will be undraped right next to the Garvin Cabin. It is a gift to Colorado Springs made by the Old Colorado City Historical Society on behalf of all west-siders.You will be able then to walk around the monument and read the etched descriptions with the engraved drawings that enumerate the eight distinct periods of Colorado City history. It is El Paso County’s first monument to Colorado City’s history.At 1 p.m. the band will strike up again. Then at 2 p.m., the Rocky Mountain Gunslingers, who are  also operating a “County Jail” on the other side of the park, will reenact one of the most famous incidents in Colorado City’s history: the 1860 shooting of Jim Devlin by Jim McLaughlin, and the El Paso Claim Club’s trial of McLaughlin for murder. The audience will be called upon to render a verdict.The festivities will close at 3 p.m., but you can still visit the History Center later in the day. It’s filled with artifacts from a history that was radically different than that of Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs.

The Garvin Cabin as it appeared in 1977. Photo by The Gazette file photo