Description

The Town of Crestone is a Statutory Town in

Saguache County Saguache County (suh-WATCH ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,368. The county seat is Saguache. History Saguache County was formed December 29, 1866 in the Territory of Colorado wh ...

, Colorado, United States. The town population was 141 at the

2020 United States Census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...

. Crestone is a small village at the foot of the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo Range, in the northern part of the

San Luis Valley The San Luis Valley is a region in south-central Colorado with a small portion overlapping into New Mexico. The valley is approximately long and wide, extending from the Continental Divide on the northwest rim into New Mexico on the south. It co ...

. Crestone was platted in 1880 by George Adams, owner of the neighboring

Luis Maria Baca Grant No. 4 The Luis Maria Baca Grant No. 4, south of Crestone, Colorado, was a large land grant made in 1860 by the United States to the heirs of the original Vegas Grandes Grant to Baca family of New Mexico at Las Vegas, New Mexico. Title to the grant at Las ...

. In the 1970s the Baca Grande, a large land development, was established on the lands of the Baca Grant to the south and west. Several hundred homes have been built there. The Crestone area, which includes the Baca Grande and

Moffat, Colorado The Town of Moffat is a Statutory Town in Saguache County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 116 at the 2010 United States Census. Geography Moffat is located at (37.998855, -105.905973). According to the United States Censu ...

, is a spiritual center for several world religions, including: a

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

temple, a Zen center, several Tibetan Buddhist centers, and miscellaneous New Age happenings. Much of this spiritual development was catalyzed by the couple Hanne Strong and Maurice Strong in the 1970s, who set out to make it an interfaith center. Crestone is accessible to visitors, a

National Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

campground A campsite, also known as a campground or camping pitch, is a place used for camping, overnight stay in an outdoor area. In British English, a ''campsite'' is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight u ...

is about 3/4 of a mile north of town, and other lodging includes several bed and breakfasts. Activities in the area include camping, fishing, hiking, climbing, as well as spiritual explorations. Crestone is named for the 14,000-foot peaks that lie just east of the town: Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle. The Crestones, as they are known collectively, in turn, took their name from the Spanish wor
''crestón''
which, according to Walter Borneman and Lyndon Lampert's book ''A Climbing Guide to Colorado’s Fourteeners'', means: “the top of a cock’s comb”; “the crest of a helmet”; or, in miners’ jargon, “an outcropping of ore”.

History

The first settlement in the Crestone area occurred after the American Civil War with the granting of the

in 1860 to the heirs of the original Baca Grant at Las Vegas, New Mexico. Title to the grant at Las Vegas was clouded by a second grant of the same land to the residents of Las Vegas, the Bacas having abandoned their grant after the deaths of the founder to a Mexican soldier in 1827 and of his oldest son at the hands of the Navajo in 1835. The Baca heirs were offered alternative lands from the public lands of the United States. The square tract selected is on a side south of Saguache County Road T south of Crestone. The Bacas deeded the land to their attorney, but it soon passed by tax sale to a third party. The ranch headquarters were on Crestone Creek to the southwest of Crestone. The Baca Grant was one of the first large tracts of land to be fenced in the West and in its heyday was the home of prize

Hereford cattle The Hereford is a British breed of beef cattle originally from Herefordshire in the West Midlands of England. It has spread to many countries – there are more than five million purebred Hereford cattle in over fifty nations worldwide. The bre ...

. In addition to

ranching A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...

, there was some mining in the area to the east and south of Crestone of small shallow iron oxide copper gold ore deposits. In 1880, the town of Crestone was platted by George Adams, the owner of the Baca Grant. In 1900, with the help of Eastern investors, George Adams ignited a minor boom, reopening one of the more promising gold mines and building a railroad spur to the town and the mines along the Range south of town. However, lacking good ore, the boom was short lived. A long period of decline followed. By 1948, Crestone had declined to its post-war population of 40, mostly retirees and cowboys who worked on the Grant, a nickname for the Baca Grant. Many of the old cabins were used as vacation homes. By 1971, the Baca Grant came into the ownership of a corporation which subdivided a portion of the Grant, creating the Baca Grande, a

subdivision Subdivision may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Subdivision (metre), in music * ''Subdivision'' (film), 2009 * "Subdivision", an episode of ''Prison Break'' (season 2) * ''Subdivisions'' (EP), by Sinch, 2005 * "Subdivisions" (song), by Rus ...

originally platted for about 10,000 lots. At great expense, underground utilities were installed and roads built. However, sales lagged and by 1979 the development was considered a liability by the corporation. Maurice Strong, owner of a controlling interest and his fiancée, Hanne Marstrand, visited the development and "fell in love with it". They were inspired to create a world spiritual center and began granting parcels of land to traditional spiritual organizations. The population gradually began to increase and by 2006 several hundred homes had been built and a number of small spiritual communities had become established. As the Baca Grande contained no provision for business uses, Crestone became the business center of the community and, having enacted a sales tax, was in a position to finance further improvements.

