Fairplay

History

A historic gold mining settlement, the town was founded in 1859 during the early days of the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. The town was named by settlers who were upset by the generous mining claims given to the earliest prospectors and promised a more equitable system for its residents. The Fair Play, Colorado Territory, post office opened on August 2, 1861, and on November 7, 1867, county voters selected Fair Play as the new seat of Park County, Colorado Territory. The Town of Fair Play was incorporated on November 15, 1872, and changed the spelling of its name to Fairplay on October 1, 1924. It is the largest community in the grassland basin of Colorado known as South Park, sitting on the west edge of the basin at the junction of U.S. Highway 285 and State Highway 9. It is on a hillside just east of the Middle Fork South Platte River, near where Highway 9 ascends the river valley northward to Alma and Hoosier Pass. It is a quiet town, and the roads surrounding it have a low volume of traffic. Although it was founded during the initial placer mining boom, the mines in the area continued to produce gold and silver ore for many decades up through the middle of the 20th century. The town consists of modern retail businesses along the highway, as well as a historic town on the bluff above the river along Front Street. The northern extension of Front Street along the river has been preserved and has become the site of relocated historic structures as an open-air museum called South Park City, intended to recreate the early days of the Colorado Gold Rush. Most of the residences in town are located on the hillside west of US Highway 285 and east of State Highway 9, in the vicinity of the schools and Park County Courthouse. The majority of the streets in town were finally paved…

Geography

At the 2020 United States census, the town had a total area of including of water. |source 2 = XMACIS (snowfall, records & monthly max/mins) }}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Mountain Chickadee

  Poecile gambeli (Ridgway, 1886) · Aves
  1,347
• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,156
• Black-billed Magpie

  Pica hudsonia (Sabine, 1823) · Aves
  903
• Steller's Jay

  Cyanocitta stelleri (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  859
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  785
• White-crowned Sparrow

  Zonotrichia leucophrys (J.R.Forster, 1772) · Aves
  759
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  700
• Broad-tailed Hummingbird

  Selasphorus platycercus (Swainson, 1827) · Aves
  672

Largest nearby schools

• Edith Teter Elementary School
  Elementary · FAIRPLAY · 211 students · 16.2:1 ratio
• South Park High School
  High · FAIRPLAY · 124 students · 17.7:1 ratio
• South Park Middle School
  Middle · FAIRPLAY · 98 students · 14:1 ratio