Where People Other Than Native Americans First Settled Colorado

San Luis Valley Southern Colorado

The principal towns in the San Luis Valley are:

Alamosa, Monte Vista, Del Norte, South Fork, Creede, Saguache, Center, Fort Garland, San Luis, Antonito, La Jara, Capulin, Manassa, Sanford, Crestone, Villa Grove, Hooper, Mosca, San Acacio, and a number of smaller small country towns -- (one about every 20 miles).

Maps

The Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range forms the eastern border of the valley. Blanca Peak is the prominent towering mountain -- Colorado's 4th highest peak -- with numerous other mountain pinnacles peaking out between 13,000 to above 14,000 feet above sea level.

The San Juan Mountain Range and the La Garita Mountain Range form the western boundary for the San Luis Valley.

San Luis Valley 3-D Map

There are several passes through the mountains providing access to the San Luis Valley, with elevations between 9,000 and 10,000 feet. La Veta pass, through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the eastern side of the Valley, is used by US Highway 160 and by the San Luis and Rio Grande Railroad tracks. The Rio Grande Scenic Railroad continues to make use of the tracks.

Other passes used historically were Medano, Mosca, Sangre de Cristo, and Poncha Pass (at the north end of the valley).

Summer in the country's highest alpine valley is filled with vibrant color against a backdrop of blue sky, fields, and mountains.

Gaze over the deep green farm fields of alfalfa, potatoes, and barley with towering mountains rising from the valley floor to kiss the deep blue skies.

Current Conditions

Forecast

Monthly Climate Averages for San Luis Valley

What is now known as Costilla County in the southeastern part of the San Luis Valley, this area was inhabited by the ancestors of today's families well before Colorado became a state.  Those first Hispano settlers brought with them a language and culture that still exists today, four hundred years after the Spanish first arrived in the Americas.  Except for the Native Americans who were here first,  this is the oldest community in Colorado.

First settled in 1851, the town of San Luis, oldest town in Colorado, is located in Costilla County in the southeastern part of the San Luis Valley. The oldest church, Our Lady of Guadalupe est. 1858, is located in the town of Conejos in the southwestern part of the San Luis Valley.

Today, you will still find farms and ranches just like when the area was first settled.  You will be able to meet ancestors of the original settlers.

There are 3 million acres of public land in this area, a ski area that receives the most snowfall in Colorado, the Rio Grande River is born in the mountains to the west, along with many lakes and other recreational areas and activities.

The San Luis Valley Never Feels Crowded

With a population density of about six people per square mile,

there is plenty of open space.

However, living in the Valley doesn’t require one to give up all the amenities of city life.

City Website

This country town may not be huge, but it has much to offer.

City Website

Veterans’ Memorial Park Dedicated

More San Luis Valley History Info

Smith Reservoir

San Luis Lakes

Map of Area Lakes

Larger Map

Rio  Grande  River Info

Located 5 miles east of the town of Monte Vista, Homelake is the former location of the Colorado Soldiers' and Sailors' Home and is the location of the Homelake Civil War Cemetery. Set amidst landscaped grounds, beautiful scenery, and a homelike campus atmosphere, the Colorado State Veterans Center at Homelake has been caring for our Colorado’s veterans and their families for over 115 years. Located in Colorado’s beautiful San Luis Valley, the Center exhibits a great sense of history and tradition. The Center includes a modern 60-bed skilled nursing facility and a 46-bed Domiciliary. The Domiciliary provides an "independent/ assisted-living" type environment with individual housing cottages.

Established in the San Luis Valley in 1889, the Colorado State Veterans Center at Homelake, also referred to as the Soldiers and Sailors Home, provided a peaceful place for aging and displaced Civil War veterans. This continuously operated complex is the oldest veterans’ center in the state and contains more than eighty structures. A cemetery with headstones in concentric circles surrounds a 1912 monument dedicated to veterans of the Civil and Spanish-American Wars. Veterans of every major conflict from the Civil War to the current war in Iraq are buried there. Fifty-two structures on site are considered contributing to the State Register Historic District -- five buildings are listed individually.

In 2002, the Colorado General Assembly passed a statute to establish the center as a repository for all unclaimed military memorabilia. This, in addition to a considerable archive of military artifacts already collected, has supporters envisioning a significant public display.

