Colorado City is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

(CDP) and

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

in and governed by

Pueblo County Pueblo County ( or ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 168,162. The county seat is Pueblo. The county was named for the historic city of Pueblo which took its name from the Spanish lan ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, United States. The CDP is a part of the Pueblo, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Colorado City post office has the ZIP Code 81019 ( post office boxes). At the

United States Census 2010 The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...

, the population of the Colorado City CDP was 2,193, while the population of the 81019

ZIP Code Tabulation Area ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) are statistical entities developed by the United States Census Bureau for tabulating summary statistics. These were introduced with the Census 2000 and continued with the 2010 Census and 5 year American Community S ...

was 1,690. The Colorado City Metropolitan District provides services.

Geography

Colorado City is located in the

Greenhorn Valley The Greenhorn Valley lies in southern Pueblo County, Colorado just east of Greenhorn Mountain. It includes the communities of Colorado City and Rye. Colorado State Highway 165, part of the Frontier Pathways Scenic Byway, goes through the valle ...

. The Colorado City CDP has an area of , including of water.

History

The first settlement at the site of Colorado City was called Greenhorn after the name of an 18th century

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...

chief (

Cuerno Verde Cuerno Verde (died September 3, 1779) is the Spanish name for Tavibo Naritgant, a leader of the Comanche, likely of the Kotsoteka Comanche, in the late 18th century. Life Cuerno Verde ("Green Horn" in English), is the Spanish name given to Tavi ...

in Spanish). In 1845,

mountain man A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s (with a peak population in the early 1840s). They were instrumental in opening up ...

John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...

, his wife Luisa Sandoval, and several children established a

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

where the

Trapper's Trail The Trapper's Trail or Trappers' Trail is a north-south path along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains that links the Great Platte River Road at Fort Laramie and the Santa Fe Trail at Bent's Old Fort. Along this path there were a number of ...

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Cha ...

crossed Greenhorn Creek. Brown and his family left Greenhorn for California in 1849. In 1853, Lt.

Edward Griffin Beckwith Edward Griffin Beckwith (June 25, 1818 – June 22, 1881) was a United States Army officer who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and who conducted one of the Pacific Railroad Surveys in the 1850s and became known as the ...

, an army officer, said of Greenhorn, "six New Mexican families had built an irrigation system to divert the water from Greenhorn Creek to water their crops of corn, wheat, beans and watermelon. Their homes were built of adobe which stood shoulder to shoulder and were surrounded by a close fence of high pickets. They also had corrals for the safe keeping of their stock."

Demographics

The

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

initially defined the for the

Government

Colorado City is a metropolitan district, a type of special district established under Colorado law. It is governed by an elected, five-member board of directors and managed by an appointed district manager. The metropolitan district operates Lake Beckwith, which provides recreational opportunities for residents and visitors. The lake also forms the Lake Beckwith State Wildlife Area, one of several hundred state wildlife areas in Colorado managed by

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Colorado Parks and Wildlife manages the state parks system and the wildlife of the U.S. state of Colorado. , the division managed the 42 state parks and 307 wildlife areas of Colorado. , the Colorado Natural Areas Program had 93 designated si ...

. Colorado City also has a public golf course and club house.

References

External links