Editing Eldora, Colorado (section)

== Etymology  ==
[[File:View of Eldora, CO.JPG|thumb|View of the densely forested areas surrounding Eldora Lodge at Wondervu.]]
Eldora was originally named Happy Valley in the 1890s for the discovery of the Happy Valley Placer Mine by John J. Kemp and seven city associates.<ref name="Bauer, Carolyn 1987 Page 19"/> The town was soon renamed El Dorado,<ref name="Dallas, Sandra 1988 Page 71">Dallas, Sandra (1988). ''Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps''. University of Oklahoma Press. Page 71. {{ISBN|9780806120843}}.</ref> Eldorado or Eldorado Camp. But, as frequently happened at the time, the [[U.S. Postal Service]] mistakenly delivered their mail to towns by the same name in other U.S. states, particularly to [[El Dorado, CA]],<ref name="Dallas, Sandra 1988 Page 71"/><ref>Crossen, Forest (1962). ''The Switzerland Trail of America: An Illustrated History of the Romantic Narrow Gauge Lines Running West from Boulder, Colorado: the Greeley, Salt Lake & Pacific, and the Colorado & Northwestern, Later the Denver, Boulder & Western''. Pruett Press. Page 335.</ref> creating havoc by delaying payroll checks and important papers. Consequently, the U.S. Post Service changed the conflicting name by dropping the last syllable “do” from Colorado's Eldorado.<ref name="Bauer, Carolyn 1987 Page 19"/> That name change occurred in 1898, one year after the local post office was established (Feb. 13, 1897), which was in use until it closed in September 1977.<ref name="rootsweb.ancestry.com"/>