With its rich and colorful history, beautiful grounds, and many historic buildings, the Homelake was recently designated as a "Colorado State Historical Site." Several of Homelake’s original buildings were constructed in the 1890’s when a group of local citizens together with the State Legislature established Homelake as a place for Colorado’s deserving Civil War veterans to live.

In September of 2008 a host of dignitaries and center residents dedicated an A7-D Corsair fighter jet in honor of Maj. Gen. Mason Whitney, who retired from his command in the Colorado Air National Guard last year. Whitney spent 17 years of his career flying Corsair jets including a stint during the Vietnam War.

Also in September 2008 the Colorado State Veterans Center at Homelake got a shot in the arm last week from a $5.1 million grant to upgrade its domiciliary cottages and historic chapel. The chapel was built in 1905, but has been closed to residents since 2004. The 12 cottages on the campus, which contain 24 units, were built between 1914 and 1942.

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for larger image

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Housing built between

1914 and 1942

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Soldiers and Sailors Home

and Hospital

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A7-D Corsair

Fighter Jet

HOMELAKE, Colorado

www.cdhs.state.co.us/svnh/Homelake.htm

The oldest business in the state of Colorado, the R&R Market celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2007. R&R Market is located in the oldest town in Colorado, San Luis.

The top photo at the right shows the present-day front of the R&R Market on Main Street in San Luis.

In 1876, Dario Gallegos ran his mercantile store in the adobe building shown  in the bottom right photo.

Coloradoans talk a lot about the state’s deep commitment to community. One place that demonstrates this is Colorado’s oldest town, San Luis. Here, families measure their connection to the area not in years, but generations.

Situated in a broad valley riddled with farms and surrounded by peaks, San Luis has always been at a crossroads of cultures. As a result, it is rich with timeless customs and historic sites. One proud resident is the 7th generation of her family to live in the San Luis Valley.

What makes the San Luis area such a historically rich place?  This was where people other than Native Americans first settled Colorado beginning in the 1800's.

Between 25 to 35 million years ago, it is estimated that two-thirds of the state of Colorado was covered with volcanic rock, from the edge of the San Luis Valley all the way to Ouray and Silverton. For about 5 million years, there were caldera eruptions, like there are in Yellowstone, huge outflows of ash that make the ground sink in a circular pattern. We have 20 calderas that we know about, including the world's largest caldera, the La Garita Caldera, near Creede, Colorado. Creede itself is a small caldera, and one of the most well preserved on Earth.

State Geologist and director of the Colorado Geological Survey Vince Matthews takes a special interest in the lava dikes and calderas that spread from Walsenburg to the San Juan Mountains. The dramatic formations chronicle particularly splenetic periods of Colorado's geological history, as he notes in his book "Messages in Stone: Colorado's Colorful Geology."

Why are the Spanish Peaks lava dikes so interesting to geologists? Well, usually you find three or four dikes in an area. More than 500 dikes have been mapped in this area. That's more than anywhere else - that we know of - in the world. The other thing is that the dikes aren't all the same chemical composition. Different chemistry composition, different orientation, different ages and all beautifully exposed.

Why is the different chemical composition significant? Some are very dark, and others are lighter. Some are more susceptible to erosion. That means there were different sources for the molten material that came up. There are places where the dike itself is deeply weathered - eroded out, like an indentation - and the rock around it stands out rather than the dike itself.

How does that happen? The reason is because the molten material actually bakes the rock it comes into. The heat of the material - those particular chemicals - makes the surrounding rocks very strong, harder than the dike. There's a beautiful exposure as you drive into Walsenburg from the north, right as you crest the hill. You can see that the dike is intruded into the shale, and that the shale right next to the dike is very resistant. And that particular dike goes on for a number of miles. It's on the back of Lathrop State Park, called the Hogback.

What about the dikes surrounding the Spanish Peaks? Yes, the radiating dikes. That's not so unusual in itself, but on the west side of the peaks, the dikes don't radiate as much. They radiate on the other three sides, but the pattern is different on the west side. Some people think the stress field that allowed the radial dikes was formed by the uplift of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Perhaps the dikes were created during the uplift. It's not really clear.

