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
More history and culture notes
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History and culture
Fairplay was born in the gold rush, and Alma grew with the mines that followed
Fairplay began as a gold-rush camp, Alma grew later as a supply and smelting town for nearby mines, and the mining era still shapes the towns, place names, and disturbed ground around South Park.
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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.
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Fort Lyon, near Las Animas, is where Kit Carson died
Fort Lyon, east of Las Animas near the mouth of the Purgatoire River, was a frontier army post where Kit Carson died in 1868, and it later became a veterans hospital and a national cemetery.
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Glenwood Springs grew up around its hot springs
The mineral hot springs at Glenwood Springs were known to the Ute people long before the town, and that water is a central part of why the place grew where it did.
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Gold Hill and Colorado's first mining districts began in Boulder County
Gold Hill, organized in 1859, was one of Colorado's earliest mining camps, and the small mountain towns of Boulder County still trace back to a handful of named mining districts.
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Gothic: a silver ghost town turned research station
Gothic, north of Crested Butte, boomed as a silver camp, emptied into a ghost town, and was reborn as the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory.
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Grand Lake's 1881 Boardwalk and Its Summer Musical Stage
Grand Lake pairs a wooden Old West boardwalk along Grand Avenue with a summer repertory theater that draws more than 1,200 actors to audition each year.
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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.'
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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.
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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.
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In Fort Collins, you can pedal between breweries that helped start Colorado craft beer
Fort Collins grew up as a brewing town, and today its breweries sit close enough that many visitors hop between taprooms and tours on foot or by bike.
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Independence is a ghost town high on Independence Pass
Independence was a short-lived gold camp near the top of Independence Pass, and its remaining cabins are preserved as a historic site reachable only when the pass is open.
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Long before the towns, Middle Park was Ute hunting ground
The high valley that holds Grand County's towns was a long-used hunting ground and gathering place for Ute people, including the hot springs at Hot Sulphur Springs.
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Manassa was founded by Latter-day Saint pioneers in the late 1870s
The Conejos County town of Manassa was settled in the late 1870s by Latter-day Saint (Mormon) pioneers, giving it a founding story distinct from the valley's older Hispano communities.
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Manitou Springs: a spa town built around its mineral springs
Manitou Springs grew as a Victorian health resort around natural mineral springs, and much of the town is a National Register historic district, with separate local preservation review in the city's own historic districts.
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Minturn grew up on the Tennessee Pass rail line
The Denver & Rio Grande's standard-gauge route over Tennessee Pass ran through Minturn and the Eagle River valley, and that railroad is why the town is shaped the way it is.
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Montrose grew up around the railroad in the 1880s
The town of Montrose dates to the early 1880s, when the Denver and Rio Grande narrow-gauge railroad reached the Uncompahgre Valley and turned it into a regional shipping and supply hub.
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New Castle was a coal town, and an old mine fire still smolders underground
New Castle grew as a coal-mining town, and after a deadly 1896 mine explosion, an underground coal-seam fire has burned in nearby Burning Mountain for over a century.
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Old Town Fort Collins is a listed historic district, not just a name
The Old Town district at the heart of Fort Collins is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it is the city's own historic preservation review that keeps its old brick storefronts looking the way they do.
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Ouray's hot springs pool and Box Canyon are run by the city
The Ouray Hot Springs Pool and Box Canyon Falls Park are both owned and operated by the City of Ouray, which is why they have set hours, fees, and rules rather than open access.
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Pearl Street sits inside Boulder's downtown historic district
Boulder's downtown core, including much of Pearl Street, is a recognized historic district, which shapes how its older buildings can be changed.
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Ramsay-Shockey protects a quiet buffer above Pinewood Reservoir
A 177-acre Larimer preserve above Pinewood Reservoir, bought in 1997 for habitat, a water buffer, and a quiet four-mile trail.
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Red Rocks was a Denver park before it was a famous stage
Denver bought the Red Rocks land in the late 1920s and built its amphitheatre with Depression-era work crews, opening it in 1941.
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Rico and the railroad: why a mountain town sits in Dolores County
Rico grew from a silver strike and a narrow-gauge railroad that ran over Lizard Head Pass, which is why a former mining town anchors the county's mountainous east end.
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