Adams State University: a teachers' college built for the valley

If you live near Alamosa, the college on the north edge of town shapes daily life: the events, the sports, the jobs, the students renting rooms. Its history explains why it is here at all.

Adams State began as a state “normal school” — an old term for a teacher-training college. The legislature authorized it in 1921, and the school held its first session in 1925 on land at the edge of Alamosa. The idea behind it was practical. The San Luis Valley was remote and rural, and its small country schools needed trained teachers. A teachers’ college placed in the valley could turn out the teachers the valley needed, without sending students hundreds of miles away.

The college is named for William “Billy” Adams, a valley rancher who served in the legislature for decades and later became governor of Colorado. He spent years pushing to get the school created, so his name on it fits.

Over time the school changed names and grew well beyond teacher training, becoming Adams State University in 2012. But teacher education is still part of its identity, a thread back to why it was founded. For the school’s own account of its founding and namesake, see the Adams State University history pages.