Prior to 1868, the Capote (Kapota) band of Ute Indians lived in the San Luis Valley. The Utes made a treaty of peace with the United States in 1849 shortly after the Mexican-American War. Shortly thereafter, settlers from New Mexico established several small settlements in what is now Colorado. In 1868, the Utes were removed to a reservation in western Colorado.

The area was administered as part of the Spanish, later Mexican, province of Nuevo Mexico until the area was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican-American war in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Extensive settlement began in the San Luis Valley primarily by Hispanic farmers and ranchers from New Mexico in the 1850s after the construction of Fort Massachusetts by the U.S. Army for protection against the Utes.

The history of the post-war U.S. military presence in the Valley is preserved at Fort Garland and other sites in the Valley, which became part of the Territory of Colorado in 1861.

Today, many families in the San Luis Valley are descendants from the original settlers.

San Luis Valley

The Largest Alpine Valley in North America

With a land area of close to 8,200 square miles, the San Luis Valley is larger than the land mass of Rhode Island, Delaware, and Connecticut combined.  In spite of its size, the Valley never feels crowded. With a population density of about six people per square mile, there is plenty of open space. However, living in the Valley doesn’t require one to give up all the amenities of big city life. Alamosa, the Valley’s largest city, serves as the Valley’s regional hub. There you will find the area’s largest hospital, a regional airport, Adams State College, shopping opportunities and more.

If someone described seeing two bald eagles, a hawk, herds of elk and deer, and thousands sandhill cranes all within one morning, you might think this is some sort of North American safari.  Believe it or not, this may be just a drive to work one morning here in the San Luis Valley. The opportunities for bird and wildlife watching here are nothing short of amazing.

The San Luis Valley is situated between the 14,000 foot peaks of the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountains, including the 4th highest peak in Colorado - Blanca Peak.  The Valley has the second largest aquifer on the continent. This 8000 square mile, five county alpine valley is one of the most unique areas in the world.

Welcome to the San Luis Valley where the sun shines an average of  320 days a year.  This gives you plenty of great days to enjoy one of the 3 golf courses in the Valley.  Summer evenings are cool and the temperature seldom reaches 90 degrees during the day.

Elevation of the San Luis Valley varies from 7,500 to 8,200 feet above sea level.  It stretches roughly 75 miles from east to west, and 150 miles north to south.

High in the San Juan Mountains on the west side of the Valley, snow melt and rain give birth to the mighty Rio Grande River, second longest river in our nation.  The river winds through the Valley on its way to New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico.   The Great Sand Dunes National Park is nestled at the base of Sangre de Cristo mountain range on the east side of the Valley.  This unique feature of nature is the newest National Park in the United States.

There are two national scenic byways, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway, more than 3 million acres of public lands in and around the valley, two national wildlife refuges, and hot springs. Wolf Creek Ski Area generally can boast the greatest snowfall amount each year.  In fact, the most snowfall ever recorded in Colorado fell at Wolf Creek - 850 inches in one year.

Hiking, biking, fishing, world-class hunting and four wheel exploration of the Sangre de Cristo, La Garita and the San Juan mountains all await your next visit.

You will find the famous Stations of the Cross in San Luis, oldest town in Colorado.  In the small town of Conejos is one of the oldest churches in the state.  This is the first area in Colorado to be settled.  You will find a lot of history in this mountain valley.

Education, art, culture, theater or a national repository library?  Adams State and Trinidad State Junior Colleges offer all this and much more.

The San Luis Valley is an unspoiled and largely undiscovered gem in south central Colorado. Whether it’s art, history or outdoor adventure, the San Luis Valley offers endless variations to explore.

The pure, crisp, dry mountain air and weather are most conducive to healthy living. Summers are warm, never hot -- rarely reaching 90 degrees -- with sunny days and cool nights. The winters are pleasant and the low humidity makes even cold temperatures comfortable.  (Climate Averages)  During autumn, the aspen and cottonwood trees turn to gold and the oak brush glows with a bright orange/red. A brilliant, colorful display before Colorado becomes the winter recreation center of the nation.

This area is rich in history by evidence from old wagon trails. You can still see the deep ruts in the ground left by the wagons that traveled along the trails.

Please Drive Carefully and Friendly

Motorists in the San Luis Valley need to be watchful for the growing number of Amish and Mennonite populations who travel the roads and highways by horse drawn carriages.  Due to the religious lifestyle that calls for avoiding what many consider ‘modern conveniences’ many of the carriages, wagons, and buggies do not have lights, reflectors, or slow moving vehicle signs and may be especially difficult to see in bad weather or during hours of early morning, dusk, or twilight.

