%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Western Slope http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/western-slope <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Western Slope</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-01-23T16:14:24-07:00" title="Monday, January 23, 2017 - 16:14" class="datetime">Mon, 01/23/2017 - 16:14</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/western-slope" data-a2a-title="Western Slope"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fwestern-slope&amp;title=Western%20Slope"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>“A Fantasy land,” “a mystique,” “a state of mind”—these are only some of the expressions used to describe the Western Slope of Colorado, commonly defined as the roughly one-third of the state that lies west of the <a href="/article/great-divide"><strong>Continental Divide</strong></a>. The serpentine divide forms the region’s eastern boundary, running 276 miles from the Wyoming border to New Mexico and separating the Western Slope from Colorado’s more populous <a href="/article/front-range"><strong>Front Range</strong></a> and the broad <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/san-luis-valley"><strong>San Luis Valley</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Though it is home to 10 percent of Colorado’s residents, the Western Slope contains 33 percent of the state’s land, some of the state’s most popular tourist and recreation areas, and about 70 percent of its <a href="/article/water-colorado"><strong>water</strong></a>. The fact that most of the state’s natural resources lie on Colorado’s west side while most of its residents live in the east has led to tension and conflict, especially over the topic of water diversion.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Those who live west of the divide might say that they feel different from other Coloradans due, in part, to their unique relationship with the area’s rugged terrain, numbing cold, heavy <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/snow"><strong>snow</strong></a>, and stark isolation. Some residents of the Western Slope feel as though their needs and desires are overlooked by a distant state government that does not understand their needs and concerns. Yet, Coloradans are increasingly linked together by shared economic interests as well as a common desire to conserve the landscapes and resources that make the state such a special place to live.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early History</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The Western Slope has been inhabited for more than 10,000 years. From <a href="/article/paleo-indian-period"><strong>Paleo-Indian</strong></a> occupation around 12,000 BC to the era of the <a href="/search/google/Ute"><strong>Ute people</strong></a> (c. AD 1300–1880), the area’s early inhabitants were mostly nomadic hunter-gatherers, who followed large game on seasonal routes between the region’s many elevation zones. Evidence at the <a href="/article/mountaineer-archaeological-site"><strong>Mountaineer Archaeological Site</strong></a> near <strong>Gunnison</strong> indicates that Paleo-Indian peoples occupied the Western Slope as early as 12,000 BC. During the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/archaic-period-colorado"><strong>Archaic Period</strong></a> (6,500 BC–AD 200), <a href="/article/ancestral-puebloans-four-corners-region"><strong>Ancestral Puebloan</strong></a> peoples occupied parts of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-river"><strong>Colorado</strong></a> and <a href="/article/gunnison-river"><strong>Gunnison River</strong></a> basins. Perhaps the most well-known of the Western Slope’s early inhabitants were the Ancestral Puebloan peoples, who lived in the <a href="/article/mesa-verde-national-park-archaeology-and-history"><strong>Mesa Verde</strong></a> and the Four Corners regions from about 350 BC until approximately AD 1300.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Ancestral Puebloans were the first of many farmers in Colorado, relying on crops of maize to supplement their hunting and gathering economies. Their extensive use of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/irrigation-colorado"><strong>irrigation</strong></a> showed an awareness and understanding of the challenges of farming in an arid environment, but in the late thirteenth century, a period of crippling drought appears to have dealt the decisive blow to a society already suffering from violence due to religious, economic, and political strife. Nevertheless, the lessons these people learned about living in an arid and isolated land would prove instructive to those who followed, particularly the Ute people who moved to the Western Slope after AD 1300.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Utes came to western Colorado from the Great Basin, in what is now eastern California and southern Nevada. Unlike the Ancestral Puebloans, who inherited a rich agricultural tradition, the Utes brought with them to Colorado the hunting-and-gathering way of life known as the Mountain Tradition. As it turned out, that way of life suited them well in the arid parts of the Western Slope, and especially well in the Rocky Mountains’ resource-rich river valleys. Ute people hunted buffalo, <a href="/article/mule-deer"><strong>mule deer</strong></a>, jackrabbit, and <a href="/article/rocky-mountain-elk"><strong>elk</strong></a>, and collected a wide assortment of seeds, nuts, roots, and berries from the landscape. Over centuries they carved well-worn trails throughout the mountains, many of which later became the routes of stage lines, railroads, and highways. Many of the Utes’ favored wintering grounds featuring hot springs, including the areas of present-day <strong>Glenwood Springs</strong>, <a href="/article/pagosa-springs"><strong>Pagosa Springs</strong></a>, and <strong>Steamboat Springs</strong>. Over time, Colorado became home to nine distinct bands of Utes, each of which laid claim to various parts of the state.