An old family bible dated 1756 records the earliest record of the Foster Family. This is the bible of one Isaac Foster, the Great Grandfather of Capt. James Allen Foster. The first record in that bible bears a record of 1754 and it shows the Foster family of pre Revolution era had settled in Virginia before that date. The Fosters were of Scottish Welsh descent. James Allen was the youngest son of one Nathaniel Foster and his second wife, Margaret Miller Foster. The Millers were of German origin. They had settled in America before the Revolution in Augusta County, Virginia.

In 1866, after engaging in the hotel business in Virginia, Captain James Foster with his family came West, and in 1868, located at Apishapa Stage Line Crossing. Mrs. Foster was Miss Susan Dotson before her marriage. It was Mrs. Fosters knowledge of the hotel business which made the place a success. Her good cooking became advertised all along the line.

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Foster's Station was at the crossroads. Lumber haulers with ox teams were freighting lumber down the Apishapa Creek Trail as far as towns in western Kansas. Lumber was milled at the Trujillo Creek and other saw mills above the Plaza of San Antonio, later to be named Aguilar.

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During the first years, the Apishapa Station was visited each fall by a band of Utes. Early settlers recall that a herd of scrawny ponies and a pack of barking dogs accompanied them each year. Ponies drawing poles, laden with wigwam coverings, with papooses strapped one on either side of a pony in a basket woven with a small hole in the bottom of each basket. All this was a part of early day environment of the Foster House. The valley below is the centuries' old hunting ground of the Indians as thousands of arrow heads and other stone relics have been reclaimed here by arrow head seekers. The Indians gave Apishapa Creek its name because to them it was "stinking water" at flood time.

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The famous old Foster Hotel and Coach Station, was a large two story, eight room, adobe wall building. A double decked veranda on three sides gave it a Southern architectural design. On the east, or front side, were eight large windows. There were two large brick fireplace chimneys through the center of the high gable roof that connected with the fireplaces in the eight guest rooms. Doors in the center of the front side led to both the upper and first floor verandas from the interior corridors. Near the house was a deep rock-walled well of cold soft water. The large barn in which were kept the stage coach horses was of mortice timber framed workmanship seldom seen in these parts at the time.

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In addition to operating the station, Foster engaged in the cattle business and the breeding of better breeds of saddle and carriage horses. Horses were his hobby. He was also known to keep good liquor. Many memories of the Civil War & his service with the Confederacy were retold while sampling his liquor. Foster always maintained that his Station was located South of the Mason and Dixon Line, and over his house on occasion the Old Stars and Bars would be seen flying.

The town of Apishapa was platted during the early 1880's. Lots were sold and several houses and business enterprises established there. The stage business was ruined by the extension of the D.& R. G. Railroad from Cuchara to El Moro near Trinidad. Then it was that the Fosters converted their large place into a hotel and a home for sufferers with tuberculosis. With the decline in population, Foster bought most of the property & buildings and turned it all into pasture. That is the story of the town of Apishapa.

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The captain always gave his first wife credit for his success and fortune. Susan Dotson Foster died in April 1889. Her death was a severe blow to Capt. Foster. After a time, he returned to West Virginia and left a foster son & his wife to run the hotel. In 1891, after a second trip to West Virginia he married Margaret Elizabeth Alderson.

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Thus with his second wife, Capt. Foster lived on contentedly and prosperously at Apishapa until his death Oct 1, 1895. His entire estate went to his widow. The property deteriorated rapidly. She lived there and died January of 1908. That same year the property was sold to the Dupont Powder Co. which set up a plant at Augusta. The Dupont Powder Plant is remembered as four towers or mills where sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter, ingredients for explosive black powder, were ground and stored. Some recall it as having been active during World War I, then later till the mines started to close down. Today only the walls of four ghostly structures stand silently in a field east of the location of the ruins of the "Foster House".