(FOUNTAIN, Colo) — The city of Fountain has seen its population grow from approximately 5,000 people in the 1970s to more than 29,000 residents today. Deputy Utility Director Carl Christian, a fifth-generation resident, said the rapid expansion has transformed the community from a quiet small town into a thriving city with some challenges.
Christian talks about how his family’s roots got planted in the city, saying, “My great, great grandmother’s brother came out here after the Civil War and was a miner,” Christian said. “And he wrote back to the family in Warren County, Tennessee, and said, ‘You guys need to come to Fountain.’ And we’ve been here ever since the late 1880s.”
Throughout the years, each generation lived in the house next door on W. Illinois Ave. The first home of the Christian family was built by Christian’s great-grandfather. The next house over was built by Christian’s grandfather and is where his father grew up. Christian was born and raised in the brown house on the street, which was built by his father, and eventually, Christian built a cabin at the end of the road…