Around 10,000 years ago, the first humans entered Southwestern Colorado. Part of the Folsom culture, these hunters are believed to have been amongst the earliest transcontinental migrations to North America from Asia. Crude implements and other weapons have been discovered on the Uncompahgre Plateau.
As early as as 1500 BC and through 1300 AD, the Ancestral Puebloan (formerly called the Anasazi) people populated the land. They made their homes from shaped stones, building pit houses and eventually, multi-level dwellings inside rock overhangs. These "cliff palaces" are preserved in a over a dozen national parks and monuments throughout the Four Corners area. An advanced civilization, the Puebloan culture collapsed due to environmental pressure during the global "Little Ice Age" of the Middle Ages. Prolonged drought may have forced the Puebloans to abandon their villages and look elsewhere to grow their crops.
Circa 1500, the nomadic Ute nation moved into Northwestern Colorado, with the Spanish not far behind (at least on paper). From the 1520s through the 1820s, Spain claimed a large portion of Southwestern Colorado as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The borders were not firmly fixed on a map, and the Spanish only managed to settle as far as South Central Colorado.
During the 19th century, the area was very much in dispute with a young nation, the United States. After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the U.S. claimed all the land south and west of the Arkansas River. Spain declared a large trade zone around its colony of Santa Fé de Nuevo Méjico, a claim the U.S. challenged.
The U.S. relinquished its claim on the region as part of the purchase of Florida from Spain with the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819. In 1821, the Viceroyalty of New Spain successfully revolted, splitting with the Spanish crown. Southwestern Colorado become part of the nebulous northern border of Alta California, a province in the new nation of Mexico.
Hoping to develop the area, Mexican officials opened the land up to mountain men, trappers and traders. Between 1821 and 1840, explorer Antoine Robidoux ventured through the region in search of beaver pelts. With this influx of adventurers and speculators came many of the men who would later lead U.S. Army expeditions and Government Surveying parties through the area: Kit Carson, "Pathfinder" John Charles Fremont and Captain John Gunnison.
In 1846, the U.S. Army invaded and defeated Mexico in the Mexican-American War. With the Treaty of Guadalupe y Hidalgo, the U.S. gained control of Southwestern Colorado, as well as California, Nevada, Utah, and portions of Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming.
In the 1870s, gold and silver were discovered in the San Juan Mountains to the south. The the U.S. Army forcibly relocated the Utes to Utah, and into a tiny corner of Southwestern Colorado, near Cortez.
With the Uncompahgre Reservation open to settlers in 1881, towns like Delta, Montrose and Gunnison were rapidly established to service mining towns like Crested Butte, Silverton and Telluride. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad laid narrow gauge tracks through the San Juans, founding what is today one of the oldest railroad lines still in continuous operation.
Ranching, farming and mining remained the backbone of the region's industry for the next 80 years. With the rise of the automobile and a reliable highway system, Southwestern Colorado increasingly relied on tourism as a source of income. The mining towns of Telluride and Crested Butte were remade into ski resorts in the 1960s and 1970s. This brought an influx of new money and wealth to a few isolated pockets of the region.
In the 21st century, Southwestern Colorado continues to draw people with its rugged natural beauty, abundant recreational opportunities and archeological heritage.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Southwestern Colorado
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Southwestern Colorado - updated May 2024
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Southwestern Colorado Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
