The City of Monte Vista is the
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 ...
that is the
most populous municipality in
Rio Grande 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. The city population was 4,247 at the 2020 Census.
History
Monte Vista was laid out in 1884. The site had previously served as a watering stop for the
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south fr ...
. Monte Vista is the Spanish translation of "mountain view."
Geography
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and (2.56%) is water.
Demographics
Culture
Monte Vista is served by the
Carnegie Public Library.
Every March, nearly 20,000
Sandhill Crane
The sandhill crane (''Antigone canadensis'') is a species of large Crane (bird), cranes of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird refers to its habitat, such as the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's S ...
s descend on the San Luis Valley before continuing their northward spring migration.
Climate
Monte Vista has a
cold semi-arid climate
Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
''BSk'').
See also
*
San Luis Valley
The San Luis Valley is a region in south-central Colorado with a small portion overlapping into New Mexico. The valley is approximately long and wide, making it the largest alpine valley in the world. It extends from the Continental Divide on ...
References
External links
*
''Monte Vista Journal''CDOT map of the City of Monte Vista
{{authority control
Cities in Rio Grande County, Colorado
Cities in Colorado