Mountains
Custer County
22 Porch Notes tied to Custer County — the local details that change from one part of Colorado to the next.
Money and taxes (1)
Home and property (1)
Water and land (2)
Water and land
A pond on a Custer County parcel needs a water right behind it
In the Arkansas River basin, even a small pond can need its own water right, and a pond that has been there for years is not automatically in the clear.
Read note ->Water and land
Grape Creek below DeWeese carries a trout fishery into a rugged canyon
Grape Creek flows out of DeWeese Reservoir and supports brown and rainbow trout as it runs through remote canyon country, where fishing rules can differ by stretch.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire (5)
Outdoors and wildfire
Camping rules in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness keep lakes and streams clear
In the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness above Westcliffe, special rules limit group size and keep camps and campfires set back from lakes and streams.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
DeWeese Reservoir near Westcliffe is a favorite Wet Mountain Valley fishing spot
DeWeese Reservoir is a beloved Custer County fishing and wildlife-watching spot near Westcliffe, managed as a State Wildlife Area where one easy thing to grab before you go is a license or SWA pass.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
South Colony Road climbs to the high peaks south of Westcliffe
The main Custer County approach to Humboldt Peak and the Crestones runs up Colfax Lane to South Colony Road, where the upper miles need four-wheel drive.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
The Rainbow Trail runs along the range just below the wilderness
The long Rainbow Trail traces the base of the Sangre de Cristo Range past Westcliffe, open to hikers, horses, bikes, and motorcycles but not full-size off-road vehicles.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
The Sangre de Cristo Wilderness rises right above Westcliffe
The high peaks west of Westcliffe sit inside a designated wilderness in the national forest, where the rules are stricter than on ordinary forest land.
Read note ->Local rules (2)
Local rules
One school district and a county library serve the valley
Most of Custer County is served by a small school district based in Westcliffe and by the West Custer County Library District, both separate from town and county government.
Read note ->Local rules
Outside the two towns, the county makes the rules in Custer County
Most land in Custer County is unincorporated, so the county's planning and building offices handle permits and land use rather than a town hall.
Read note ->History and culture (11)
History and culture
A hand-built stone castle rises from the woods on Highway 165
On Highway 165 in the wooded southeastern corner of Custer County, Jim Bishop spent decades hand-building a towering stone-and-iron castle that anyone can visit on a donation basis.
Read note ->History and culture
Beckwith Ranch: the red-roofed Victorian on Highway 69
A white-clapboard Victorian ranch house with bright red roofs sits just northwest of Westcliffe, a National Register landmark that volunteers open for tours each summer.
Read note ->History and culture
Custer County started with silver and settled into ranching
Silver Cliff and nearby camps grew from an 1870s mining rush, and when the ore played out the Wet Mountain Valley turned to hay and cattle.
Read note ->History and culture
Rosita and Querida: vanished silver camps
Rosita and Querida were busy silver camps east of Silver Cliff in the 1870s and 1880s, where thousands once lived among hills that have mostly returned to grass and timber.
Read note ->History and culture
The county seat that moved three times
Custer County's seat of government started at Ula, then moved to Rosita, then Silver Cliff, and finally Westcliffe, tracing the rise and fall of each mining town.
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 faint lights of Silver Cliff Cemetery
For decades visitors have reported faint bluish-white lights drifting among the headstones at Silver Cliff Cemetery, a piece of Wet Mountain Valley folklore with a likely down-to-earth cause.
Read note ->History and culture
The German colony that came before the mines
Before the silver rush, a colony of German immigrants from Chicago tried to farm the Wet Mountain Valley in 1870, and the congregation they founded lives on at Hope Lutheran Church in Westcliffe.
Read note ->History and culture
The old town hall in Silver Cliff is now a museum
Silver Cliff's historic 1870s town hall and firehouse on Main Street holds the town's museum, where the county's mining-era story is kept.
Read note ->History and culture
Westcliffe grew up around a railroad depot
The Denver and Rio Grande railroad reached the Wet Mountain Valley in the early 1880s, and the historic depot near downtown, restored by a local effort, is a reminder of why the town sits where it does.
Read note ->History and culture
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 ->