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is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimated that the city population was 8,564 in 2005. Glenwood Springs is home to one branch of Colorado Mountain College.
Glenwood has a long, interesting history. It was originally known as Defiance Colorado. Defiance, Colorado was established in 1883 a camp of tents, saloons and brothels with an increasing amount of cabins and lodging establishments. It was populated with the expected crowd of gamblers, gunslingers, and prostitutes. Town Founder Isaac Cooper's wife Sarah was having a hard time adjusting to the frontier life and in an attempt to make her environment somewhat more comfortable, persuaded the founders to change the name to Glenwood Springs, Colorado after her beloved hometown of Glenwood, Iowa.
Its unique location at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Roaring Fork River as well gaining a stop on the railroad historically made it a center of commerce in the area. The city has seen numerous famous visitors including President Teddy Roosevelt who spent an entire summer vacation living out of the historic Hotel Colorado. Doc Holliday, a wild west legend from the O.K. Corral gunfight, spent the final months of his life in Glenwood Springs and is buried in the town's original cemetery above Bennett Avenue. Infamous serial killer Ted Bundy was imprisoned in the Glenwood Springs jail until he escaped on the night of December 30, 1977, an escape which went undetected for 17 hours .