Colfax, Custer County, Colorado

Colfax was a short-lived communal farming community in Fremont County, Colorado Territory – now a ghost town in Custer County, Colorado, United States. The town was named after Vice President Schuyler Colfax. The Colfax post office operated from May 2, 1870, until January 16, 1879.

History
Colfax was founded in 1870 as a communal settlement of 397 German immigrants led by General Carl Wulsten. The colonists had been organized by the German Colonization society of Chicago. It was the first non-indigenous community in the Wet Mountain Valley in what is now Custer County, Colorado. The principal activities were farming and cheesemaking. The communal effort failed after a frost and the settlers left the town. However, many of the settlers remained in the area as ranchers and farmers.