Topic
History and culture
Mining towns and railroads, landmarks and museums, festivals, food, and the local-color stories that make each corner of Colorado make sense.
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Local notes
From around Colorado
502 sourced notes in this topic
History and culture
Near Eads, the Sand Creek Massacre site is sacred ground the National Park Service cares for
The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in Kiowa County is a place of mourning for the Cheyenne and Arapaho people, and the National Park Service is the agency that protects and explains it.
Read note ->History and culture
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.
Read note ->History and culture
Amache, near Granada, is a place to visit with care
Near Granada in Prowers County, Amache is the site of a World War II incarceration camp for Japanese Americans, now part of the National Park System.
Read note ->History and culture
Colorado's oldest church still holds Mass in Conejos
Our Lady of Guadalupe in Conejos is counted as Colorado's oldest parish, an adobe church still holding Mass, with a mid-December fiesta and an adobe prayer labyrinth.
Read note ->History and culture
Rocky Ford melons and a fair that has run since 1878
Rocky Ford's cantaloupes and watermelons anchor the Arkansas Valley Fair, the oldest continuous fair in Colorado, whose mid-August Watermelon Day hands out free melons to everyone who comes.
Read note ->History and culture
Telluride runs on festivals, and Bluegrass weekend is the heart of it
Telluride's summer calendar is built around festivals, from Bluegrass in Town Park each June to the Film Festival's secret program on Labor Day weekend.
Read note ->History and culture
The ancient sky-watchers of Chimney Rock
The ruins at Chimney Rock were a high-elevation Ancestral Puebloan village tied to the Chaco world, built where two stone spires frame events in the sky.
Read note ->History and culture
Broomfield is both a city and a county at the same time
Broomfield is one of only two places in Colorado that is a combined city and county, formed when the city's land was pulled out of four other counties.
Read note ->History and culture
Conejos and the long roots of Hispano settlement in the San Luis Valley
The Conejos area holds some of Colorado's earliest lasting Hispano settlement, tied to a Mexican-era land grant and the Catholic parish at Conejos, a history best learned from official archives.
Read note ->History and culture
Why Leadville sits where it does: silver, then much more
Leadville grew up around mining in California Gulch, and much of its historic core is recognized as a National Historic Landmark District.
Read note ->History and culture
Costilla County's map still follows a Mexican-era land grant
The shape of land, water, and settlement around San Luis traces back to the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant and the families who settled it in the 1850s.
Read note ->History and culture
Telluride's old town is a recognized mining-era historic district
Telluride's historic core is recognized as a National Historic Landmark District tied to Colorado's hard-rock mining era, which shapes how the town looks and what owners can change.
Read note ->History and culture
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.
Read note ->History and culture
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.
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Vail started with a seven-hour climb and a view of the treeless Back Bowls
Vail grew into one of the largest single ski mountains in North America, and the story starts with a 1957 climb to a ridge above a string of wide, treeless bowls.
Read note ->History and culture
You can still find Santa Fe Trail wagon ruts in southern Baca County
The Cimarron Route of the Santa Fe Trail crossed about 14 miles of southern Baca County, and on the Carrizo Unit grassland you can still walk out to faint wagon ruts and old markers.
Read note ->History and culture
The Georgetown Loop is a railroad built to climb a wall
The Georgetown Loop is a restored narrow-gauge railroad that loops over itself to climb between Georgetown and Silver Plume, with a historic silver-mine tour on the route.
Read note ->History and culture
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.
Read note ->History and culture
Georgetown and Silver Plume are a protected piece of mining history
The towns of Georgetown and Silver Plume and the railroad between them form a federally recognized historic district tied to Colorado's silver-mining past.
Read note ->History and culture
Littleton's Main Street is a Victorian downtown you can walk in an afternoon
Littleton's Main Street Historic District packs brick storefronts, a 1920 town hall turned theater, and seasonal festivals into a few walkable blocks on the National Register.
Read note ->History and culture
RiNo's Painted Warehouses: Denver's Open-Air Mural Gallery
In Denver's River North Art District, brick warehouses double as canvases for a self-guided mural walk that grows a little every year.
Read note ->History and culture
San Luis's Stations of the Cross climb a mesa above the oldest town in Colorado
A free, year-round walk under a mile long climbs La Mesa de la Piedad y de la Misericordia past Huberto Maestas's bronze Stations of the Cross to a hilltop adobe chapel and grotto.
Read note ->History and culture
The Dark Sky Over Westcliffe: Why People Drive Here to Look Up
Westcliffe and Silver Cliff protected their night sky so well they earned Colorado's first International Dark Sky Community certification, and a free in-town observatory lets you see the result.
Read note ->History and culture
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.
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