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.[1]
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.[2] 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.[3]