Garfield County, Colorado

Garfield County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 61,685, making it the second-most populous county in the Western Slope region and the 13th-most populous in Colorado. The county seat is Glenwood Springs, and the largest community is Rifle. The county is named in honor of United States President James A. Garfield.

Garfield County is included in the Rifle-Glenwood Springs Micropolitan Statistical Area, which also includes neighboring Pitkin County and is home to nearly 80,000 residents. The county is also included in the Glenwood Springs- Edwards combined statistical area.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.3%) is water.

Adjacent counties

* Rio Blanco County - north
* Routt County - northeast
* Eagle County - east
*Pitkin County - southeast
* Mesa County - south
* Grand County, Utah - southwest
* Uintah County, Utah - northwest

Major highways

* Interstate 70
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* U.S. Highway 6
* State Highway 13
* State Highway 82
* State Highway 133
* State Highway 139
* State Highway 325

Protected areas

* Flat Tops Wilderness
* Grand Mesa National Forest
* Harvey Gap State Park
* Rifle Falls State Park
* Rifle Gap State Park
* Routt National Forest
* White River National Forest

Scenic byways

* Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway National Scenic Byway
* 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%)

Education

Garfield County is served by three public school districts:
*Roaring Fork School District RE-1, serving Glenwood Springs and Carbondale
*Garfield County School District RE-2, serving Rifle, New Castle, and Silt
*Garfield County School District 16, serving Parachute and Battlement Mesa

The county is also home to private schools, including Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, St. Stephen Catholic School in Glenwood Springs, and Liberty Classical Academy in New Castle.

Higher Education

The county is home to multiple campuses of Colorado Mountain College, a community college serving much of western Colorado. CMC operates a flagship residential campus at Spring Valley, just south of Glenwood Springs. Additional branch campuses in Garfield County are located in Glenwood Springs, Rifle, and Carbondale.

Economy

Top Employers

As of its 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Garfield County's top employers are:

Government

Structure

Garfield County is governed by a board of three county commissioners, who oversee the county's financial affairs, infrastructure developments, public health matters, and general economic development.

Emergency Services

The Garfield County Sheriff's Office provides law enforcement and civil services, and operates the Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs. GCSO also oversees the county's emergency management, search and rescue, and tactical response functions.

Joint Agencies

In 2022, Garfield County formed the Special Problem Enforcement and Response (SPEAR) team as a merger between two joint task forces: the Two Rivers Drug Enforcement Team (TRIDENT), which focused on illegal drug activity, and the Threat Assessment Group (TAG), which focused on gang activity. SPEAR functions as a multi-jurisdictional major crimes task force covering all of Garfield County; member agencies include the Garfield County Sheriff's Office, Glenwood Springs Police Department, Rifle Police Department, Department of Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Administration, and United States Marshals Service. SPEAR also maintains partnerships with the Colorado State Patrol and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. The task force is overseen by a board of directors from its member agencies and the 9th Judicial District Attorney's Office.

The Garfield County All-Hazards Response Team (AHRT) is a multi-agency joint SWAT team providing high-risk and tactical law enforcement response. AHRT is made up of officers, EMTs, and detectives from several different agencies in Garfield County.

Public Transportation

Public transportation in the county is provided by the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority. RFTA is the second-largest public transportation entity in Colorado (behind the Denver area's Regional Transportation District), and the largest rural public transit provider in the United States, operating busses across a nearly 70-mile stretch from Rifle to Aspen. Local transportation services in the county include Ride Glenwood Springs, the Carbondale Circulator, and the Parachute Area Transit System.

Bustang, Colorado's inter-city bus service, runs its east-west route from Denver Union Station to Grand Junction, making stops in Glenwood Springs, Rifle, and Parachute.

Amtrak, running from Chicago, Illinois to Emeryville, California, makes a stop in Glenwood Springs.

Garfield County is home to two airports: Rifle Garfield County Airport is located just east of the city of Rifle, while KGWS Sumers Airpark (formerly known as the Glenwood Springs Municipal Airport) is located in south Glenwood Springs.

Prison

The Rifle Correctional Center, operated by the Colorado Department of Corrections, is a 192-bed minimum security prison located in unincorporated Garfield County, nine miles north of Rifle.

Elected Officials

Garfield County lies within Colorado's 9th Judicial District, represented by District Attorney Benjamin Sollars. The 9th District, which serves Garfield, Pitkin and Rio Blanco counties, operates its main office at the Garfield County Courthouse in Glenwood Springs.

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 from 2008 to 2018, with an estimated range of 2 to 1,000 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 candidate ten times from 1884 to 2020. Although the county includes the relatively liberal cities of Carbondale and Glenwood Springs, this is somewhat outweighed by the nearby towns of Rifle, Silt, Parachute, and Battlement Mesa. Until 2020, the most recent Democratic win was by Bill Clinton 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 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 in 1964, although in 2020, Biden was just 26 votes shy of having the majority of the vote in the county. The county's leftward trend continued significantly in 2022, during which it backed the Democratic candidates and eventual winners in every statewide race. In 2024 it once again went Democratic, though by a narrower plurality than in 2020.

The county lies in Colorado's 3rd congressional district, represented by Republican Jeff Hurd.

Communities

Cities

* Glenwood Springs
*Rifle

Towns

* Carbonate (ghost town)
* Carbondale
* New Castle
*Parachute
*Silt

Census-designated places

* Battlement Mesa
*Catherine
* Cattle Creek
* Chacra
* Mulford
* No Name

See also

* Bibliography of Colorado
*Geography of Colorado
* History of Colorado
** National Register of Historic Places listings in Garfield County, Colorado
* Index of Colorado-related articles
*List of Colorado-related lists
**List of counties in Colorado
**List of statistical areas in Colorado
*Outline of Colorado

References

External links

Garfield County Government websiteColorado Historical Society

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Colorado counties
1883 establishments in Colorado
Populated places established in 1883