Dolores County is a county 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 so ...

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 ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,326. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Dove Creek.

History

It is thought that the area has been the site of human habitation since at least 2500 B.C. Dolores County's western portions were densely populated between 900 and 1300 AD. Population estimates of as many as 10,000 inhabitants, with villages containing hundreds of rooms, have been discovered by archaeologists and other researchers. But this population was destroyed or migrated elsewhere, apparently following a drought and severe societal upheaval in the 14th century, and for centuries thereafter, both the western and eastern mountainous areas of the county were occupied mostly by nomads, including the

Ute Ute or UTE may refer to: * Ute people, a Native American people of the Great Basin * Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Utah * Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah * Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern ...

and the Navajo Indians. Like much of southwestern Colorado, Dolores County is rich in Indian ruins and sites of the

Anasazi The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as Ancestral Pueblo peoples or the Basketmaker-Pueblo culture, were an ancient Native American culture of Pueblo peoples spanning the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southea ...

. According to the Anasazi Heritage Center, Dolores County contains at least 816 recorded

archaeological sites An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

as of 1989, with many more inventoried since that time. The county also contains a portion of a site of regional historic interest, the Dominguez-Escalante Trail of 1776. The trail marks a historic trip, intended to discover an overland route between Santa Fe,

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

and

Monterey Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a population of 30,218 in the 2020 census. The city was fou ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The Expedition camped on Dove Creek in the western portion of the county. The Old Spanish Trail later passed through the western portion of the county. Anglo trappers worked the mountains of eastern Dolores County as early as 1832–33, and gold was discovered in the County in 1866. But it was not until the area was taken from the Ute and removed from the Ute Reservation by the Brunot Agreement of 1878 that large-scale minerals exploration and

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

began in the county, although the Pioneer Mining District was established in 1876 in the Rico area. The development of the area was spurred by the discovery of large silver deposits near Rico in 1879, and 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 ...

was constructed through the county to connect Durango, Telluride, and Ridgway in 1890-92 The RGS served the eastern end of Dolores County until 1952 when it was abandoned. (The western portion of the county has never had railroad service.) Rico's high point was in 1892, when the mining district population was more than 5,000; three times the current population of the entire county. The 1893 Silver Panic hit the town hard; by 1900 the population was 811. The mountainous area of Dolores County went through a series of booms and busts through the 20th Century. The low point of the community came in 1974 with an estimated population of 45; since then the town has become a bedroom community for Telluride and has limited tourism and subdivisions; the population has rebounded to almost 300. Efforts are underway in the early 21st Century to again begin major mining activities in the region. Dove Creek was a way station on the Old Spanish Trail from the mid 19th century, for caravans and travelers moving between Santa Fe, Salt Lake City, and northern California and Nevada. The western portion of the county was used, beginning in the 1870s, for cattle ranching, but the lush grass soon suffered from

overgrazing Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature ...

and then fire suppression, allowing the massive expansion of

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia (plant), Artemisia''. The best-known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrush is native to the western half of North Amer ...

, pinyon, and juniper. Homesteading in the area became common beginning in 1914, and dryland farming expanded throughout the Great Sage Plain. Today dryland farming of pinto beans and winter wheat is still a mainstay of the county's economy. But the development of irrigation using water from the Dolores Project in the 1980s, with the construction of McPhee Reservoir (immediately upstream in Montezuma County), has changed the history and population of the county. Dolores County was created by the Colorado legislature on February 19, 1881, from the western portions of Ouray County, and was named for the Dolores River, which heads up in the county and passes through the county in the Dolores Canyon. The complete Spanish name was ''Rio de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (River of our Lady of Sorrows), ''as reported by Father Silvestre Vélez de Escalante in 1776. Originally set in

Rico The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was ...

, the first county courthouse was a 23x48 foot two storage log cabin, but was replaced by a stone and brick courthouse completed in 1883. the county seat was moved to Dove Creek in 1946, and the current courthouse built in 1957. (The original county courthouse in Rico is now the town hall and a branch of the public library.) In 2009, Dolores County achieved notoriety as the most economically depressed county in Colorado.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.1%) is water. Dolores County, like other counties in Colorado along its border with

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, is split into two geographically distinct regions, and in fact, under normal travel conditions, it is necessary to leave the county to travel between the two regions. The western portion of the county (east of the Dolores River Canyon and along the Utah border) is the northern portion of the

Great Sage Plain Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" * Artel Great (bo ...

, relatively low in elevation and flat (but cut by large canyons, including that of the Dolores River itself), and consists of irrigated and dryland farming areas; it is especially well known for the cultivation of various varieties of beans, including

pinto bean The pinto bean () is a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris, common bean (''Phaseolus vulgaris''). In Spanish language, Spanish they are called . It is the most popular bean by crop production in Northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States, South ...

s and many variety of old

beans. The central portion of the county has higher open grasslands with forested hills, ravines, and canyons, used for livestock raising. The eastern portion of the county is located in the highest peaks of the

San Juan Mountains The San Juan Mountains is a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The area is highly mineralized (the Colorado Mineral Belt) and figured in the gold and silver mining industry ...

