Editing Pueblo, Colorado (section)

=== Early development: railroads, steel, expansion, and orphanages ===
[[File:Colorado - Pueblo - NARA - 23936131 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Railroad yards in Pueblo, 1943]]
The current city of Pueblo represents the consolidation of four towns: Pueblo (incorporated 1870), [[South Pueblo, Colorado|South Pueblo]] (incorporated 1873), [[Central Pueblo, Colorado|Central Pueblo]] (incorporated 1882), and [[Bessemer, Colorado|Bessemer]] (incorporated 1886). Pueblo, South Pueblo, and Central Pueblo legally consolidated as the City of Pueblo between March 9 and April 6, 1886. Bessemer joined Pueblo in 1894.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last =Aschermann
 | title=Winds in the Cornfields
 | year = 1994
 | page = 51
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 | last =Dodds
 | title=They All Came To Pueblo
 | year = 1994
 | page = 168
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 | last =Dodds
 | title=Pueblo
 | year = 1982
 | pages = 54, 63
 | no-pp =true
}}</ref>

The consolidated city became a major economic and social center of Colorado, and was home to important early Colorado families such as the Thatchers, the [[James Bradley Orman|Ormans]], and the Adams. By the early 1870s the city was being hailed as a beacon of development, with newspapers like the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' boasting of how the region's lawless reputation was giving way to orderly agriculture with triumphalist rhetoric. One author crowed of Pueblo that "the necessity exists no longer for Sharp's rifles and revolvers. These have been [supplanted] by the plow and the mowing-machine."<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Pueblo: a Glimpse of Life in Southern Colorado|date = April 16, 1873|journal = Chicago Tribune}}</ref>

Pueblo's development stretched beyond agriculture. Steel emerged as a key industry very early, and in 1909 the city was considered the only steel town west of the Mississippi River.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Pueblo has Been Developed into Great Steel City by Vast Industry of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co.|date = September 17, 1909|journal = Christian Science Monitor}}</ref>

Until a series of major floods culminated in the Great Flood of 1921,<ref>{{cite web| url = https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025514/1921-06-11/ed-1/seq-2/#date1=06%2F01%2F1921&index=6&date2=07%2F31%2F1921&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=flood+Flood+FLOOD+flooded+Flooded+flooding+floods&proxdistance=5&state=Colorado&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=Flooding&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1| title = The Colorado statesman. &#91;volume&#93;, June 11, 1921, Image 2 estimated that 500 out of 575 flood fatalities came from Pueblo Chronicling America accessed OCtober 6.2020| date =June 11, 1921}}</ref> Pueblo was considered the 'Saddle-Making capital of the World'. Roughly one-third of Pueblo's downtown businesses were lost in this flood, along with a substantial number of buildings. Pueblo struggled with this significant loss, but has had a resurgence in growth.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

Historically, many people were influenced by the orphanages of Pueblo, and the homes are now all historical sites. The three orphanages in Pueblo were known as Sacred Heart, Lincoln, and McClelland. Lincoln was the first historically black orphanage in Colorado, and one of only seven in the country. Sacred Heart was run by the Catholic Welfare Bureau, while McClelland was run by the Lutheran Church. Several children from Cuba were placed at Sacred Heart as part of "[[Operation Pedro Pan]]". Though the orphanages in Pueblo are no longer in service, the buildings still exist and have transformed with the times. According to the ''[[Rocky Mountain News]]'', in 1988 the Sacred Heart Orphanage was bought by the Pueblo Housing Authority and turned into 40 small-family housing units.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Sacred Heart Orphanage bought by the Pueblo Housing Authority |date = May 29, 1988|journal = Rocky Mountain News}}</ref>

[[File:Pueblo Colorado Business District Flood 1921.JPG|thumb|left|From ''[[Popular Mechanics]]'' magazine (1921)]]