The Colorado Land and Colonization company, incorporated in December 1869, was the owner by the purchase of a
Mexican Land Grant of over two million acres of agricultural and coal land in the territory of Colorado. Originally, this land had been part of the Vigil and St. Vrain Land Grant. The company's general office was located in Palmyra, Missouri. It proposed to sell the land for a minimal fee (advertised as "less than
twenty-five cents per acre") to any interested parties.