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Utes held dominion over much of western Colorado until 1880, when most were expelled by the United States government. The <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ute-treaty-1868"><strong>Treaty of 1868</strong></a> left the Utes most of their land west of the Continental Divide in exchange for land along the Front Range and in the San Luis Valley. But several years later, significant gold discoveries in the <a href="/article/san-juan-mountains"><strong>San Juan Mountains</strong></a> compelled the federal government to negotiate the <a href="/article/brunot-agreement"><strong>Brunot Agreement</strong></a>, which brought the San Juans under the jurisdiction of the Colorado Territory. Many Utes were displeased with both agreements, as they were signed by leaders who did not necessarily represent the wishes of each band. In 1879 Utes at the <a href="/article/white-river-ute-indian-agency"><strong>White River Agency</strong></a> near present-day <a href="/article/meeker-0"><strong>Meeker</strong></a> revolted against <a href="/article/indian-agencies-and-agents"><strong>Indian Agent</strong></a> <a href="/article/nathaniel-meeker"><strong>Nathan Meeker</strong></a>, who had attempted to force them into an agricultural life. The incident prompted calls for the Utes’ removal across the state, and in 1880 the government forced the <a href="/article/northern-ute-people-uintah-and-ouray-reservation"><strong>Northern Ute</strong></a> bands to a new reservation in Utah. The <strong>Southern</strong> and <a href="/article/ute-history-and-ute-mountain-ute-tribe"><strong>Ute Mountain Utes</strong></a>, who did not participate in the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/meeker-incident"><strong>Meeker Incident</strong></a>, retained a narrow strip of land near the New Mexico border, where they live today.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Exploration and Fur Trade</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The first Europeans to visit Colorado’s Western Slope were the <a href="/article/spanish-exploration-western-colorado"><strong>Spanish explorers</strong></a> of the mid-eighteenth century, beginning with <a href="/article/juan-antonio-mar%C3%ADa-de-rivera"><strong>Juan de Rivera</strong></a> in 1765 and Fathers Silvestre Escalante and Francisco Domínguez in 1776. The Spanish never made a concerted effort to extend their dominion very far into the Ute homeland, but they did leave a legacy on the Western Slope, including the name for the ruddy river that drained and formed large swathes of the region—the “Rio <a href="/article/colorado-river"><strong>Colorado</strong></a>.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The next wave of foreigners to venture into the Ute lands of western Colorado consisted of European, Canadian, and Anglo-American fur trappers. With thousands of <a href="/article/beaver"><strong>beaver</strong></a> living along the many streams that flowed out of the high mountains, western Colorado offered a bonanza for mountain men during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. In 1828 the St. Louis trapper <strong>Antoine Robidoux</strong> built <a href="/article/fort-uncompahgre"><strong>Fort Uncompahgre</strong></a>, a <a href="/article/nineteenth-century-trading-posts"><strong>trading post</strong></a> near the confluence of the Gunnison and <strong>Uncompahgre</strong> Rivers. The fort was the first of its kind on the Western Slope and served as a supply and trading center for fur trappers in the vicinity. It was also a link between Santa Fé to the south and the beaver-rich country around the Green River to the north.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The center of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fur-trade-colorado"><strong>fur trade</strong></a> on the Western Slope, however, was <strong>Brown’s Hole</strong> in the extreme northwestern corner of Colorado. The valley got little snow compared to surrounding areas, so it was lush with grass and aspen stands and made a perfect place for suppliers and fur trappers to conduct business in Colorado’s short summers. From the late 1820s to 1840, the annual rendezvous at Brown’s Hole was the scene of extensive trading. In 1836 three trappers built <a href="/article/fort-davy-crockett"><strong>Fort Davy Crockett</strong></a> on the Green River in Brown’s Hole. Isolated and constantly threatened by Native Americans, the fort was referred to as “Fort Misery” by those who traded there. By the early 1840s, the fur trade was all but finished in Western Colorado, due in part to the over-trapping of beaver and a change in fashion tastes abroad. Both Fort Uncompahgre and Fort Davy Crockett were abandoned, marking the end of one of the most colorful eras in Western Colorado’s history.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early American Era</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Though the fur trade era in this part of Colorado was relatively brief, the trappers who participated in it were among the first Anglo-Americans to truly become familiar with the Western Slope. <strong>Jim Bridger</strong>, <a href="/article/kit-carson"><strong>Kit Carson</strong></a>, and other former trappers later served as guides for official US expeditions into the region, such as those led by <a href="/article/john-c-frémont"><strong>John C. Frémont</strong></a> (1843–53), <a href="/article/john-w-gunnison"><strong>John W. Gunnison</strong></a> (1853), and <strong>John Wesley Powell</strong> (1869).