Sacred Neutral Ground of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho
Near Manitou Springs, Colorado
Long before there was a town here, this canyon was a gathering place for Native nations. The Ute, the Cheyenne, and the Arapaho all made pilgrimages to these springs, and all of them regarded the fizzing water as holy. To them the bubbles were not a chemical reaction but the breath of the Great Spirit Manitou, rising up through the water to meet the world.
People drank the water and soaked in it, believing it could heal and restore them. What made this place truly unusual was that it belonged to no one and to everyone. The springs were considered neutral ground.
Nations that might raid one another elsewhere, that might be at open war on the plains, could come here and share in the gifts of the waters without fear of conflict. They wintered in the valley, drank side by side, and left again in peace. The Old Ute Trail ran right past here, following the creek up through the canyon toward Ute Pass, a route so well worn that later explorers and settlers simply followed it.
As white settlement pushed in during the eighteen seventies, access to the springs was contested, and eventually the Native peoples were forced onto reservations and away from the water they had honored for generations. The springs remain. The name Manitou keeps their reverence alive in every drink you take from these fountains.