It is the responsibility of the motor vehicle operator to be especially careful while driving in the Valley.

In 2003, The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit organization, purchased approximately 92,500 acres of private land in the San Luis Valley and established the Baca National Wildlife Refuge. The $33 million project was designed to “restore, enhance, and maintain wetland, upland, riparian, and other habitats for wildlife, plants, and fish species that are native to the San Luis Valley.” The refuge, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), contains the largest and most diverse assemblage of wetlands in all of Colorado. The refuge is next door to the town of Crestone and Colorado College’s Baca campus.

The San Luis Valley is mainly a farming and ranching community surrounded by towering mountains. It is estimated the second largest aquifer on the U.S. continent lies below the valley floor.  Irrigation water for the crops is provided by the underground water and river water furnished by the Rio Grande, Conejos, and other rivers.

Principal crops include potatoes, alfalfa hay, wheat, head lettuce, oats, spinach, cabbage, carrots, and barley. The barley grown in the Valley is the main supplier for Coors beer company. It has been reported the San Luis Valley is the 4th largest producer of potatoes in the United States.

Agriculture has long been the basis of the economy in the San Luis Valley. Unique in world topography, the elevation of the valley floor averages 7600 feet above sea level.

Cattle Ranches

Throughout the San Luis Valley

Farmers began growing potatoes in the San Luis Valley around 1875, making it one of the oldest potato growing areas in the United States.

Surrounded by the 14,000 feet majestic snow-covered peaks of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, the fertile San Luis Valley at 7,600 feet in elevation is the highest and largest commercial agricultural valley in the world.

The potato season begins in May with harvest in September.  The Valley's springs and summers are filled with warm, sunny days and cool nights -- a perfect combination for growing potatoes. The cooler weather contributes to the smoothness of the skin and reduces second-growth roughness.

The fertile soil of the Valley is loose-packed loam, necessary for growing potatoes.  With an average elevation of 7,600 feet above sea level; at this altitude, the summer sun's radiant energy is intense and gives the plants a high altitude vigor.  The summer nights are cool and the atmosphere arid. This unique growing environment provides the potatoes natural protection from many plant diseases and insects, which find the winters too harsh and the summers too dry.

The Valley has many specialty potatoes, with yellow potatoes such as the Yukon gold becoming the fastest-growing variety. The Valley grows many other potato varieties, including an all-blue potato called the purple majesty.  Red potatoes such as the Durango and the Sangre also remain popular. The Valley also is the birthplace of the Red McClure.

Potato Plants

In Bloom

In Early Summer

Barley is also grown in the Valley.

Barley is used in the production of beer.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Narrow Gauge Railroad Capital

Colorado is the narrow-gauge railroad capital of the nation, with four active narrow-gauge lines, more than any other state.  Narrow-gauge railroads are gold-rush innovations, built to carry precious metals over steep and winding routes from remote places. Rails and equipment remained when the mines closed, and several communities recognized their tourism potential and redeveloped them. The lines go where the most spectacular scenery is found.

Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

In the southwest part of the San Luis Valley you will find one of Colorado's rare treasures, the historic Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad (C&TS).

Built more than 120 years ago, little has changed since, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is the most authentic steam era railroad in North America.

The C&TS was originally constructed in 1880 as part of the Rio Grande’s San Juan Extension, which served the silver mining district of the San Juan mountains in southwestern Colorado. Like all of the Rio Grande at the time, it was built to a gauge of three feet between the rails, instead of the more common 4 feet, 8-1/2 inches that became standard in the United States.

Besides offering thrilling rides daily between Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico, the railroad is the longest and highest narrow-gauge railroad in the United States.

Scenes for the movies Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Wyatt Earp among others used this famous railroad.

cumbrestoltec.com

Rich railroad history and non-stop scenic treasures await passengers on the newly re-awakened Rio Grande Scenic Railroad, with daily one-way and round-trip service from Alamosa to La Veta over legendary La Veta Pass, including exciting weekend and holiday excursions with our vintage steam engine.