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Collectively, the expeditions of the mid-nineteenth century demonstrated that the terrain of western Colorado was simply far too rugged to allow for a transcontinental railroad route, but each venture helped shed light on major natural features and resources. The <strong>Hayden expedition</strong> of 1872–73 proved especially useful in that regard. Working with telescopes, barometers, and glass-plate cameras, Hayden’s team peered into nearly every nook and cranny of the Western Slope. The maps produced by these surveying expeditions would soon lure mining engineers, road and railroad builders, cattle barons, investors, town builders, and loggers—the drivers of industrialized, expansionist America—to western Colorado.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The <a href="/article/colorado-gold-rush"><strong>Colorado Gold Rush</strong></a> along the Front Range in 1858–59 prompted the organization of <a href="/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a> in 1861. Around this time, several Western Slope areas became hotbeds of placer mining—a process that involves sifting out gold from gravel, mostly in streambeds. <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/breckenridge-historic-district"><strong>Breckenridge</strong></a> became one of the great mining towns in western Colorado history, while other mining districts sprang up in the Elk Mountains near present-day <a href="/article/crested-butte"><strong>Crested Butte</strong></a>, in the Gunnison River Valley, and in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. These deposits were quickly panned out, but new discoveries over the next several decades would make mining a hallmark industry of the Western Slope.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Unlike the earliest discoveries, most of the gold found on the Western Slope in the 1870s did not lie conveniently at the bottom of streams but was lodged deep within the earth, bonded to quartz and other rock. Nonetheless, as the Ute Indians continued to cede territory in western Colorado, thousands of miners filtered into the <strong>Sawatch</strong>, <strong>Elk</strong>, and San Juan Mountains. Seemingly overnight, mining camps such as <strong>Ouray</strong>, <a href="/article/telluride"><strong>Telluride</strong></a>, <a href="/article/lake-city-0"><strong>Lake City</strong></a>, and <a href="/article/silverton"><strong>Silverton</strong></a> became boom towns. The Gunnison country caught gold fever in 1879, with Crested Butte, Irwin, <strong>Tin Cup</strong>, Gothic, White Pine, and Pitkin becoming booming mining camps. <a href="/article/aspen"><strong>Aspen</strong></a> on the <strong>Roaring Fork River</strong> became one of the greatest silver camps in the United States, while <a href="/article/summit-county"><strong>Summit County</strong></a> continued to churn out both gold and silver.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Booms and Busts in Mining Country</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As Colorado’s early miners found out, cycles of boom and bust have been a fact of life on the Western Slope since the area became part of the United States. Of the subsequent mining booms, coal lasted the longest, as the fuel provided essential energy for other industries, as well as heat, bricks, and electricity for Colorado’s growing towns. Hardy miners, many of them immigrants from southeastern Europe, worked in company towns throughout western Colorado. The work was hard and dangerous, and there was not much value placed on human life. These conditions led to labor strikes and tragic disasters, such as the 1884<strong> Jokerville coal mine</strong> <strong>explosion</strong> near Crested Butte that killed sixty miners. Labor unrest plagued mining areas from the start, and the economic crisis that came with the collapse of silver markets in the early twentieth century hit the San Juan Mountain camps especially hard. In addition to gold, silver, and coal, other minerals had their day in Western Colorado. This included zinc from southeast <a href="/article/eagle-county"><strong>Eagle County</strong></a> and molybdenum, a steel-hardening element, from the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/climax-molybdenum-mine"><strong>Climax Mine</strong></a> north of Leadville.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Compared to the earlier mining booms and the bloody labor disputes that accompanied them, the <a href="/article/uranium-mining"><strong>uranium</strong></a> boom of the mid-twentieth century might seem rather mundane, but it was certainly no less dangerous. An industry unique to the Western Slope, uranium mining was centered in the <strong>Paradox Valley</strong> near the town of <strong>Nucla</strong> in <a href="/article/montrose-county"><strong>Montrose County</strong></a>. Uranium, an essential element in nuclear weapons, was found in the valley during the late nineteenth century, and North America’s first radioactive metals mill was built on La Sal Creek in 1900. This boom peaked in the 1950s, when nuclear energy was considered by many to be a savior in a world seeking cheaper, more efficient fuel. As the uranium mining industry declined in the 1960s and 1970s, evidence of radioactive contamination in the bodies of industry workers and in the environments of former mine and mill sites began to mount. Today, many places in western Colorado still grapple with the environmental and health effects of uranium mining.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the 1970s, another brief boom period began when the federal government and private companies took steps to develop massive oil shale deposits in western Colorado. The deposits were located in the Piceance Basin near Meeker. In 1969 and 1973, as part of its <strong>Operation Plowshare</strong> program, the federal Atomic Energy Commission oversaw the subterranean detonation of nuclear devices near Rifle in an attempt to free deposits of oil and gas from surrounding rock. The blasts failed to free sufficient amounts of the resources, so no significant extraction occurred afterward. In general, extracting oil from subterranean rock proved to be more expensive than expected, and by the early 1980s world events and a drop in oil prices brought an abrupt end to the boom. Exxon and other oil companies pulled out of the region, taking thousands of jobs with them.