The Fictional Date

Drums Across the River (1954) opens with narration by Gary Brannon which I noted as:

"This is Crown City, born and built on gold mining. But by 1880 the only gold left was across the river in the San Juan Mountains - Ute Indian land. People get desperate when their livelihoods get cut off. I'm no exception. I'm Gary Brannon. My Dad and I run a freight outfit."

So the fictional date would be 1880.

Even though there were only a few thousand Utes at a time in the 19th Century, they were divided into about a dozen separate bands or tribes. Thus their political history was more complicated than might be expected.

Major conflicts between some Ute groups and white American groups included the Walker War (1853), the Black Hawk War (1865-1872) which shouldn't be confused with the Black Hawk War in Illinois in 1832, and the Meeker Massacre or White River War or Ute Campaign in 1879, and there were other smaller conflicts up until the Posey War in 1923.

Ouray (1833-August 24, 1880) was the chief of only one group of Utes, not the entire Ute nation. I doubt that he had a son named Taos who succeeded him as chief, since Taos is a community in New Mexico, where Ouray spent most of his childhood and youth. Ouray adopted two sons, but his only biological son was captured by Sioux when age five and sold to Arapaho and Ouray never saw him again.

The San Juan Mountains are in former Ute territory - one of the main towns is named Ouray - in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico, and there was once a lot of mining in them, though the large mines have all shut down.

I was unable to find evidence of a real Crown City, Colorado.