Dotsero is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Eagle County,

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The CDP is a part of the Edwards, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population of the Dotsero CDP was 1,172 at the United States Census 2020. The

Gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate Hydrate, dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, drywall and blackboard or sidewalk ...

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

( Zip Code 81637) serves the area.

History

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad

Dotsero was an important railroad junction point for the

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south fr ...

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

line. Originally the line passed through Dotsero following the Eagle River towards Tennessee Pass and through the Royal Gorge of the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in Colorado, specifically ...

en route to

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat of and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality in Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The ...

before turning north towards Denver. Through the years, efforts were made to have a more direct connection between Denver and Salt Lake that did not require detouring through Pueblo. The

Denver and Salt Lake Railroad The Denver and Salt Lake Railway (D&SL) was a List of United States railroads, U.S. railroad company located in Colorado. It was incorporated in 1902 as the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific (DN&P) Railway with the goal of connecting Denver, De ...

(D&SL) built a line west from Denver and entered the Colorado River canyon near

Bond, Colorado Bond is an unincorporated community and U.S. Post Office located along the Colorado River in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The Bond post office has the ZIP Code 80423. Although Bond has never had a sizable population, the town has sig ...

, about Northeast of Dotsero. The D&SL was never finished as a separate route to Salt Lake City; however, it was eventually acquired by the D&RGW, who built a connection between Dotsero and Orestod (Dotsero spelled backwards) near Bond. This connection, commonly known as the Dotsero Cutoff, was completed on June 15, 1934 and finally provided Denver with a direct link to Salt Lake City, making Dotsero the junction between the old and new routes to Denver. After completion the old route over Tennessee pass remained in use as a secondary route, but has been dormant since 1997. Ferdinand Hayden published an extensive survey of central and southwest Colorado in 1877, and used the location of the town of Dotsero as his "Dot Zero" (reference point) for his survey maps. The station name exists from the construction of the

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

railroad line to

Glenwood Springs Glenwood Springs is a home rule municipality and the county seat of Garfield County, Colorado, United States. According to the 2020 United States census, the city has a population of 9,963. It is located at the confluence of the Roaring Fork ...

in the 1890s.

Geography

Dotsero is located at the confluence of the Eagle River with the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

, along U.S. Highway 6 and

Interstate 70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15, I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 and Maryland Route 570 (MD 570) in Woodlawn, Baltimo ...

, near the head of Glenwood Canyon, approximately west of

. The Dotsero CDP has an area of , including of water.

Dotsero Volcano

Dotsero is built at the base of Colorado's most recently active volcano, the Dotsero Volcano, which, according to the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

, erupted 4,140 years ago. The volcano is still classified as active by the USGS and is the only active volcano within Colorado. The main industry at Dotsero for years consisted of making cinderblocks from the volcano.

Demographics

The

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

initially defined the for the

References

External links

Dotsero @ UncoverColorado.comDotsero Volcanic CenterHow Dotsero came by its nameEagle County website
{{authority control Census-designated places in Eagle County, Colorado Census-designated places in Colorado Colorado populated places on the Colorado River