Rico is a town in Dolores 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. It was settled in 1879 as a

silver mining Silver mining is the extraction of silver by mining. Silver is a precious metal and holds high economic value. Because silver is often found in intimate combination with other metals, its extraction requires the use of complex technologies. In ...

center in the Pioneer Mining District; today it functions as a historic and tourism site. The population was 288 at the 2020 census. Its current form of government is that of a

home rule municipality Statutory city may refer to: * Statutory city (Austria), an Austrian municipality acting as a district administrative authority * Statutory city (Czech Republic), a Czech city with special privileges * Statutory city (United States), a city in the ...

. Rico is a name derived from Spanish meaning "rich".

Geography

Rico is located in eastern Dolores County in the valley of the

Dolores River The Dolores River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately long, in the U.S. states of Colorado and Utah. The river drains a rugged and arid region of the Colorado Plateau west of the San Juan Mountains. Its name derives from the Spa ...

. Colorado State Highway 145 passes through the town as it follows the river, leading southwest to Cortez and northeast over Lizard Head Pass to Telluride. According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, 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 U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, the town of Rico has an area of , all of it land.

Climate

Rico experiences an alpine subarctic climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Dfc'') with long, cold, very snowy winters and short, cool summers due to the high altitude and high precipitation year-round due to

orographic lift Orographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it quickly cools down adiabatically, which can raise the relative humidity to 100% and cr ...

Demographics

Transportation

Rico is part of Colorado's

Bustang Bustang is an intercity bus service in the U.S. state of Colorado. Service began in 2015 and originally traveled between Denver and Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and Glenwood Springs. Service has since been expanded to connect Grand Junction ...

network. It is on the Durango-Grand Junction Outrider line. Rico was a water stop on the

Rio Grande Southern Railroad The Rio Grande Southern Railroad (reporting mark RGS, also referred to as "The Southern") was a 3 ft gauge railways, 3 ft (914 mm) Narrow gauge railways, narrow-gauge railroad which ran in the southwestern region of the United States, US s ...

, the storied

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

line running from Ridgway to

Durango Durango, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Durango, is one of the 31 states which make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in the northwest portion of the country. With a population of 1,832,650 ...

until the railroad was abandoned in 1952. The water tank used to refill the tenders of the steam locomotives still stands on the west side of the former grade, years since it was last used.

References

External links

Town of Rico official websiteCDOT map of the Town of Rico
*Marty Durlin
"A Rico Renaissance"
''High Country News'', February 18, 2008 {{authority control Towns in Dolores County, Colorado Towns in Colorado Former county seats in Colorado