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Table of Contents
How Tuberculosis Helped Put Colorado on the Map
Before antibiotics, tuberculosis meant a death sentence back East. Colorado became America’s last hope. Desperate families shipped their loved ones west with fruit baskets and prayer. The state turned into one giant hospital.
Towns like Colorado Springs saw their populations explode with sick people seeking miracle cures in the mountain air. Some got better, many didn’t, but they all helped build modern Colorado. Here’s the story of how disease created cities you can explore today.
Wikimedia Commons/Ajay Kumar Chaurasiya
Tuberculosis Killed One in Seven Americans
Tuberculosis was America’s biggest killer in the 1800s, claiming one in seven of all people who had ever lived. People called it the “White Death” because patients wasted away from constant coughing, high fevers, and dramatic weight loss…