For context. Here's where it happened.

Is there anything that wilky doesn't have obscure and extremely detailed trivia facts off the top of his head about?

It's also the name of one of Denver's major thoroughfares. 

Colfax Avenue was named after Schuyler Colfax, as well.  Colfax actually visited Denver in 1865.  It is believed that it was named after Colfax, in part, to try and speed along the process of Colorado becoming a state. 

That failed. 

The conservative Republicans ousted Colfax from the ticket in 1872, because he was too liberal.  The Democrats (still a very toxic brand in 1872, because of the whole Civil War thing) actually allied with liberal Republicans to run a combined "Liberal Republican" ticket against Grant, and it was feared that there would not be enough of a true choice between the two tickets, if Colfax was still on it.  The Republicans selected Henry Wilson to run as Vice-President.  Wilson had grown up in poverty and famously been an indentured servant in New Hampshire for a decade for $85, which laid the foundation for his later accent to the Vice-Presidency.  Wilson suffered the first of several strokes 2 1/2 months into office and would occasionally lose the ability to speak.  Wilson would suffer a fatal stroke a little more than 2 1/2 years later, the fourth Vice-President who died in office on November 22, 1875.

In September 1872, Colfax got caught up in the Crédit Mobilier Scandal.  While still in Congress, Colfax had accepted $5,200 (about $90,000 today) from the Union Pacific Railroad and an envelope supplier.  It was never shown that there was actually any linked action taken as a result of the "bribes" and the "bribes" were supposedly for votes in Congress, rather than as Vice-President.  Still, the Democrats introduced a resolution to impeach Colfax, but it was defeated 109-105 in a mostly straight party line vote.  Colfax continued to be wildly popular in Indiana but never ran for office again, because of fear that the Crédit Mobilier Scandal would successfully be used against him.

In September 1873, the first Great Depression started, and it lasted until 1879.  The first Great Depression was longer lasting than the second in 1929 but was not as severe.  Having said that, the United States would spend more than 45% of the following 28 years in recession.  The depression was caused by issues related to Italian Unification, the Franco-Prussian War, and the United States' attempt to get back to the gold standard.  However, the true cause was out-of-control immigration, which caused the United States' population to increase by 30% between 1870 and 1880.  The United States' economy grew from 1873 to 1879 but could not grow faster than immigration.

In response to the Great Depression starting, Democrats swamped Republicans at the polls in 1874, which gave Democrats a 177-108 majority in the House of Representatives, the Democrats' first majority in the House of Representatives in 14 years.  The lame duck Republican Congress, on the final day before the Democratic House was to be sworn in, passed the Colorado Enabling Act, which set Colorado's admission as the 38th state into motion the following year.  Colorado was a Republican stronghold for the first 14 years of its existence before becoming Democrat largely over the issue of the gold standard, Colorado being one of the nation's largest silver producers.

Yeah I remember the last time I drove up to Pullman I got a tip that if you cut off Washington State Highway 26 about a mile or so out of Colfax on Airport Road you will cruise down a hill into town on a back way missing the main drag and will miss the speed trap laying local yokel cops that will ticket you for going 26 in a 25 they say .... it worked for me

As are most small towns. Gotta get revenue somehow.