There's something about Florence ... just ask anyone who lives in this quaint little turn-of-the-century town. They'll tell you about the tree-shaded neighborhoods, the good schools, the Friday night high school football games and the live music in the park during the summer. They'll tell you how great the weather is and how good the hunting and fishing is just up the road ... well, maybe they won't tell you exactly where, but just up the road.
Or ask a downtown merchant. She'll tell you about the new benches, trees, planters and corner directional signs that merchants have installed as part of a beautification project on Main Street. She'll mention the Friday evenings when the shops stay open late and when the galleries have special openings for a new artist. She'll direct you to the new shops and galleries that have opened in the next block just last month.
Ask one of the visitors to Florence. He will tell you about the great old tool chest he found in one of the many antique shops along Main Street. Then he'll tell you about the gourmet lunch he had at the corner cafe as he heads toward the yarn shop where his wife has been lost for the last hour or so.
If you run into the editor of the local paper or the city manager, he'll tell you about the new high school that just opened, the new sports complex and the complex that will house the city hall, the new library and the museum.
(exerpt from Royal Gorge Country magazine)
Florence has recently completed construction of a new high school and the old high school has become the Florence Middle School. Two elementary schools serve both Florence and Penrose and older Penrose students travel to Florence for Middle School and High School.
Florence is noted for its thriving downtown with beautiful Victorian buildings which house numerous antique shops, art galleries, coffee shops and restaurants. It is rapidly becoming the "Antique Capital of Colorado".
The historical heritage of Florence began with the migration of trappers, explorers and pioneers into the area in which the Native Americans, mainly Utes were already inhabiting the land. Later Spanish-French trappers and explorers passed through the foothills surrounding Florence. The French built a fort and trading post south of Florence. In 1887 Senator James A. McCandless incorporated the City of Florence, named after his youngest daughter. Soon the town bustled with the same sort of activity that made the west legendary. Stagecoaches and wagon lines brought new faces and goods into this growing community. Narrow and standard gauge railroads chugged their way through this basically agricultural region picking up supplies before treading their way up the Colorado mountain sides to the dozens of mining communities. In 1898 the second oil well in the United States was discovered near Florence, almost instantly boosting the local economy and providing jobs for hundreds of people. This same well is still producing oil today, although oil production has declined dramatically. Coal later became the chief industry with nearby mining camps, Rockvale and Coal Creek, boosting populations in the thousands.
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