Crestone

History

The first settlement in the Crestone area occurred after the American Civil War with the granting of the Luis Maria Baca Grant No. 4 in 1860 to the heirs of the original Baca Grant at Las Vegas, New Mexico. Title to the grant at Las Vegas was clouded by a second grant of the same land to the residents of Las Vegas, the Bacas having abandoned their grant after the deaths of the founder to a Mexican soldier in 1827 and of his oldest son at the hands of the Navajo in 1835. The Baca heirs were offered alternative lands from the public lands of the United States. The square tract selected is on a side south of Saguache County Road T south of Crestone. The Bacas deeded the land to their attorney, but it soon passed by tax sale to a third party. The ranch headquarters were on Crestone Creek to the southwest of Crestone. The Baca Grant was one of the first large tracts of land to be fenced in the West and was the home of prize Hereford cattle. In addition to ranching, there was some mining in the area to the east and south of Crestone of small shallow iron oxide copper gold ore deposits. In 1880, the town of Crestone was platted by George Adams, the owner of the Baca Grant. The Crestone, Colorado, post office opened on November 16, 1880. In 1900, with the help of Eastern investors, George Adams ignited a minor boom, reopening one of the more promising gold mines and building a railroad spur to the town and the mines along the Range south of town. The Town of Crestone was incorporated on January 24, 1902 Lacking good ore, the boom was short-lived. A long period of decline followed. By 1948, Crestone had declined to its post-war population of 40, mostly retirees and cowboys who worked on the Grant, a nickname for the Baca Grant. Many of the old cabins were used as vacation…

Geography

Crestone is located near the 38th parallel, in the San Luis Valley in south-central Colorado. It is platted on a quarter section of land, or , on the alluvial fan of North Crestone Creek. Much of the land near the creek where the main part of the city sits, is well watered in normal times, but during a prolonged drought the creek may dry up and underground water levels may fall. At the 2020 United States census, the town had a total area of , all of it land. The eastern portion of Road T forms the north boundary of the Baca National Wildlife Refuge. Mountain terrain east of Crestone is managed by the Rio Grande National Forest including part of the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. Public lands at the foot of the mountains including the forested public land surrounding Crestone are managed by the United States Bureau of Land Management. The combined office of the United States Forest Service and the BLM is in Saguache, Colorado, the county seat.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  392
• Mountain Chickadee

  Poecile gambeli (Ridgway, 1886) · Aves
  379
• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  354
• Black-billed Magpie

  Pica hudsonia (Sabine, 1823) · Aves
  304
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  288
• Steller's Jay

  Cyanocitta stelleri (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  275
• Northern Flicker

  Colaptes auratus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  253
• Broad-tailed Hummingbird

  Selasphorus platycercus (Swainson, 1827) · Aves
  218

Largest nearby schools

• Crestone Charter School
  Other · CRESTONE · 82 students · 9.1:1 ratio