In the 1800s, people came to Colorado in droves to find gold, but more people came to get rid of something: tuberculosis. Until a vaccine for TB was available in the 1920s, physicians prescribed Colorado’s clean, dry mountain air and sunshine to treat what was then the nation’s leading cause of death. Patients, including poet Robert Frost and gambler Doc Holliday, came in the hundreds, then the thousands. Sanatoriums sprang up around the state — some of which later became hospitals. Playgrounds appeared, as kids were sent outdoors into healthy air. Women shortened skirts so hems wouldn’t drag in dirty streets, and men cut beards thought to carry germs.
Colorado’s population exploded from 40 thousand in 1870 to more than a million in 1930, driven mostly by people who were not looking to strike it rich, but as historian Jeanne Abrams put it, “came for health, not wealth.”
About Colorado Postcards
Colorado Postcards are snapshots of our colorful state in sound. They give brief insights into our people and places, our flora and fauna, and our past and present, from every corner of Colorado.
