Garfield County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

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 ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 61,685. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

is Glenwood Springs. The county is named in honor of

United States President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

James A. Garfield James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...

. Garfield County is included in the Glenwood Springs, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the

Edwards Edwards may refer to: People * Edwards (surname) * Edwards family, a prominent family from Chile * Edwards Barham (1937-2014), a former member of the Louisiana State Senate * Edwards Pierrepont (1817–1892), an American attorney, jurist, and ora ...

-Glenwood Springs, CO

Combined Statistical Area Combined statistical area (CSA) is a United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) term for a combination of adjacent metropolitan (MSA) and micropolitan statistical areas (µSA) across the 50 US states and the territory of Puerto Ric ...

Geography

According to the

U.S. 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 ...

, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.3%) is water.

Adjacent counties

* Rio Blanco County - north *

Routt County Routt County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,829. The county seat is Steamboat Springs. Routt County comprises the Steamboat Springs, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area. History P ...

- northeast *

Eagle County Eagle County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 55,731. The county seat is the Town of Eagle and the most populous community is Edwards. The county is named for the Eagle River. Eagl ...

- east *

Pitkin County Pitkin County is a county in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,358. The county seat and largest city is Aspen. The county is named for Colorado Governor Frederick Walker Pitkin. Pitkin County has the sev ...

- southeast * Mesa County - south *

Grand County, Utah Grand County is a county on the east central edge of the U.S. state of Utah, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 9,225. Its county seat and largest city is Moab. History Evidence of indigenous occupation up ...

- southwest *

Uintah County, Utah Uintah County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2020 United States Census the population was 35,620. Its county seat and largest city is Vernal. The county was named for the portion of the Ute Indian tribe that lived in the b ...

- northwest

Major highways

Interstate 70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to a park and ride lot just east of I-695 in Baltimore, Maryland, and is the fifth-longest Interstate in the co ...

* * *

U.S. Highway 6 U.S. Route 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War Grand Army of the Republic, veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system. While it currently runs east-northeast fr ...

State Highway 13 * Colorado 82

State Highway 82 * Colorado 133

State Highway 133 * Colorado 139

State Highway 139 * Colorado 325

State Highway 325

Protected areas

* Flat Tops Wilderness *

Grand Mesa National Forest The Grand Mesa National Forest is a U.S. National Forest in Mesa, Delta and Garfield Counties in Western Colorado. It borders the White River National Forest to the north and the Gunnison National Forest to the east. The forest covers most of ...

Harvey Gap State Park Harvey Gap State Park, is a 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 Colo ...

Rifle Falls State Park Rifle Falls State Park is a Colorado State Park located in Garfield County northeast of Rifle, Colorado. The central feature of the park is a triple waterfall flowing over a travertine dam on East Rifle Creek. Commonly seen wildlife include ...

Rifle Gap State Park Rifle Gap State Park is a Colorado State Park located in Garfield County near Rifle, Colorado. The park established in 1966 includes a reservoir. Plant communities are pinyon-juniper woodlands, sagebrush shrubland with deciduous riparian for ...

Routt National Forest Routt may refer to: ;Places In the United States: * Routt, Louisville, Kentucky *Routt County, Colorado ;People *Joe Routt *John Long Routt *Stanford Routt Stanford Bermond Routt (born July 26, 1983) is a former American football cornerback. Aft ...

White River National Forest White River National Forest is a United States National Forest, National Forest in northwest Colorado. It is named after the White River (Green River), White River that passes through its northern section. It is the most visited National Forest ...

Scenic byways

Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway National Scenic Byway The Dinosaur Diamond is a scenic and historic byway loop through the dinosaur fossil laden Uinta Basin of the U.S. states of Utah and Colorado. The byway comprises the following two National Scenic Byways: *The Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric High ...

* Flat Tops Trail Scenic Byway * West Elk Loop Scenic Byway

Demographics

The 2019 Census population estimate for Garfield County is 60,061, a 6.5% increase from the 2010 Census. * Population density per square mile: 19.1 (2010) * Race Estimations (2019) ** White alone, not Hispanic or Latino (67.4%) ** Hispanic or Latino (29.3%) ** Black or African American alone (1.3%) ** American Indian and Alaskan Native alone (1.7%) ** Asian, alone (0.9%) ** Two or more races (2.0%) * Age and Sex Estimations (2019) ** Persons under 5 years of age (6.8%) ** Persons under 18 years of age (24.9%) ** Persons 65 years of age and over (13.8%) ** Female persons (48.9%) * Housing ** Housing units, 2019: (24,363) ** Owner occupied housing unit rate, 2014-2018: (66.9%) ** Persons per household, 2014-2018: (2.73) * Education (2014-2018) ** High school graduate (87.5%) ** Bachelor's degree or higher (30.0%) * Income and Poverty (2014 - 2018) ** Median household income: ($72, 898) ** Per capita income: $32,491) ** Persons in poverty: (8.4%)

Politics

Voting participation rates in Garfield County are above the U.S. national average. In the 2018 General Election, 65% of eligible voters participated. In the 2020 presidential election, 84.47% eligible voters participated. The county leans slightly Republican based on vote totals in elections (2008 - 2018 data) with an estimated range of two to one-thousand votes often determining candidate outcomes for the county. Garfield County has primarily voted for Republican Party candidates in presidential elections throughout its history, with the county only failing to back the Republican candidates ten times from 1884 to 2020. Although the county includes the relatively liberal city of Glenwood Springs, this is outweighed by the extremely conservative city of Rifle, as well as the nearby towns of Silt, Parachute, and Battlement Mesa. Until 2020, the most recent Democratic win was by

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

in 1992, but Republicans were held to a plurality of the county's votes in half of the six following presidential elections prior to 2020. Notably,

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

lost the county to John McCain by two votes in 2008. In 2020, Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the county since Clinton in 1992, with about 50% of the vote. No Democratic presidential candidate has won a majority of the vote in the county since

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

in 1964, although in 2020, Joe Biden was just 26 votes shy of having the majority of the vote in the county. The county lies in

Colorado's 3rd congressional district Colorado's 3rd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Colorado. It takes in most of the rural Western Slope in the state's western third portion, with a tendril in the south taking in some of the southern port ...

, represented by local Rifle resident

Lauren Boebert Lauren Opal Boebert ( ; ; born December 19, 1986) is an American politician, businesswoman, and gun rights activist. A member of the Republican Party, she serves as the U.S. representative for . From 2013 to 2022, she owned Shooters Grill, a ...

Communities

Cities

* Glenwood Springs * Rifle

Towns

Carbonate A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid (H2CO3), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word ''carbonate'' may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate g ...

(ghost town) * Carbondale * New Castle *

Silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel ...

* Parachute

Census-designated places

* Battlement Mesa *

Catherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...

* Cattle Creek *

Chacra Chacra is an Andean term (a loanword from the Quechua word ''chakra'', meaning "farm, agricultural field, or land sown with seed";Teofilo Laime Ajacopa, Diccionario Bilingüe Iskay simipi yuyayk'ancha, La Paz, 2007 (Quechua-Spanish dictionary)

* Mulford * No Name

References

External links

Garfield County Government websiteColorado Historical Society
{{authority control Colorado counties 1883 establishments in Colorado Populated places established in 1883