The Beaver Creek Massacre occurred on June 19, 1885, when white cattlemen killed six Ute Mountain Utes at a camp on Beaver Creek, about sixteen miles north of Dolores in present Montezuma County. Stemming from conflicts over the federal government’s…

Fort Lewis College is an accredited four-year liberal arts school located in Durango. Originally an army post, Fort Lewis evolved into an Indian boarding school in the late nineteenth century before the state of Colorado purchased the facilities in 1911…

La Plata County covers 1,700 square miles in southwest Colorado. It is named for the La Plata River and La Plata Mountains, both of which are named for the Spanish word for “silver.” La Plata County is bordered to the north by San Juan County, to the…

Home to the deepest hot spring aquifer in the world, Pagosa Springs was a popular destination for local Native Americans before it developed into a white settlement in the 1870s. The area supported a thriving lumber industry in the early twentieth…