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Agriculture and Tourism</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Following Ute removal in the early 1880s, farmers and ranchers joined miners on the Western Slope. <a href="/article/grand-junction"><strong>Grand Junction</strong></a>, <strong>Delta</strong>, and <strong>Montrose</strong> sprang up in 1881 and 1882, as did <strong>Glenwood Springs</strong> at the junction of the Colorado and Gunnison Rivers. Above the Colorado River, northwestern Colorado remained unsettled except for ranchers. Here and there, small towns sprang up for a variety of reasons. Steamboat Springs, <strong>Craig</strong>, <strong>Gunnison</strong>, and <strong>Yampa </strong>became cattle towns, while to the south, <strong>Durango</strong> prospered as a center for transportation, ore smelting, and agriculture.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Irrigation was critical to the success of many towns on the Western Slope. Colorado’s aridity hampered farming and ranching from the outset, so farmers around Grand Junction, Montrose, and other early agricultural communities dug ditches to water their crops. By the turn of the century, the newly created federal <a href="/article/bureau-reclamation-colorado"><strong>Bureau of Reclamation</strong></a> greatly expanded the amount of irrigated land on the Western Slope. The bureau’s Uncompahgre Project was the first major reclamation effort in Colorado and one of the earliest in the American West. In 1909 the bureau completed the project’s linchpin, the <strong>Gunnison Tunnel</strong>, a six-mile underground cavern that diverted Gunnison River water underneath Vernal Mesa to the Uncompahgre Valley near Montrose. With the help of irrigation, western Colorado soon became well known for its produce. The fruit industry—centering around <strong>Fruita</strong>, <strong>Palisade</strong>, <strong>Paonia</strong>, Cedaredge, and Hotchkiss—became world famous.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Unlike the early years of agriculture, the early years of ranching on the Western Slope were contentious as conflict between the region’s cattle and sheep ranchers broke out in the northwest part of the state over which livestock could feed on the best grazing territory. Ranchers in southwest Colorado, meanwhile, complained of Ute Indians leaving the Southern and Ute Mountain Ute Reservations to butcher cattle. Tensions between cattlemen and Utes who left the reservation sometimes flared into violence, as demonstrated by the <a href="/article/beaver-creek-massacre"><strong>Beaver Creek Massacre</strong></a> in 1885. Changes came to the region’s cattle industry in the twentieth century. In 1905 much of the land on the western slope came under the protection of the <a href="/article/us-forest-service-colorado"><strong>US Forest Service</strong></a>, which began charging grazing fees for cattle and sheep on the federal range. The furious stockmen fought the government to no avail, and in 1934 the <strong>Taylor Grazing Act</strong>, which later evolved into the <strong>Bureau of Land Management</strong>, further curtailed grazing on the public range. The involvement of the federal government proved to be an omen of things to come, as federal regulations ensured better conservation of federal lands even as it irked many ranchers.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Along with the removal of the Utes and the arrival of irrigation, there was one more ingredient needed to ensure the economic success of the Western Slope. In 1881 the <strong>Denver &amp; Rio Grande Railroad </strong>arrived in Durango and Gunnison, followed in 1882 by <a href="/article/john-evans"><strong>John Evan</strong><strong>s</strong></a>’s Denver, South Park &amp; Pacific railroad, facilitating the transport of mineral ores and supplies. The railroads also brought tourists who flocked to the Western Slope during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Tourist dollars allowed former mining towns such as Aspen, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, and Telluride to rebuild their economies and evolve into the cultural and recreational hubs we know today. The advent of the automobile and the construction of high-quality paved roads during the mid-twentieth century made Western Slope mountain towns more accessible than ever, propelling the growth of Colorado’s <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ski-industry"><strong>ski industry</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Water Wars</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The ski industry and other recreational activities in western Colorado greatly depend on the region’s water supply. The Western Slope holds the source of the <a href="/article/yampa-river"><strong>Yampa</strong></a>, <strong>White</strong>, <strong>Dolores</strong>, <strong>San Juan</strong>, Gunnison, Eagle, Roaring Fork, Animas and Uncompahgre Rivers. Yet, as important as all these rivers are to their local environments and communities, they are all tributaries to the mighty Colorado River, the most important river in the southwestern United States. That designation has come at a high cost to the river; even though 70 percent of its water originates in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, much of that water has been diverted to support urban growth and agriculture on Colorado’s Front Range as well as in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and California.