Eagle County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the U.S. state of

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 55,731. 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 the Town of Eagle and the most populous community is Edwards. The county is named for the Eagle River. Eagle County comprises the Edwards, Colorado, Micropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Eagle County was created by the Colorado legislature on February 11, 1883, from portions of Summit County. It was named after the Eagle River, which runs through the county. The county seat was originally set in Red Cliff,

, but was moved to the town of Eagle in 1921. The Ground Hog Mine, near Red Cliff, produced gold and silver in two vertical veins in 1887. One vein, or "chimney", contained gold in crystalline form, cemented by iron, while the other contained wire gold in the form of "ram's horns". One of these ram's horns is now on display in the Harvard Mineralogical Museum.Voynick, S.M., 1992, Colorado Gold, Missoula: Mountain Press Publishing Company,

Geography

The highest elevation in the county is the Mount of the Holy Cross which rises to above sea level. The lowest elevation is on 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 ...

at . According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.4%) is water. Much of the county is taken up by White River National Forest, and much of the rest is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Interstate 70 crosses the county from east to west. The Eagle River rises in the southeastern part of the county. It receives Gore Creek at Dowds Junction, and joins the

in the west. The Fryingpan River and the Roaring Fork River intersect the southwest corner of the county.

Adjacent counties

* Grand County – northeast * Summit County – east * Lake County – south *

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

– southwest * Garfield County – west * Routt County – northwest

Major highways

* Interstate 70 * * * * US 6

U.S. Highway 6 * US 24

U.S. Highway 24 * Colorado 82

State Highway 82 * Colorado 131

State Highway 131

National protected areas

* White River National Forest * Eagles Nest Wilderness * Flat Tops Wilderness * Holy Cross Wilderness

State protected area

* Sylvan Lake State Park

Trails

* Colorado Trail * Continental Divide National Scenic Trail * Two Elk National Recreation Trail * Vail Pass National Recreation Trail

Scenic byways

* Colorado River Headwaters National Scenic Byway *

Top of the Rockies National Scenic Byway The Top of the Rockies National Scenic Byway is a National Scenic Byway and Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway located in the high Rocky Mountains of Eagle County, Colorado, Eagle, Lake County, Colorado, Lake, Pitkin County, Colorado, Pitkin, Su ...

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 41,659 people, 15,148 households, and 9,013 families living 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 22,111 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 85.4%

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 ...

, 0.3%

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 ...

, 0.7% Native American, 0.8% Asian, 0.1%

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 ...

, 10.8% from other races, and 1.9% from two or more races. 23.2% 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 15,148 households, out of which 32.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.0% were married couples living together, 5.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.5% were non-families. 20.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 1.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.17. In the county, the population was spread out, with 23.5% under the age of 18, 11.4% from 18 to 24, 42.1% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from 45 to 64, and 3.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 121.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 125.80 males. The median income for a household in the county was $62,682, and the median income for a family was $68,226. Males had a median income of $37,603 versus $30,579 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 $32,011. About 3.9% of families and 7.8% 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 6.8% of those under age 18 and 7.6% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Public education

Eagle County is served by Eagle County School District RE-50J. The district operates eight elementary schools, three middle schools, and three high schools across Eagle County.

Private/other education

*Vail Christian High School (Edwards) *Vail Mountain School (Vail)

Higher education

Colorado Mountain College, a community college serving much of western Colorado, operates its Vail Valley campus in Edwards.

Life expectancy

According to a report in '' JAMA'', residents of Eagle County had a life expectancy from birth of 85.94 years in 2014, the third-longest in the United States. Men live 84.4 years on the average and women live 87.6 years. Two contiguous counties,

Summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

and Pitkin counties, rank numbers one and two in the nation in life expectancy. Factors contributing to the high life expectancy of the three Colorado counties are "high education, high income, high access to medical care, the people are physically active, obesity is lower than anywhere elseso you're doing it right." said Ali Mokdad, one of the study's co-authors.Achenbach, Joel, "U.S. life expectancy varies more than 20 years from county to county," ''Washington Post'', May 8, 2017

Politics

A swing county for much of the 20th Century, Eagle County trended Republican by the 1950s, and up through 1988 it was carried by a Democrat only in the national landslide 1964 election. Democrat Bill Clinton carried the county in both 1992 and 1994, before George W. Bush managed to narrowly flip it back Republican in 2000 (all by pluralities). Since then, the county has swung heavily to the Democratic Party. John Kerry in 2004 won the first full Democratic majority since 1964. Barack Obama performed even better in 2008, and Joe Biden improved the Democratic score yet again in 2020.

Communities

Towns

* Avon *

Basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

(part; extends into

) *

Eagle Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

* Gypsum * Minturn * Red Cliff * Vail