Stories from Colorado
The Colorado Almanac
Some places make more sense after you know the story behind them. Start with a rail line, old industry, river, courthouse, festival, or piece of deep time. Every story is short, tied to a real place, and backed by a source.
999 story and place-identity notes live in the full library. This Almanac is a handpicked front shelf.
Rails and routes
The lines that connected Colorado
Steam trains, mountain passes, and one bicycle race born from a bet between brothers.
A steam train climbs out of Antonito and over a 10,000-foot pass
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad runs a coal-fired narrow-gauge steam train 64 miles from Antonito over Cumbres Pass, on a line so intact it was named a National Historic Landmark.
- Mountains Tennessee Pass and Ski Cooper carry the 10th Mountain Division story Tennessee Pass north of Leadville and the Ski Cooper area trace back to World War II, when the Army trained the 10th Mountain Division ski troops in this high country.
- Western Slope The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic: When Durango Cyclists Race the Train Every Memorial Day weekend, Durango cyclists try to beat the narrow-gauge steam train to Silverton over two high mountain passes, in a race born from a brothers' bet in 1971.
Main streets and landmarks
Buildings that still explain the place
A mining-era hotel, a downtown historic district, and a courthouse built during the New Deal.
Durango's Main Avenue is a designated historic district
Downtown Durango's Main Avenue is a recognized historic district whose buildings record the town's mining-era beginnings and later growth as a regional hub.
- Mountains The Beaumont Hotel is one of Ouray's landmark 1880s buildings The Beaumont Hotel, built in the 1880s during Ouray's mining boom and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is one of the town's most recognizable historic buildings.
- Eastern Plains Holyoke's courthouse is a New Deal landmark you can walk right up to The 1935 Phillips County Courthouse in Holyoke is a Moderne-style Public Works Administration building on the National Register, and the only surviving PWA project in the county.
Water shapes the place
Rivers, springs, and water moved uphill
The old Grand River name, the springs behind Idaho Springs, and a project that changed Dove Creek farms.
Why so many things near Grand Junction say 'Grand'
Grand Junction, the Grand Valley, and Grand Mesa carry a name from the river that was once called the Grand before it became part of the Colorado River.
- Mountains The hot springs that put the "Springs" in Idaho Springs The steaming geothermal water that drew a prospector here in 1859 still feeds a soaking spot you can visit today.
- Western Slope How the Dolores Project pumps river water up to the Dove Creek farms The Dolores Project stores Dolores River water in McPhee Reservoir and pumps it many miles to the Dove Creek area, which is why some land that was once dryland now has irrigation and the town has a municipal supply.
Old work and industry
The work that built whole towns
Oil, gold, and marble left behind more than old equipment. They shaped communities that are still here.
Florence sits on one of Colorado's earliest oil stories
The area around Florence in Fremont County was an early Colorado oil field, and that history is one part of how the town took shape.
- Mountains The Argo Mill and Tunnel tell Idaho Springs' gold story The Argo Mill and Tunnel above Idaho Springs is a preserved gold-era landmark that once drained and processed ore from mines across the district.
- Mountains The town of Marble and the stone in the Lincoln Memorial Marble, a small town in northern Gunnison County, grew around the Yule marble quarry, whose stone was used in the Lincoln Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknowns.
Festivals and traditions
The weekends people keep coming back for
Whitewater in Salida, a potato farmers' rodeo in Greeley, and steam-powered harvest work in Yuma.
Salida's FIBArk river festival has run since 1949
FIBArk, short for First in Boating the Arkansas, is Salida's June whitewater festival on the Arkansas River, held since 1949 and one of the longest-running events of its kind.
- Eastern Plains The Greeley Stampede grew from a 1922 rodeo for potato farmers Weld County's marquee summer event traces back to a one-day 1922 'Spud Rodeo' honoring potato growers and now runs nearly two weeks around the Fourth of July.
- Eastern Plains Old Threshers Day in Yuma: a harvest run on steam Each year the weekend following Labor Day, Yuma fires up antique steam engines and threshing machines and works real wheat the old way, twice a day.
Deep time and old ground
Places that make the long view visible
Dinosaur tracks, rock art, and ancestral Pueblo masonry that deserve an unhurried, respectful visit.
Dinosaur Ridge: Walking a Tilted Slab of Deep Time Near Morrison
A walkable ridge near Morrison where the tilted Dakota Hogback lays Jurassic bones and Cretaceous footprints out at eye level.
- Eastern Plains Picture Canyon holds rock art worth treating with care Picture Canyon in Baca County's Comanche National Grassland holds ancient rock art on its walls, and visiting it respectfully helps protect it.
- Western Slope Lowry Pueblo is a national landmark you can walk up to Northwest of Cortez, Lowry Pueblo is a designated National Historic Landmark in Canyons of the Ancients, with standing masonry rooms and a Great Kiva you can visit on a developed trail.