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Tensions between water users run high in the western United States, but perhaps nowhere do they run higher than in Colorado. Most of the state’s water is in the Western Slope, but the majority of the population lives on the eastern side of the mountains, so Coloradans have built major diversions projects such as the <strong>Moffat Tunnel</strong>, Roberts Tunnel, Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, and the <a href="/article/colorado%e2%80%93big-thompson-project"><strong>Colorado–Big Thompson Project</strong> </a>to move water underneath the Continental Divide to Boulder, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fort-collins"><strong>Fort Collins</strong></a>, Denver, and other cities. These and other transmountain diversion projects have been met with anger by residents of the Western Slope. They not only question the ecological wisdom of draining their watersheds but are also troubled by the fact that the economically and politically dominant urban corridor along the Front Range has unfairly used its influence to obtain the lion’s share of Colorado’s water.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As author and photographer David Lavender wrote in his 1976 book <em>Colorado</em>, the Western Slope “is a human as well as a physiographic entity,” and residents “like to think that while shaping the land, they have been shaped by it: by its long vistas, its angularity, even its stubbornness.” Perhaps nowhere else in the state is the convergence of human culture and landscape more apparent than on Colorado’s Western Slope. As Coloradans continue to grapple with the unpredictable economic and ecological effects of a changing <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-climate"><strong>climate</strong></a>, the rugged heartiness of the Western Slope’s residents will certainly be tested. Yet, the region’s traditions of innovation and determination will serve it well, and its residents will continue to take pride in the good things they have managed to wrest from the land.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>This article is an abbreviated and updated version of the author’s essay “A Land Apart,” distributed in 2006 as part of <strong>Colorado Humanities</strong>’ “Five States of Colorado” educational resource kit.</em></p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/vandenbusche-duane" hreflang="und">Vandenbusche, Duane</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/river" hreflang="en">river</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bureau-reclamation" hreflang="en">bureau of reclamation</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/glenwood-springs" hreflang="en">Glenwood Springs</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/garfield-county" hreflang="en">Garfield County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/rio-blanco-county" hreflang="en">rio blanco county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/moffat-county" hreflang="en">Moffat County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/aspen" hreflang="en">Aspen</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/breckenridge" hreflang="en">Breckenridge</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/summit-county" hreflang="en">Summit County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/eagle-county" hreflang="en">eagle county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/san-juan-county" hreflang="en">san juan county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/silverton" hreflang="en">Silverton</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/telluride" hreflang="en">Telluride</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/durango" hreflang="en">Durango</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/la-plata-county" hreflang="en">la plata county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/montezuma-county" hreflang="en">montezuma county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/gunnison-county" hreflang="en">gunnison county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ouray-county" hreflang="en">ouray county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dolores-county" hreflang="en">dolores county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/uranium" hreflang="en">uranium</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/exxon" hreflang="en">exxon</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/oil-shale" hreflang="en">oil shale</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coal" hreflang="en">coal</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/craig" hreflang="en">Craig</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/meeker" hreflang="en">meeker</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Arthur Chapman, <em>The Story of Colorado: Out Where the West Begins</em> (Chicago, New York: Rand, McNally and Company, 1924).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>David Lavender, <em>David Lavender’s Colorado</em> (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Virginia McConnell Simmons, <em>The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2000).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Department of Energy, “<a href="http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2014/ph241/powell1/docs/rioblanco.pdf">Rio Blanco, Colorado Site Fact Sheet</a>,” 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Department of Energy, “<a href="http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2014/ph241/powell1/docs/rulison.pdf">Rulison, Colorado Site Fact Sheet</a>,” 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Duane Vandenbusche, <em>The Gunnison Country </em>(Gunnison, CO: B&amp;B Printers, 1980).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Duane Vandenbusche and Duane Smith, <em>A Land Alone: Colorado’s Western Slope </em>(Boulder, CO: Pruett, 1981).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Greg Abbott, Stephen J. Leonard, and David McComb, <em>Colorado: A History of the Centennial State</em>, 5th ed. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2013).