Founded in 1874 by U.S. Civil War veteran General William Jackson Palmer — the founder of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and of Colorado Springs — CC was instituted as a
liberal arts college which would foster Christian outreach by its graduates
and faculty in the New England tradition. Like many U.S. colleges and
universities that have endured from the 19th century, it now is more secular in outlook than it was at its founding in 1874,
though retaining its liberal arts focus.