Hartman Castle Preservation Corporation

Alonzo Hartman was born in 1850 on a farm near Iowa City, Iowa.  He was the oldest son of Thomas Hartman and Mary Boone Hartman.  His mother claimed to be a descendant of Daniel Boone, an early folk hero in the United States.  Hartman first came to the area at the age of 22 in 1872 as a government employee with the Los Pinos Indian Agency. During this time, he befriended Chief Ouray and his wife Chipeta and watched as government rulings moved the Utes from this home west to the Uncompahgre Agency and then again to Utah.  

Hartman arrived at a cow camp on Christmas Day 1872, located at present-day Gunnison, Colorado.  That first winter, he and two other fellow employees spent the winter in a small log cabin, which was the only dwelling in the area.  In 1875, Hartman began a homestead where the Gunnison and Tomichi Rivers joined together and called this ranch Dos Rios.  There, he built a cabin and a post office.  The same year that Colorado became a state in 1876, Alonzo was appointed postmaster.  The mail made its way here from Lake City, Colorado.  According to Judy Buffington Sammons' book “Dos Rios Memories” “Alonzo retrieved the mail by horseback and on snowshoes, traveling the twenty-eight-miles from his new post office to Powderhorn and back one or two times a week. 

 In 1875, he filed for homestead and water rights, the first claim to water rights in Gunnison County. In 1881, a new post office was christened on Main Street in the heart of Gunnison, and Hartman was the postmaster.  He became the vice president of the new bank on Main Street in 1881, a partner with Horace Tabor.  During this time, the new courthouse was also built, employing Annie Leah Haigler, who became Alonzo’s friend and later his wife of nearly sixty years.  

They began their married life in the little cabin at Dos Rios but then moved to town and lived in a home close to the post office and bank duties.  Gunnison continued to grow. Hartman became one of its most prominent citizens and was involved in the town's innovation. He served on the Gunnison City Council, was a Gunnison County Commissioner, and served on the school board that built the first schoolhouses. Alonzo worked with other local ranchers to form the local Gunnison Cattleman’s Association, which was established in June of 1894, based upon the Colorado Cattleman’s Association. 

Annie was active in the community, serving as a much-loved Sunday School teacher. She was instrumental in forming a Monday Afternoon Club, an educational, literary, and advocacy women's group that was a precursor to the women's suffrage movement. This group also arranged educational opportunities for the children of the mining camps that surrounding Gunnison then.

Alonzo and Annie had their first two children and moved back to the Ranch at Dos Rios to attend to ranch matters, living in the original frame home.  This is where they lived for several years, but as their wealth increased, plans became in the works for a more substantial home, which would become known as Hartman Castle.  As stated in Sammons' book “Dos Rios Memories," “It (the castle) far outshone any other home in the community at this time and spoke as a symbol of the stature that Alonzo had achieved in the cattle business.   The castle served as their family’s home for over twenty years.  

Alonzo and Annie Hartman watched as the town of Gunnison changed from an area occupied mostly by the Tabagauche Utes to a tent city of 500 people in 1880 at its incorporation, which ballooned to 3000 in just one year.  The landscape itself had changed during his time from natural sage to meadows of hay.  He himself evolved from a rough young cowboy to a celebrated and respected member of the community and cattle rancher.  This is one of the most significant buildings in Gunnison.  This building is a reflection of the Hartman family. It would be preserving their family’s memory, the unique era in which they lived, and stories--some still to discover--for future generations to learn from.