| History | Mount Vernon was one of the first towns to be plotted in the short-lived Territory of Jefferson. In the "Rocky Mountain News, November 17, 1859," Dr. Joseph Casto announced the new town. In 1860, Mount Vernon was described as having "... has four houses finished and inhabited, and full 20 others under way... Mr. Morrison is building a stone house of delicate chocolate covered tinted free stone...."
Among this first settlers in the spring of 1859 were Robert Steele, the first "Provisional Governor" of the Territory of Jefferson. Another was Dr. Castro, a clergyman, a member of the town company and its chief promoter, one of incorporators of the wagon road that ran through the proposed town to the mines, and later Chief Clerk of the Assembly of the Territory of Jefferson. An early plat of Mount Vernon town is a grid of 3,600 tiny lots. Early settlers built a school and a church. George Morrison built a hotel and toll gate at Mount Vernon before moving to found the town of Morrison.
In 1869 "There are 9 dwelling houses, 2 hotels, 1 store, 2 blacksmiths shops, 5 barns, with other usual outbuildings and that said town now contains about 50 inhabitants." The school was maintained in the town until 1875 when the Morrison School was opened. By 1885 "Crofutt's Guide" still listed a post office, a stage stop, and fifty inhabitants. The town was short lived as a result of the railroads' bypassing Mount Vernon for Golden and Morrison. Two private historic houses and a small fenced cemetery remain and Mount Vernon Creek flows through the site before turning south to meet Bear Creek in Morrison. |
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