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado.com Staff, "<a href="https://www.colorado.com/articles/10-western-colorado-fly-fishing-spots">10 Western Colorado Fly-Fishing Spots</a>," Colorado Tourism, 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Peter McBride and Jonathan Waterman, <em>The Colorado River: Flowing through Conflict </em>(Boulder, CO: Westcliffe, 2010).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jonathan Waterman, <em>Running Dry: A Journey from Source to Sea down the Colorado River </em>(Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2010).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 23 Jan 2017 23:14:24 +0000 yongli 2210 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Dolores County http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/dolores-county <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Dolores County</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--1707--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--1707.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/dolores-county"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Dolores_0.jpg?itok=gnWwKJhG" width="1090" height="556" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/dolores-county" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Dolores County </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Dolores County, named for the Dolores River, occupies a remote part of Colorado's Western Slope. It was home to a brief mining boom around Rico during the late nineteenth century.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> <div class="carousel-item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--1708--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--1708.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/dolores-county-0"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/1280px-Map_of_Colorado_highlighting_Dolores_County.svg__0.jpg?itok=klBjVIJl" width="1000" height="723" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/dolores-county-0" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Dolores County</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Dolores County in southwestern Colorado is the one of the least populated counties in Colorado. It was home to a brief mining boom near Rico in the late nineteenth century.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> <div class="carousel-item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3424--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3424.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/rico"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Rico_0.jpg?itok=ZXfGI3BN" width="1090" height="817" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/rico" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Rico</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Rico, a historic mining town, has a population of 265 and is located in southeastern Dolores County. It was settled in 1879 as a silver mining center in the Pioneer Mining District; today it functions as a historic and tourism site.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> <button class="carousel-control-prev" type="button" data-bs-target="#carouselEncyclopediaArticle" data-bs-slide="prev"> <span class="carousel-control-prev-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span> <span class="visually-hidden">Previous</span> </button> <button class="carousel-control-next" type="button" data-bs-target="#carouselEncyclopediaArticle" data-bs-slide="next"> <span class="carousel-control-next-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span> <span class="visually-hidden">Next</span> </button> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-08-16T10:50:10-06:00" title="Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - 10:50" class="datetime">Tue, 08/16/2016 - 10:50</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/dolores-county" data-a2a-title="Dolores County"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fdolores-county&amp;title=Dolores%20County"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Dolores County is a sparsely populated county in southwestern Colorado, named for the river that flows from the <a href="/article/san-juan-mountains"><strong>San Juan Mountains</strong></a> on its eastern flank. It covers 1,068 square miles and is bordered to the north by <a href="/article/san-miguel-county"><strong>San Miguel County</strong></a>, to the east by <a href="/article/san-juan-county"><strong>San Juan County</strong></a>, to the southeast by <a href="/article/la-plata-county"><strong>La Plata County</strong></a>, to the south by <a href="/article/montezuma-county"><strong>Montezuma County</strong></a>, and to the west by the state of Utah. From its source in the mountainous eastern edge of the county, the <strong>Dolores River</strong> flows south along State Highway 145 into Montezuma County, into McPhee Reservoir, and then back north into western Dolores County through Dolores Canyon.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><strong>Dove Creek</strong>, the county seat, is located west of Dolores Canyon along US Route 491. The town has a population of 689, about one-third of the county’s total population of 1,978. <strong>Rico</strong>, a historic mining town, has a population of 265 and is located in southeastern Dolores County. The county’s geography ranges from tall mountain peaks, such as Mt. Wilson, San Miguel Peak, and Blackhawk Mountain, to flattop mountains such as <strong>Lone Mesa</strong>, canyons cut by the Dolores River and its tributaries, and the <a href="/article/sagebrush"><strong>sagebrush</strong></a>-covered <strong>Colorado Plateau</strong> in the west.