Colorado is more than beautiful mountains, windswept prairies, and arid deserts. It’s the stories of the people who came before us, of the triumphs and tragedies of life in the rugged frontier, of a state and nation going through growing pains.
Life in the West was often a struggle, and some places represent our ingenuity and perseverance. Some places harbor dark secrets, revealing shameful stories.
So, here are some places to visit on your summer travels to help you understand Colorado’s complex history. At some of these sites, you’ll need imagination to picture what occurred, while others have lasting physical evidence that has survived the centuries.
Mesa Verde/Canyons of the Ancients
Hundreds of years before Columbus, the Ancestral Puebloans, or Anasazi, a large and sophisticated culture thrived in the Southwest.
They built huge cities and lasting cliff dwellings, yet mysteriously vanished in the 13th century.
You can tour the cliff dwellings on guided tours in Mesa Verde National Park, learning from experts about their lives, society, and theories as to why they vanished.
Or you can venture on your own into Canyons of the Ancients National Monument and appreciate how tough life must have been in these arid canyons.
Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site
In 1833, there was nothing but wilderness between Missouri and the Mexican settlements of the Southwest.
The Sante Fe Trail was a grueling journey between the two.
That year, William and Charles Bent and Ceran St. Vrain built the fort, the only major white settlement along the trail for 16 years.
In addition to creating a thriving empire, the fort served as a meeting place where different cultures could connect, including fur trappers, Mexican traders, white settlers, and the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, and Kiowa tribes.
The fort has been rebuilt, with living history exhibits that let you appreciate life on the edge of the map.
It also represents a shining lost moment because it wouldn’t be long before the United States was at war with Mexico, as well as the Native Americans.
The clashing civilizations perhaps could have built a better future here. William Bent himself married a Cheyenne woman and tried to show that peaceful coexistence was possible.
Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site
Members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes were camped along the banks of Sand Creek in 1864 when 700 men of the Colorado State Militia emerged from the morning fog.
The volunteers began shooting and didn’t stop until 230 were dead, mostly women and children.
The tribe had been trying to report to a reservation peacefully, but confusion and conflicting orders marred the process.
The event was celebrated in Denver at the time, but history has viewed it differently. Governor John Evans’ name was stripped from the famous mountain.
Today, you can see exhibits in the visitors center and take a short walk to an overlook, but you’ll have to use your imagination to picture the horrors of that day.
Relations between the tribes and whites never recovered.
Leadville
No other place illustrates Colorado’s history better than Leadville.
The city at 10,158 feet rose practically overnight after prospectors discovered gold and silver in California Gulch in the 1860s.
Soon, Leadville had elegant hotels, a famous opera house, and a population of 30,000. It nearly became the state capital.
But it suffered the fate of most boomtowns in 1893 when the U.S. switched from a silver standard.
Today, you can stroll through town, admiring the beautiful Victorian architecture and touring the numerous former mines while imagining living at 10,000 feet without GORE-TEX.
Independence Pass
Colorado has many mountain passes that will make you marvel at the fortitude of those who built them, none more so than Independence Pass, the route that connects Aspen with Twin Lakes.
The pass gets so much snow it’s only open half the year, but that didn’t stop the settlers of the Independence boom town from carving out the rugged track at 12,095 feet.
Today, you can tour that ghost town three miles west or hike among the tundra and wildflowers, enjoying the stunning views and pondering life in such an extreme environment.
Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
Deep in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado, few Colorado towns are as isolated as Silverton.
It was often cut off entirely in winter until the construction of this famous railroad in the 1880s.
The train, today reimagined as a tourist attraction, runs 3 hours through improbably rugged terrain.
To ride in a historic rail car past such scenic beauty is an experience you’ll never forget.
Ludlow Massacre site
In the early 1900s, labor relations were tearing the country apart, and the southern Colorado coal fields were to become a flashpoint in the conflict.
The Colorado National Guard came to supposedly keep the peace between striking miners and the owners’ men. But on April 20, 1914, violence broke out in the Ludlow camp that left 25 miners dead, including 11 children.
While nobody knows who fired the first shot, the massacre led to an all-out war that ended when the U.S. Army intervened.
The site, about 12 miles north of Trinidad, still has original buildings and a large memorial, a testament to the mistrust and violence of the day.
Amache National Historic Site
In the barren prairie of southeast Colorado, near Granada, lies evidence of one of America’s most shameful episodes.
After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, hysteria led to the relocation of 110,000 Japanese-Americans to remote internment camps around the West.
Some 10,000 of them were sent to Camp Amache, held as prisoners from 1942-1945, far from the American public.
Little remains of the buildings, but the area became a national historic site in 2023. Guides and interpretive signs help visitors imagine the pain of being labeled a threat strictly because of your ancestry.
Camp Hale National Historic Site
As World War II raged, the U.S. Army realized it needed specialized troops for the mountain fighting ahead.
The Army chose this large valley north of Leadville as the training ground for the 10th Mountain Division.
From 1942 to 1945, the mountain troopers endured brutal cold and deep snow, learning to ski and fight on flimsy wooden skis while climbing mountains under fire.
At its peak, 15,000 soldiers trained in what became a virtual city. The division would suffer 5,000 casualties, including 999 killed.
Today, you can take a self-guided tour with interpretive signs to ten stops, including a handful of restored buildings.
Eisenhower Tunnel
You’ve likely driven the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel, perhaps cursing the heavy ski traffic or frequent closures for hazardous materials trucks.
Building an interstate highway through these mountains was initially considered impossible, and proposals included I-70 ending at Denver.
Colorado officials knew the state would become an economic backwater without a route crossing the Continental Divide and successfully lobbied the federal government to build the tunnel at 11,112 feet. When it opened in the 1970s, it was the highest tunnel in the world.
It took 5 years to build and remains the highest tunnel in the interstate system. As frustrating as driving may be, it is a crucial corridor connecting the Front Range, the mountain communities, and the nation.
Denver and Colorado became the economic heavyweight of the Rockies, which likely would never have happened had the interstate ended at the foothills.
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