Perhaps one surprising revelation is the only connection to Joe Higgenbottom, known as Buckskin Joe, and the western frontier town is a nifty name.
Higgenbottom was a miner who discovered gold in Park County and sold out fairly quickly and moved on, Johns said.
“Buckskin Gulch became known as Buckskin Joe,” she said. “So when these three businessmen (Karol Smith, Don Tyner and Malcolm Brown) from Cañon City wanted to build this western town, they used that name because it was a cool name.”
Johns said only a couple of the buildings actually came from the original Buckskin Gulch.
“They moved buildings from all over Colorado to Buckskin Joe, a couple of them actually did come from Buckskin Gulch,” she said.
In a presentation, Johns displayed photos of the buildings in their original locations, as well as how they looked at Buckskin Joe.
The sheriff’s office building was a homestead from the northern part of Fremont County, Johns said. The bank came from Saguache, the candy store was from Cripple Creek, the livery stables were from Guffey, and Dr. Billy Jones’ office hailed from the Draper Ranch in Wetmore.