Geography

Crestone is located near the 38th parallel, in the

in south central Colorado. It is platted on a quarter section of land, or , on the alluvial fan of North Crestone Creek. Much of the land near the creek where the main part of the city sits, is well watered in normal times, but during a prolonged drought the creek may dry up and underground water levels may fall. At the

, the town had a total area of , all of it land.

Access

Saguache County Road T is the main road into Crestone. It is a county road. It is "T" in a series of alphabetically named east-west roads which begin at State Highway 112, the south boundary of Saguache County, which would be Road A, if it were not a state highway. Road T is a through road across the valley, crossing

U.S. Highway 285 U.S. Route 285 is a north–south United States highway, running 846 miles (1,362 km) through the states of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. The highway's southern terminus is in Sanderson, Texas at an intersection with U.S. Route 90. ...

at Swede's Corners about 6 miles south of Saguache, Colorado but is paved only from

east 12.5 miles to Crestone, Colorado. The eastern portion of Road T forms the north boundary of the

Baca National Wildlife Refuge The Baca National Wildlife Refuge is a United States National Wildlife Refuge located in southern Colorado. It is within the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area. Fauna Many bird species such as the kestrel, great horned owl, northern flicker ...

Public lands

Mountain terrain east of Crestone is managed by the Rio Grande National Forest including part of the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. Public lands at the foot of the mountains including the forested public land surrounding Crestone is managed by the United States Bureau of Land Management. The combined office of the United States Forest Service and the BLM is in Saguache, Colorado, the county seat.

Demographics

''Census data is for the Town of Crestone; most people in the Crestone area live in the Baca Grande, a large land development which lies to the south and west of the town.'' The following is derived from the US census and covers only the town itself, thus giving a misleading idea of the area. About half of the homes in Crestone itself are used only on a seasonal basis. The Crestone community is much larger, consisting also of several hundred homes in the Baca Grande subdivision, the surrounding rural area, and the small town of

. The Moffat School District NO. 2 operates a public school in Moffat and the Crestone Charter School in Crestone. As of the census of 2000, there were 73 people, 45 households, and 18 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 79 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 95.9% White, 4.1% from other races. 1.4% of the population were Hispanic or

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

of any race. There were 45 households, out of which 8.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 28.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

living together, 4.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 60.0% don't fit into the above categories. 48.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.62 and the average family size was 2.22. In the town, the population was spread out, with 8.2% under the age of 18, 4.1% from 18 to 24, 23.3% from 25 to 44, 45.2% from 45 to 64, and 19.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 52 years. For every 100 females there were 102.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 103.0 males. The median income for a household in the town was $31,250, and the median income for a family was $40,000. Males had a median income of $22,813 versus $27,917 for females. The per capita income for the town was $22,291. There were 18.8% of families and 19.7% of the population living below the poverty line, including no under eighteens and none of those over 64.

Gallery

File:LittleShepardoftheHills.JPG, Little Shepherd of the Hills

Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...

Mission File:CrestonePostOffice.JPG, Crestone post office File:CrestoneNovember.jpg,

Kit Carson Mountain Kit Carson Peak is a high mountain summit of the Crestones in the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. Officially designated Kit Carson Mountain, the fourteener is located east by south ( bearing 102°) of th ...

from Crestone in November 2010 File:GalenaScene.jpg, Galena Avenue about 1910 Image:Bacachorten.JPG, Chorten near Crestone File:CreativeTrade.jpg, Creative Trade, a gift shop File:Shambala.JPG, Shambala when it was a cafe File:BlissCafeEast.JPG, The Bliss Cafe, now repurposed as the Crestone Brewery which has since closed. File:LittlePearlPark.JPG, Little Pearl Park, a pocket park File:SaturdayMarket.JPG, Saturday market in late September 2010 File:GoldenAvenueCrestone.jpg, Golden Avenue west from Golden and Alder File:LaughingBuddha.jpg, The Secret Garden when it was a bar File:CrestoneMerchantile.jpg, Crestone Mercantile, an

Affiliated Food Stores Affiliated Foods is a grocery wholesaler. It was founded by the 1968 merger of South Plains Associated Grocers of Lubbock, Texas and the Panhandle Associated Grocers of Amarillo, Texas, and is a retailers' cooperative serving Texas, Oklahoma, Kansa ...

member store File:CurtsStoreCafe.jpg, Curt's Store, a

health food store A health food store (or health food shop) is a type of grocery store that primarily sells health foods, organic foods, local produce, and often nutritional supplements. Health food stores typically offer a wider or more specialized selection of fo ...

