First Baptist's Story

159 Years of Sharing the Good News

In the spring of 1864, as the Civil War was winding down, the members of a small Baptist Church in Appaloosa County, Iowa, sold all their possessions, loaded up their oxcarts, and headed west to the Colorado Territory. The settled in Cañon City and found First Baptist Church.


The church has grown with the community. First Baptist Church has supported the people of Cañon City through two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the COVID pandemic. First Baptist has been a source of encouragement, comfort, and belonging from generation to generation.


By the will and grace of God, we will continue to share the Good News with the people of our community until Jesus comes. We invite you to be a part of this amazing legacy, a legacy given to us by those intrepid followers of Christ who gave all to start this work in Cañon City.


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Early Days

First Baptist Church was the first church established in Cañon City and the third Protestant church established in the Colorado Territory.


On the north side of the 400 block of Main Street, the Baptists built an adobe building.  It had two rooms with a baptistry under the pulpit.  The members’ donations helped pay for the building at a cost of $1,500. One member sold his milk cow to pay for the wooden floor.


Not long after moving the Cañon City, First Baptist sent out two church planting teams to start churches in Anaconda and Cripple Creek.

Growing and Moving

In 1871 the congregation became self-supporting. For six years, the pioneers raised funds to buy the land on 7th and Macon from Anson Rudd.


First Baptist outgrew its two-room adobe church on 4th and Main Street. During the 1880s, the Baptists met at the location where the present library stands.


In 1892, our current house of worship was dedicated. First Baptist moved into its new building the same year the tunnels were blasted out on Tunnel Drive as part of an irrigation project.

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