This historic railroad route through the San Luis Valley, over the majestic Sangre de Cristo Mountains (eight 14,000+ foot peaks) and into La Veta has been carrying freight for over a century. These rail lines opened the San Luis Valley to the world, bringing building supplies in and taking agricultural and mineral products out.

The San Luis Valley has always held a special place in the heart of railroaders as one of the few North American connections between standard gauge and narrow gauge railroads, with narrow gauge lines in continuous operation since the late 1870’s.

riograndescenicrailroad.com

Ski Hi Stampede was established in 1919.  During the last week of July, the festivities begin in Monte Vista with rodeo, carnival, arts and crafts show, street parade, barbecue, concerts with big stars, and Western dances.  There will be lots of fun in this mountain valley with mountain views all around.

www.skihistampede.com

San Luis Lakes State Park

To the west of the Great Sand Dunes National Monument and the Sangre de Cristo mountain range is peaceful San Luis State Park and Wildlife Area.

San Luis State Park features a modern campground with showers and electricity, a large lake with fishing, windsurfing, boating, water skiing, picnicking, and many photographic opportunities.

The park is located just 15 minutes west of the Great Sand Dunes, or eight miles east of Colorado Highway 17. Turn east at Mosca, Colorado.

San Luis Lakes State Park

Rio Grande River

Alamosa River

Terrace Reservoir

Located in the southwestern part of the Valley, Terrace Reservoir is a irrigation water storage facility on the Alamosa River (see above).

Terrace Reservoir is the 250th highest earthen dam. Built in 1906, at that time it was the largest dam of its type in the U.S.

Present day, it is lightly fished and has cutthroat and rainbow trout.

Platoro Reservoir

At 10,000 feet elevation, Platoro Reservoir is the highest man-made lake in North America. The water is used to irrigate some 91,000 acres of farm land in the San Luis Valley.

Boat rentals are available. Kokanee, rainbow trout, and brown trout are stocked in the reservoir.

San Luis Valley National Wildlife Refuges

The mountains that surround the San Luis Valley feed it with surface water, as well as replenish an expansive underground reservoir.  This liquid wealth has made two National Wildlife Refuges possible in the San Luis Valley:

These wetland gems are places for a large amount of wildlife and people.

San Luis Valley National Wildlife Refuges

Colorado Gators Reptile Park

SLV MOTOR PLEX

America's Highest Altitude Dirt Track

SLV MOTOR PLEX is a 3/8 mile semi-banked dirt oval.

Location:

4839 Lane 5, Mosca, CO -- 4.5 miles west of Highway 17

Website

Splashland Hot Springs

Splashland Hot Springs, 1 mile north of Alamosa on Highway 17, has a geothermal heated outdoor pool (94°F/34°C average temperature) measuring 150 feet by 60 feet, with both high dive and low dive, and a popular mini-water slide. There is also an 18-inch-deep wading pool.

Joyful Journey Hot Springs Spa

Joyful Journey is a sanctuary, a community, and a retreat, where you can go to experience soothing waters to heal and find peace from daily stress.

The pools are natural mineral water with no chemical treatment of any kind.

Enjoy outdoor soaking in the neck-deep Tower Pool or in the two partially covered, waist-deep soaking pools with temperatures ranging from 98 to 108 degrees. While you soak, you can admire the memorable views of the sunsets and moonrises on the Sangre De Cristo mountain range.

Overnight accommodations available, including Yurts, RV parking, tent, and tepee camping.

joyfuljourneyhotsprings.com

Jack Dempsey

The heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey was born and raised in Manassa, Colorado (south of Alamosa).

He won the heavyweight championship in 1919, after knocking out Jesse Willard, but he lost it to Gene Tunney in 1926.

A museum in his honor, dedicated in Manassa in 1966, is housed in the cabin in which Dempsey was born. It contains several artifacts of Dempsey’s career, including the gloves he wore in the New York fight and numerous black-and-white photographs, which line the walls.

Jack Dempsey Museum and Park

San Luis Valley Museum Association

An area rich in history and natural beauty, the San Luis Valley is home to no fewer than 14 museums, historical societies, and cultural centers.  Each tells a portion of a fascinating story, ancient peoples, Spanish Conquistadors, the Westward Expansion, the rush for precious metals, war and intrigue, farming and ranching, modern day heroes, and much more.

Colorado Hunting Season