Strong Roots: Pueblo’s infamous Hanging Tree lives on
But now in the name of a popular downtown coffee spot.
By Alexis Kristan
When Charles Sole, owner of the Daily Grind Cafe in downtown Pueblo, decided to change the name of the favorite gathering spot, there was undoubtedly some disapproval.
Sole is renaming his shop to the Hanging Tree Cafe. The new name is tasteless, some said on social media. Others wondered why he would choose such a name. A hanging tree does not tend to evoke feelings of togetherness, nostalgia or even the warm feeling waiting for a hot cup of joe.
No, the Hanging Tree Cafe represents something much deeper in Pueblo’s history. Before it was chopped down in the 1880s, Pueblo’s hanging tree, an impressively large cottonwood, was also called the Old Monarch Tree. Its branches overlooked Union Ave., and its roots sprawled between C and D Street. That’s where the Daily Grind has been located since 2006.
Perhaps for many people the Daily Grind has been the common meeting spot associated with new friends, old flames, important meetings and a good bowl of vegan green chile.
Sole and Fabiola Garcia Atencio, a manager at the cafe, and I grab some drinks and get ourselves a table with a view of the dark street, where the old tree would have stood had it been more than a 120 years earlier.
It’s 7pm and the café is still alive with the smell of coffee and the sound of laughter — probably the opposite of the atmosphere surrounding a hanging tree.
First, the name change.
“I was never happy with the name,” Sole confessed. Atencio recalls the amount of mom and pop “daily grinds” popping up around the country.
“We’d have people come in and tell us that they’d been to one of our cafes on the west coast,” she said. If anyone knows anything about Pueblo’s Grind they know that its unique atmosphere, eclectic menu and bursting pride for the Steel City could never be replicated anywhere else.
So it was about time they got a name as perfectly grungy, bold and Pueblo as they are.
It should be noted that the history of the hanging tree is largely left to legend. It was torn down in the 1880s when traffic became busier and the landmark became an obstruction to the horse buggies.
A slice of it still sits at the El Pueblo Museum — it’s painted with ‘facts’ about the tree. But History Colorado staff have disproved several of the claims, such as “In 1850 there were 36 persons massacred by Indians while camping near the tree.” That actually happened closer to the El Pueblo trading post. And the legend that 14 people were hanged from the tree? Well, that’s unknown.
“Works Progress Administration interviews refer to citizen accounts that the tree was used for hangings, but conclusive evidence has not been found,” History Colorado said in a research article on the old tree.
Sole and Atencio have both made that clear about the name change. “It was used as a landmark for pioneers traveling to Pueblo and was actually cut down in 1883,” Atencio said, reiterating the tree’s history.
People seem to be under the impression that the tree was used for execution or had some tie to the 1960s civil rights movement but both Sole and Atencio insist that this was not the case, it was long gone before that era.
Actually, chopping down the tree was met by some heavy scrutiny from the public. History Colorado said the outcry was so great that some city councilmen lost elections.
Despite a few raised eyebrows now, Sole and Atencio say most loyal customers seem to really support the new name. Regardless of public support the café will continue to do what it has always done.
“We don’t care if people still call it The Grind.” Charles said with a smile. They told me of plans to paint a mural of a tree on one of the walls and to continue to hang local art from it, something they’re calling, “celebrating life through the art that imitates it.”
Sole describes the business as his heart and his “whole life” even though, as he admits with a chuckle, “I wasn’t supposed to be a café owner. I’m supposed to take pictures and paint.”
Sole was getting his art degree through CSU-Pueblo when his mother and sister decided to open a gift basket business in December of 2002, naming it “Basket Case.”
They sold baskets and began to hang local art on the walls, they also bought an espresso machine. Sole reflects fondly on the popularity of that tiny espresso machine: “the coffee part of things really took off.”
So began the evolution from baskets to grounds. Sole’s involvement in the business increased up until they decided to change the name and to eventually purchase the building in 2006.
Sole and Atencio said the place will undergo few changes with the name, they have no intentions of moving away from being “as green as possible.” They do plan to add a few more vegan items this spring, as well as throwing their annual Botanical Bash to celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of planting and cultivating the community garden which is located behind the café.
The café has big plans to feature more local musicians as well as to continue to feature local artists all over their walls. Sole recalls what it was like to be a young art student and to have nowhere to display work.
Within the next five years the café plans to convert to solar energy and open a second location, hopefully closer to the university.