, now repurposed as the Elephant Cloud, still a health food store File:Crestone1911.jpg, A letter mailed from Crestone in 1911 File:CrestoneTreehouse.JPG, Tree house near the creek. Curt's cow is on top of the tree house. File:ClothingBinsCrestoneFreeBox.JPG, Clothing bins in the Crestone

Free Box A free box is a box or location used to allow for people to rid themselves of excess items without the inconvenience of a garage sale. When someone has items they wish to be rid of, but which might be useful to another person, they are set out ...

File:RMtJuniperStand.JPG, Grove of

Rocky Mountain Juniper ''Juniperus scopulorum'', the Rocky Mountain juniper, is a species of juniper native to western North America, from southwest Canada to the Great Plains of the United States. Description ''Juniperus scopulorum'' is a small evergreen conifer rea ...

cut in 2013 to clear the site for an office building File:Southfacingearthhouse.JPG, Passive solar building near Crestone

Spiritual and intellectual centers

Crestone has become internationally known as a locus for a large number of many different religious and spiritual traditions. Accommodation of spiritual pilgrims and eco-tourists is the major industry in Crestone. Crestone's development as a spiritual and intellectual center was initiated by Maurice Strong, a multimillionaire businessman and United Nations Undersecretary, and his wife, Hanne Marstrand Strong. Using land acquired from the corporations Strong controlled they established the Manitou Foundation and Manitou Institute, which, according to its website, "provides and grants and some financial support in Crestone/Baca, Colorado, to qualified religious and spiritual projects." Grants of land from the foundation were made to a number of spiritual and intellectual centers in the area. Spiritual centers in Crestone: Intellectual and spiritual centers of historical interest:

Volunteer and community services

Emergency services for the town of Crestone and the Baca Grande are provided by the Crestone Volunteer Fire Dept. and the Baca-Crestone Ambulance Service. Th
Crestone End of Life Project
provides open-air cremation and end of life support. CEOLP is a non-denominational community-based group promoting informed end-of-life choices and supporting their fulfillment. Cost is modest but is available only to the 1,000 or so people who live in the local community.

Fairs and markets

The Annual San Luis Valley Energy Fair is held in Crestone's town parks over Labor Day weekend each year. The fair features ideas and products that relate to environmental sustainability such as solar power and

straw bale construction Straw-bale construction is a building method that uses bales of straw (commonly wheat, rice, rye and oats straw) as structural elements, building insulation, or both. This construction method is commonly used in natural building or "brown" con ...

as well as booths offering food and local products. Crestone hosts an annual Artists Open Studio Tour during the first weekend in October, allowing for visits to the many artist's studios in the area. Food and local products are offered regularly at the Saturday Market which happens in the middle of town in Little Pearl Park every Saturday during the summer. Crestone has a

free box A free box is a box or location used to allow for people to rid themselves of excess items without the inconvenience of a garage sale. When someone has items they wish to be rid of, but which might be useful to another person, they are set out ...

which is enthusiastically supported by the community.

Wildlife

Crestone has historically been a deer park; Mule deer are commonly seen grazing in yards in town. Black bears are also common, but usually only at night when they raid apple trees and the dumpsters at the cafes and stores in downtown Crestone. In 2011 a bear with two cubs was frequently seen during the day. This bear, which was generally well-behaved other than raiding trash, was killed by the

Colorado Department of Natural Resources The Colorado Department of Natural Resources is the principal department of the Colorado state government responsible for the development, protection, and enhancement Colorado natural resources for the use and enjoyment of the state's present and ...

following a bear attack on a tethered goat. Local sympathizers complained bitterly the wrong bear had been killed, receiving extensive coverage through Channel 9 in Denver which was distributed nationally by the Associated Press, prompting an investigation of the incident by the Division of Parks and Wildlife and possible re-evaluation of management of bears in mixed rural-urban communities such as Crestone. An internal investigation by the Division of Parks and Wildlife came to the conclusion that the right bear had been shot."Internal review finds officials shot right bear"
report by Christina Dickinson, 9News.Com, Nov 24, 2011

References

* Portions adapted from the Wikinfo articl
"Crestone, Colorado"

External links

Town of Crestone website

CDOT map of the Town of Crestone

Saguache County Tourism Information

CrestoneArtists.com
{{authority control Towns in Colorado Towns in Saguache County, Colorado