Tag
place names
33 Porch Notes tagged “place names,” from counties across Colorado.
History and culture - Archuleta County
The hot spring that gave Pagosa Springs its name
The geothermal spring at the center of Pagosa Springs has drawn people since long before the town existed, and its story includes Ute and earlier Native histories that deserve careful telling.
Read note ->History and culture - Archuleta County
How Archuleta County and Pagosa Springs got their names
The county carries a Hispanic family name from the San Luis Valley, while the town's name comes from a Ute word tied to its famous spring.
Read note ->History and culture - Ouray County
Ouray is named for a Ute leader, and the county carries the name too
The town and county of Ouray are named for Ouray, a nineteenth-century leader of the Tabeguache (Uncompahgre) band of Ute people, and early accounts say the townsite was first known as Uncompahgre City.
Read note ->History and culture - Broomfield County
Broomfield's rail stop was Zang's Spur, and the name is usually traced to broomcorn
Broomfield grew from farm country along the railroad and was known to the railroad as Zang's Spur after a local landowner; the name Broomfield is traditionally traced to broomcorn grown nearby, though the city's own history does not settle the question.
Read note ->History and culture - Arapahoe County
Arapahoe County carries the name of the Arapaho people
Arapahoe County is named for the Arapaho people, who lived across the eastern Colorado plains long before the county was drawn.
Read note ->History and culture - Boulder County
Boulder started as a supply town for gold miners in 1859
The city of Boulder began in 1859 as a base where miners outfitted before heading into the mountains, and it took its name from Boulder Creek.
Read note ->History and culture - Pueblo County
Pueblo began as a trading post on the old border
The city's name and origin trace to El Pueblo, an adobe trading post built in 1842 on the Arkansas River when it was the U.S.-Mexico border, now told at the El Pueblo History Museum.
Read note ->History and culture - El Paso County
Pikes Peak carried older names long before it was on a map
The mountain that anchors El Paso County was known to the Ute and other tribes by its own names for generations before Zebulon Pike's 1806 sighting.
Read note ->History and culture - Arapahoe County
Aurora was first called Fletcher
The city of Aurora started in 1891 as the town of Fletcher, named for a developer, and voters renamed it Aurora years later in the early 1900s.
Read note ->History and culture - Adams County
Federal Heights' name comes from Federal Boulevard and the benchlands
Federal Heights took its name from a 1925 subdivision off Federal Boulevard and the benchlands rising between three local watersheds.
Read note ->History and culture - Adams County
Historic Westminster still carries the university name story
Westminster took its name from Westminster University, whose campus landmark is now Westminster Castle, on the National Register since 1979.
Read note ->History and culture - San Miguel County
Why it's called San Miguel County, and how the county began
San Miguel County was created in 1883 around the Telluride mining boom, and its name comes from the San Miguel River, a Spanish name meaning Saint Michael.
Read note ->History and culture - Weld County
Ault's name remembers a grain buyer who helped farmers
Ault, on Highway 85, took its name from Alexander Ault, a grain buyer who bought wheat in hard times to keep local farmers afloat.
Read note ->History and culture - Jefferson County
Golden grew as a supply town, not a mining camp
Golden was founded during the 1859 gold rush as a supply and transportation hub for miners heading into the mountains, and it took its name from early settler Tom Golden, not from gold itself.
Read note ->History and culture - Grand County
Grand County is named for a river that no longer goes by that name
Grand County took its name from the Grand River, the old name for the upper Colorado River that begins within its borders.
Read note ->History and culture - Hinsdale County
Why Hinsdale County exists, and where its name comes from
Hinsdale County was created in 1874 during the silver rush and named for George A. Hinsdale, with Lake City growing up where a toll road met the mines.
Read note ->History and culture - Larimer County
A 1914 pack trip recorded Arapaho place names near Estes Park
In 1914, Arapaho men joined a Colorado Mountain Club pack trip through the Estes Park region so Arapaho place names and trails could be recorded, work later published as 'Arapaho Names and Trails.'
Read note ->History and culture - Huerfano County
How Huerfano County got its name from a lonely butte
Huerfano County, the Huerfano River, and the area's Spanish name all trace back to a solitary volcanic butte north of Walsenburg that early Spanish travelers called El Huerfano, 'the orphan.'
Read note ->History and culture - Routt County
How Steamboat Springs got its name
Steamboat Springs is named for a mineral spring whose chugging sound reminded early travelers of a steamboat engine, a sound later quieted by the railroad.
Read note ->History and culture - Gunnison County
How the Gunnison name landed on the river, county, and town
The river, county, and town of Gunnison all carry the name of Captain John W. Gunnison, a U.S. Army surveyor who passed through during an 1853 railroad survey.
Read note ->History and culture - La Plata County
The town of Ignacio and the Southern Ute heritage around it
Ignacio, in southern La Plata County, is named for the Ute leader Chief Ignacio and sits at the heart of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe's homeland — history best learned from the Tribes themselves.
Read note ->History and culture - Arapahoe County
Englewood grew out of Orchard Place and Cherrelyn
Before it was Englewood, this Arapahoe County city was a cluster of communities including Orchard Place and Cherrelyn, joined into one city in 1903.
Read note ->History and culture - Garfield County
Garfield County is named for a U.S. president
Garfield County was created in 1883 and named for President James A. Garfield, with Glenwood Springs as its county seat.
Read note ->History and culture - Adams County
How Adams County got its name and its start
Adams County was created in the early 1900s from Arapahoe County and named for Governor Alva Adams, with Brighton rancher Emmet Bromley behind the bill.
Read note ->History and culture - Bent County
The county's name comes from a trading fort on the Arkansas
Bent County is named for the Bent family, whose adobe trading post on the Santa Fe Trail along the Arkansas River was a meeting place for traders and Plains tribes.
Read note ->History and culture - Custer County
Why the county is called Custer
Custer County was carved out of Fremont County in 1877 and named for George Armstrong Custer, who had died the year before at the Little Bighorn.
Read note ->History and culture - Montezuma County
Mancos got its name from a river, and built its main street beside it
The town of Mancos takes its name from the nearby Rio de los Mancos, and its historic commercial core grew southeast of the railroad siding, near the river.
Read note ->History and culture - Eagle County
Avon's name came from 'Avondale,' not an English river
A popular tale says Avon was named for England's Avon River, but the town's own history credits early settler George A. Townsend, who liked the name 'Avondale' — a reminder to check place-name legends against the documented record.
Read note ->History and culture - La Plata County
La Plata County is named 'the silver' for its mountains and rivers
La Plata County takes its name from the Spanish word for silver, tied to the La Plata Mountains and the La Plata River, one of the streams that drains the county.
Read note ->History and culture - Denver County
Why Denver grew up where Cherry Creek meets the South Platte
Denver started at the meeting of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek during an 1850s gold rush, which is why the old city center sits where it does.
Read note ->History and culture - Delta County
Paonia is named for the peony, with a vowel lost along the way
The North Fork town of Paonia takes its name from the Latin word for peony, shortened from Paeonia when the post office balked at the extra vowel.
Read note ->History and culture - Mesa County
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.
Read note ->History and culture - Delta County
Why the county seat is named Delta
The City of Delta takes its name from the delta-shaped land where the Uncompahgre River meets the Gunnison, and it became the county seat when Delta County was carved from Gunnison County in 1883.
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