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Florissant is an unincorporated town located in Teller County, Colorado, United States. The town was founded in 1870 along the Ute Pass Trail and was the first community on the western slope of Pikes Peak. Travelers, traders, and Indians stopped here long before the discovery of gold and silver in the mountains to the west. Mining booms in Leadville and Aspen brought the tracks of the Colorado Midland Railroad through Florissant in 1886.
The town was named after Florissant, Missouri, the hometown of Judge James Castello, an early settler. The word “florissant” is the gerund of the French verb “fleurir,” which roughly means to flourish, to flower, or to blossom.
Florissant is located immediately north of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, which is home to one of the richest and most diverse fossil deposits in the world. The monument preserves the fossilized remains of ancient plants and animals that lived in the area over 34 million years ago.