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Native Americans</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Around AD 600, <a href="/article/ancestral-puebloans-four-corners-region"><strong>Ancestral Puebloans</strong></a> settled the western Dolores County area as part of a larger stretch of settlements across the Colorado Plateau. They built blocks of houses and stone granaries that stored harvests of corn, beans, and squash, some of which were farmed in terraces and irrigated by <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/water-colorado"><strong>water</strong></a> artificially diverted from streams. Some of the largest communities supported hundreds of residents. By 1300, however, a combination of environmental and social turmoil forced them to abandon the area.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1500 southwest Colorado was frequented by several bands of Ute people, predominantly the Weeminuche, the “long time ago people.” The Utes lived off the natural wealth of Colorado’s mountains and river valleys, hunting <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rocky-mountain-elk"><strong>elk</strong></a>, deer, jackrabbit, and other game. They also gathered a wide assortment of wild berries and roots, including the versatile yucca root.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Spanish Era</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By the early seventeenth century the northern frontier of New Spain pressed up against the lands of the Weeminuche and other Utes in southwestern Colorado. The Utes’ relationship with the Spaniards was one of alternate raiding and trading, and as early as 1640 they had acquired horses from the Spanish. The animals allowed them to cover even more ground in search of trade or larger populations of game, such as buffalo.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Official exploration of the Dolores County area would not come until the expedition of <a href="/article/juan-antonio-mar%C3%ADa-de-rivera"><strong>Juan de Rivera</strong></a> in 1765. Rivera’s mission was to have Utes lead him to a crossing of the Colorado River and investigate rumors of silver deposits in the mountains. He got as far as the Dolores River, where he was told by the Utes not to proceed any farther until cooler weather prevailed in the fall.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the fall Rivera returned to the Dolores River, where the Utes again attempted to divert him. Rivera soon realized that the Utes were simply trying to keep the Spanish from advancing farther into their territory, and he eventually convinced them to take him north to the Colorado. His mission complete, Rivera returned to Santa Fé in November 1765.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rivera and his expedition carved out a route for future traders and explorers, such as the friars <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/spanish-exploration-western-colorado"><strong>Silvestre Escalante and Francisco Dominguez</strong></a>. In July 1776 the friars were dispatched to find an overland passage from Santa Fé to Monterey, California. After following Rivera’s old route through present-day Archuleta, La Plata, Montezuma, Dolores, and San Miguel Counties, Dominguez and Escalante pushed northeast into the Gunnison Valley and then northwest into Utah, where they ran into a punishing blizzard and were forced to turn back.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Spanish era of Dolores County’s history came to an end when Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821. The rugged, little-known area remained the dominion of the Utes for decades. This did not immediately change after it became US territory in 1848 following the Mexican-American War.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Rico and County Establishment</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Fur trappers plied the area around present-day Rico during the 1830s, but white Americans did not arrive until decades later, when a prospecting party led by a Colonel Nash found gold in 1866. Two years later the Dolores County area became part of a 16 million-acre Ute reservation via the <a href="/article/ute-treaty-1868"><strong>Treaty of 1868</strong></a>. A second mining party arrived in the Rico area in 1869, but the Utes drove away many of these early miners and kept whites out of the area until 1873, when the <a href="/article/brunot-agreement"><strong>Brunot Agreement</strong></a> transferred some 3.5 million acres of the San Juan Mountains to the United States.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="/article/precious-metal-mining-colorado"><strong>Miners</strong></a> flooded into the newly opened lands, and the Pioneer Mining District was established near present-day Rico in 1876. Rico was incorporated in 1879 after silver deposits were found on Blackhawk and Telescope Mountains to the east. Among the town’s first businesses was the Pioneer Hotel and Restaurant.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>When Colorado joined the Union in 1876, the Dolores County area was first part of a larger San Juan County, then <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ouray-county"><strong>Ouray County</strong></a>, until it was carved out of the southern half of then-Ouray County in 1881. That year the prospector David Swickhimer founded the Enterprise Mine on Telescope Mountain, though he did not strike the profitable Enterprise Lode until 1887. The Rio Grande Southern Railroad arrived in 1891, furthering the town’s boom period. The next year Rico boasted a population of about 5,000. Rico served as the county seat from 1893 to 1946, when it relinquished the title to a more populous Dove Creek.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Ranching</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Mining was not the only profitable enterprise in the early days of Dolores County. Miners had to be fed, and the rich grass of the Dolores River valley provided excellent fodder for cattle-raising. Ranchers such as the Kuhlman brothers, who operated near Rico, brought in Longhorn and Shorthorn steer from Texas during the 1870s and 1880s.