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Browns Canyon National Monument

On February 19, 2015, President Obama designated 21,586 acres of scenic canyons, rivers, and backcountry forest in Chaffee County, Colorado, as the Browns Canyon National Monument. Browns Canyon is the eighth national monument designation within the…

Chaffee County

Chaffee County lies in central Colorado on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains and along the Upper Arkansas River valley. It is bordered by Lake and Park Counties to the north, Park and Fremont Counties to the east, Saguache County to the south, and…

Collegiate Peaks Stampede Rodeo Grounds

The Collegiate Peaks Stampede Rodeo Grounds southwest of Buena Vista was built in 1940 using funds from the Works Progress Administration. The rodeo grew out of Buena Vista’s annual Head Lettuce Day celebration and gradually developed into a two-day…

Inter-Laken Hotel

Originally established in 1879 as the Lakeside Resort, the Inter-Laken Hotel was developed by James V. Dexter into a high-class, late nineteenth-century resort near Twin Lakes. Popular for about two decades, the hotel declined and eventually closed in…

Pedro-Botz House

Built in 1904, the Pedro-Botz House is a log dwelling in the working-class community of Smeltertown, which developed near the Ohio and Colorado Smelter northwest of Salida. Occupied initially by the Hungarian Pedro family and later by the Yugoslavian…

Rock Ledge Ranch (Buena Vista)

Established in 1887 by Ernest Wilber, Rock Ledge Ranch is a historic ranch four miles west of Buena Vista in the Upper Arkansas Valley (17975 Co Rd 338, Buena Vista, CO 81211). Since 1908 the ranch has been owned and operated by multiple generations of…

Salida Steam Plant

The Salida steam plant was one of the first Edison electric plants in the country. Built in 1887 by the Salida Edison Electric Light Company, it operated until the 1950s. After 1989 the building was renovated and converted into a city-owned theater and…

St. Elmo

Located at an elevation of 10,000 feet in Chalk Creek Canyon southwest of Buena Vista, the historic mining town of St. Elmo was founded in 1880 and flourished for less than a decade. Although it is actually inhabited by a small handful of full-timers and…