What we know
Matt France discovered the lignite beds six to fourteen feet down (Hall, 1891); in May 1882 a News correspondent called Franceville 'the center of the great coal fields' along the new D&NO (S-0078).
Where it was
USGS GNIS Mine 193545. 'Franceville is a coal mining town in the eastern part of El Paso, named in honor of Honorable Matt France of Colorado Springs' (Hall, 1891); a D&NO spur 'ran east to Franceville, named for landowner Matthew France' (von Ahlefeldt p. 51).
The U.S. Geological Survey's official point for this place name.
Sources
Sources are named in the text above. Numbers such as S-0080 refer to our source list. Most newspaper quotations were read in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. Long quotations from recent books are shortened here.