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.
414 notes - page 7 of 18
History and culture - June 10, 2026
Holyoke's courthouse is a New Deal landmark you can walk right up to
The 1935 Phillips County Courthouse in Holyoke is a Moderne-style Public Works Administration building on the National Register, and the only surviving PWA project in the county.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
Hovenweep's stone towers sit on the Colorado-Utah line
Part of Hovenweep National Monument lies in western Montezuma County, where Ancestral Puebloans built unusual stone towers along canyon rims around AD 1200 to 1300.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
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 - June 10, 2026
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 - June 10, 2026
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 - June 10, 2026
How limited-stakes gaming reshaped Central City and Black Hawk
Colorado voters approved limited-stakes gaming in Central City and Black Hawk in 1990, tying casino revenue to historic preservation in these old mining towns.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
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 - June 10, 2026
How the Dolores Project pumps river water up to the Dove Creek farms
The Dolores Project stores Dolores River water in McPhee Reservoir and pumps it many miles to the Dove Creek area, which is why some land that was once dryland now has irrigation and the town has a municipal supply.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
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 - June 10, 2026
Howelsen Hill and the Winter Carnival, Steamboat's ski roots
Steamboat Springs' deep ski heritage traces to Carl Howelsen, who helped start the Winter Carnival and the ski hill that still carries his name.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
Huerfano County's vanished coal camps, treated with care
Names like Pictou, Rouse, Walsen, and Cameron mark places that were once busy coal camps in Huerfano County, and most are now quiet sites best understood through archival and official sources.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
Hugo grew up around the railroad, and a roundhouse still tells that story
Hugo began as a railroad town on the Kansas Pacific line, and its surviving Union Pacific roundhouse is a window into why the town is here.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
Hugo is the county seat, where Lincoln County's offices and court sit
Lincoln County was created in 1889 with Hugo as its county seat, and the county's main government offices and courthouse are still in Hugo today.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
Hugo's WPA Pool: A 1930s Public Work You Can Still Swim In
Hugo's municipal pool and its adobe Art Moderne bathhouse were built by Depression-era WPA crews and still open as the town pool in summer.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
Ignacio once shipped Depression-era turkeys east by rail
A historic Ignacio building recalls a Depression-era turkey-packing cooperative that shipped birds raised on local farms east by rail, part of La Plata County's farming and ranching backbone.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
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.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
In Meeker, a free museum sits inside the army cabins that started the town
Meeker's free White River Museum fills two 1880s log cabins built as army officers' quarters, opening a door to the 1879 Meeker Incident and the Ute history beneath the town.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
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.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
Julesburg moved four times - and one version was called the Wickedest City in the West
The town anchoring Sedgwick County has been built and rebuilt four times, and one short-lived end-of-track version earned the nickname Wickedest City in the West.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
Julesburg's old Union Pacific depot tells the county's railroad story
The historic Union Pacific depot in Julesburg, saved by the county and a local historical society, is a regional museum and a State Register property that explains why the railroad shaped this corner of Colorado.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
Kremmling grew where the river, the ranches, and the railroad met
Kremmling started as a store and became Grand County's shipping point when the Moffat railroad arrived, anchored by ranching in lower Middle Park.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
La Junta is the Otero County seat and grew up as a railroad town
La Junta is the seat of Otero County and built much of its early growth around the Santa Fe Railway, which still shapes the town's layout and economy.
Read note ->History and culture - June 10, 2026
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 - June 10, 2026
Lafayette and Louisville grew up on coal, not gold
The eastern Boulder County towns of Lafayette, Louisville, Superior, and Marshall began as coal-mining communities, a very different heritage from the gold and silver camps in the mountains.
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