History and culture - Mountains
Why Gunnison Feels Like a College Town
Western Colorado University, the first college on the Western Slope, has shaped the rhythm and character of Gunnison since its first class of 13 students in 1911.
Published June 10, 2026 - Last verified June 15, 2026
Spend a morning walking Gunnison and you start to feel the reason the town hums the way it does. A few blocks north of Main Street sits Western Colorado University, and the school has been part of this valley far longer than most of the buildings around it.
The legislature approved the college in 1901, and in 1911 the first class of 13 students arrived. That made it the first college on Colorado’s Western Slope. It opened as the Colorado State Normal School, a two-year teaching college, became four-year Western State College in 1923, and was renamed Western Colorado University in 2019. Locals still call it Western.
The school shapes the town in plain ways. When classes are in session, the coffee shops fill, the trails see more boots, and a few thousand students add to a town this size. The university now anchors the Paul M. Rady School of Computer Science & Engineering, built around a partnership with CU Boulder, which has pulled engineering students into a place better known for skiing and trout.
That mix of a working mountain town and a small public university is what gives Gunnison its easy, year-round feel. If you want the founding story in full, including the early days as a normal school, Western lays it out on its own history page.