, around the old mining and modern tourist town of Rico, and except for cattle grazing in the San Juan National Forest, has virtually no agriculture, in part because its elevations range from . Rico is developing in many ways as a

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for the much wealthier town of Telluride in San Miguel County to the north. Only 38% of the county is private land, located mostly in two large areas at the extreme western end of the county (dryland and irrigated cropland and towns along US 491) and in the central portion of the county (grazing land), with a few thousand acres in scattered parcels (mostly patented mining claims) in the eastern portion of the county around Rico. Separating this private land, 50% of the county is owned by the US Government and administered by the US Forest Service as part of

San Juan National Forest The San Juan National Forest is a U.S. National Forest covering over 1,878,846 acres (2,935.7 sq mi, or 7,603.42 km²) in western Colorado. The forest occupies land in Archuleta, Conejos, Dolores, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mineral, Montezum ...

. An additional 10% () of the county is US government land administered by the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

, including portions of

Canyon of the Ancients National Monument Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is a United States National Monument, national monument protecting an archaeologically significant landscape located in the southwestern region of the U.S. state of Colorado. The monument's are managed ...

. The State of Colorado owns 2% of the county, primarily used as wildlife areas.

Adjacent counties

* San Miguel County, Colorado - north * San Juan County, Colorado - east *

Montezuma County, Colorado Montezuma County is a county located in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 25,849. The county seat is Cortez, Colorado, Cortez. Montezuma County contains m ...

- south * La Plata County, Colorado - southeast *

San Juan County, Utah San Juan County ( ) is a County (United States), county in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 14,518. Its county seat is Monticello, Utah, Monticello, while its most popu ...

- west

Major highways

U.S. Highway 491 * Colorado 141

State Highway 141 * Colorado 145

State Highway 145

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 1,844 people, 785 households, and 541 families residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 1,193 housing units at an average density of one per square mile (0/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 95.28%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.05%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1.95% Native American, 0.38% Asian, 0.05%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.60% from other races, and 1.68% from two or more races. 3.85% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. There were 785 households, out of which 24.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.70% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 8.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.00% were non-families. 26.20% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.82. In the county, the population was spread out, with 21.90% under the age of 18, 6.80% from 18 to 24, 26.30% from 25 to 44, 27.80% from 45 to 64, and 17.10% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 107.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.50 males. The median income for a household in the county was $32,196, and the median income for a family was $38,000. Males had a median income of $30,972 versus $20,385 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $17,106. About 10.20% of families and 13.10% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 9.80% of those under age 18 and 18.30% of those age 65 or over. In the third quarter of 2009, county unemployment was 13.1%, the worst in Colorado, and up from 7.3% in 2008. Average weekly wages were $489. Many residents of the county commute to San Miguel County (Telluride) or Montezuma County (primarily Cortez and rural-area industries and commercial establishments).

Communities

Towns

* Dove Creek *

Unincorporated Communities

* Cahone

Politics

In its early history Dolores County favored the Democratic Party. It was one of the few western or northern counties to be won by

Alton B. Parker Alton Brooks Parker (May 14, 1852 – May 10, 1926) was an American judge. He was the Democratic nominee in the 1904 United States presidential election, losing in a landslide to incumbent Republican Theodore Roosevelt. A native of upstate New ...

in 1904, and was never won by a Republican until

Warren G. Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was one of the most ...

carried the county in 1920. In the 1924 election Dolores was the only county in Colorado to give a plurality of its vote to “Fighting Bob” La Follette, but since World War II Dolores has gradually become a powerfully Republican county. The last Democrat to win a majority in Dolores County has been

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

in his 1964 landslide, and although

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

obtained a plurality in 1976, no subsequent Democratic presidential nominee has obtained 35 percent of the county's vote. In gubernatorial elections, Dolores County is also Republican-leaning: in 2010 it was along with neighboring Montezuma County one of only two counties to give a plurality to Dan Maes The last Democratic gubernatorial candidate to win Dolores County was Bill Ritter in 2006,Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas
2006 Gubernatorial General Election Results – Colorado
/ref> whilst

Roy Romer Roy Rudolf Romer (born October 31, 1928) is an American politician who served as the 39th Governor of Colorado from 1987 to 1999, and subsequently as the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District from 2000 to 2006. Romer was a ...

carried the county twice in 1986 and 1990.

National protected areas

* Calico National Recreation Trail * Canyons of the Ancients National Monument (part) * Lizard Head Wilderness * Old Spanish National Historic Trail *

Transportation

With the

ceasing operation in 1952, Dolores County has no railroads operating today. The western third of the county is served by US 491 (formerly US 666) connecting to Cortez, CO, and Monticello, UT; and SH 141 to Nucla, CO. The eastern portion of the county is served by SH 145 connecting to Dolores, CO, and Telluride, CO. The central portion of the county is served by the joint County-USFS Norwood Road connecting to Dolores, CO, and Norwood, CO (in San Miquel County). The three portions of the county are connected directly to each other only by gravel-surface, low-speed county or federal agency roads. The only airport is the privately owned Dove Creek Airport east of Dove Creek; a general aviation facility with a runway. The nearest commercial service is located at Cortez Municipal Airport to the south, and San Juan (UT) County Airport north of Monticello.

Bicycle routes

* Great Parks Bicycle Route * Western Express Bicycle Route

Scenic byway

* San Juan Skyway National Scenic Byway

References

External links

*
Colorado County Evolution by Don StanwyckColorado Historical Society
*Dolores County Ministry of Tourism {{Coord, 37.75, -108.52, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-CO_source:UScensus1990 Colorado counties 1881 establishments in Colorado Populated places established in 1881