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Weeminuche and other Ute bands in southern Colorado had been residing on the <strong>Southern Ute Indian Reservation</strong> since the mid-1870s, but the federal government’s failure to provide the supplies promised in the Brunot Agreement and previous treaties often led them off the reservation to secure their food supply. In southwest Colorado this brought them into conflict with white ranchers, who often falsely accused the Utes of cattle theft and other depredations. The Utes did occasionally kill cattle, but mostly they simply used traditional hunting grounds and campsites. Confrontations between white cattlemen and Utes sometimes turned violent, as demonstrated in 1885 when white ranchers killed six Utes at a traditional Ute camp along Beaver Creek. A historic marker detailing the <a href="/article/beaver-creek-massacre"><strong>Beaver Creek Massacre</strong></a> stands near the town of Dove Creek.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Dove Creek</h2>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="/article/colorado-world-war-i"><strong>World War I</strong></a> veterans first homesteaded the Dove Creek area in the late 1910s. The land was covered in sagebrush and was extremely difficult to clear. One of the first settlers, Dan Hunter (a.k.a. “Sagebrush Dan”), set up a successful pinto bean farm, as well as a high school, water and power utilities, and a newspaper. The homesteaders continued the Ancestral Puebloan tradition of growing pinto beans, for which the local soil and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-climate"><strong>climate</strong></a> were perfectly suited.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The town was host to emigrants fleeing the <a href="/article/dust-bowl"><strong>Dust Bowl</strong></a> on the plains during the 1930s, as well as miners participating in the <a href="/article/western-slope"><strong>Western Slope</strong></a> <a href="/article/uranium"><strong>uranium</strong></a> boom in the mid-to-late twentieth century. Dove Creek’s 1940 population of 418 had grown to 986 by 1960. Agriculture remained the lifeblood for local residents through these population shifts. Beans from Dove Creek farms fed soldiers overseas during World War II, and in the 1980s at least one local bean supplier claimed to provide seeds originally found at <strong><a href="/article/ancestral-puebloans-four-corners-region">Ancestral </a></strong><a href="/article/ancestral-puebloans-four-corners-region"><strong>Puebloan</strong></a> sites.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Today</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Today the town of Rico is mainly home to outdoor enthusiasts and workers from Telluride. Volunteers established the Rico Historical Museum in 2008. Dove Creek is home to Adobe Milling, which sells a variety of beans, chilies, salsas, and other elements of Southwestern cuisine. Dolores County is one of the state’s top producers of dry edible beans and its ranchers raise about 3,600 head of cattle.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dolores-county" hreflang="en">dolores county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dove-creek" hreflang="en">dove creek</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/rico" hreflang="en">rico</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/western-slope" hreflang="en">Western Slope</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p><a href="https://www.anasazibeans.com/">Adobe Milling</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Phil Carson, <em>Across the Northern Frontier: Spanish Explorations in Colorado </em>(Boulder, CO: Johnson Printing, 1998).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Linda Dishman, “<a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/rmr/river_of_sorrows/chap2.htm">Ranching and Farming in the Lower Dolores River Valley</a>,” in <em>The River of Sorrows: The History of the Lower Dolores River Valley</em>, ed. Gregory D. Kendrick (Denver: National Park Service, Rocky Mountain Regional Office, 1981).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>History Colorado, “<a href="http://colorado.untraveledroad.com/Dolores/DoveCreek/14ASign.htm">Dove Creek</a>,” Historic Marker, 2001.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Dara Kinsey, “<a href="http://www.ricocolorado.org/his/frame_his.html">History of Rico</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Virginia McConnell Simmons, <em>The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2000).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Rico Historical Society, “<a href="http://www.ricocolorado.org/vis/documents/Rico_Walking_Tour_Brochure_5-30-06.pdf">Town of Rico Historic Walking Tour: A path to our past</a>,” May 30, 2006.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Department of Agriculture, “<a href="https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2012/Online_Resources/County_Profiles/">2012 Census of Agriculture County Profile: Dolores County Colorado</a>,” National Agricultural Statistics Service.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Colorado Tourism, “<a href="https://www.colorado.com/cities-and-towns/dove-creek">Dove Creek</a>.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://dolocnty.colorado.gov/">Dolores County</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Gregory D. Kendrick, ed., <a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/rmr/river_of_sorrows/index.htm"><em>The River of Sorrows: The History of the Lower Dolores River Valley</em></a> (Denver: National Park Service, Rocky Mountain Regional Office, 1981).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="http://www.ricocolorado.org/gov/frame_gov.html">Town of Rico</a></p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 16 Aug 2016 16:50:10 +0000 yongli 1706 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org