Things

Kivas were architecturally unique rooms or structures built by Ancestral Puebloans in southwest Colorado that served important ceremonial and social functions. Architecturally, they are recognized in the archaeological record in southwestern Colorado as far back as AD 500, although there are...

Until recently, the Animas River—known in Spanish as “El Río de las Ánimas,” or “The River of Lost Souls”—was one of only a few undammed rivers in southwestern Colorado. The Upper Animas River Canyon bears the legacy of the longest hard-rock mining operations in southwestern Colorado. The mineral-...

The tipi, or tepee, is an iconic form of Native American housing. It has a long history of use throughout Colorado and the western plains of North America. Sturdy and secure yet portable, the hide-covered tipi has been an ideal shelter for millennia among mobile human groups. The term comes from...

Interstate Highway 70 spans 2,100 miles across the United States, crossing the entire state of Colorado. The eastern end of the highway lies west of Baltimore, Maryland. From there it bisects the country until it reaches Cove Fort in Central Utah, where it merges into Interstate 15. In Colorado, I-...

The Royal Gorge is a spectacular canyon along the Arkansas River near Cañon City in south-central Colorado. With a narrowest width of just 30 feet at the bottom of the canyon and a depth exceeding 1,200 feet in some places, the nearly ten-mile-long canyon is considered a world wonder of geology ...

The vision quest is a rite of passage practiced by Native American tribes of the Plains and Great Basin groups such as the Eastern Shoshone . Vision quests are not well documented for the Ute Native Americans, although a few shamans might have performed the ritual. Archaeologists and...

Colorado is home to a rich variety of prehistoric and historic art carved on cliff sides and boulders. Most rock art is found in river basins. The mountain areas that cut a wide vertical swath through the state are relatively devoid of rock art. There are the two types of rock art: pecked art,...

Water has profoundly shaped Colorado’s past and will play a vital role in its future. The resource is essential to the state’s agriculture, cities, industries, energy supply, and environment. Furthermore, eighteen other states and parts of Mexico rely on waters from the mountains of Colorado, known...