Place Names

Compiled by Lee Zion, this directory to Colorado places, showing the county in which that settlement, trading post, military post, mining camp, ghost town, stage station, railroad stop, post office, rural community, town and city from the earliest known into the present. (Geographic features are not included.)

 A    B    C    D    E    F    G    H    I    J    K    L    M    N    O    P    Q    R    S    T    U    V    W    X    Y    Z  

Not Listed?

If you don't find what you are looking for here, you can check the USGS Geographic Name Server or the MIT Geographic Name Server. If you find a useful answer, please drop us a line and let us know what you found so we can add it to this list.

Abbreviations Used

Aft - After
AKA - Also Known As
Bef - Before
Co. - County

Est - Established
Ext - Existed
FKA - Formerly Known As
Inc - Incorporated

Orig - Originally
PO - Post Office
Prev - Previously
RR - Railroad

Terr. - Territory

About Dates

Many dates are uncertain. The various sources used differ on the dates of settlement, dates of incorporation, etc. Establishment is easy to determine when a new town is platted, but more difficult when a community simply grew up around an original settler or, as in many of the mining communities, simply was a collection of miners who adopted a name for the general area they were mining in. The dates listed are as best we can determine from these sources.

• Dates containing an underscore (189_) indicate uncertain digits.
• Dates preceded by ca (ca1900) indicate that the date is at best approximate and the event probably occurred between 1895 and 1905.
• Dates containing map references (on 1885-1910 map) indicate the time frame a place name appeared on maps of the county. Dates in the form (PO 1901-1923) show the time frame a place name was used as a mailing address based on information from the US Postal Service archives.
• Dates may span periods when the PO was not in continuous operation. As just one example, Brookvale (PO 1876-1942) in Clear Creek County actually operated 1876-1885, was closed for four years and operated again 1889-1942. A date with a single year (1881 PO) shows that the PO named was open only in that year.
• Several post office names are listed in the archives whose establishment was rescinded or may never have operated. These are indicated in the table by a note (Never operated?).

Historical Notes

• Ever wonder why Colorado has all those "Grand" places - Grand County, Grand Lake, Grand Valley, Grand Junction and Grand Mesa? Well wonder no more. Until 1921 the upper part of the Colorado River from its headwaters in Grand County to where it is joined by the Green River in today's Canyon Lands NP in southeastern Utah was named the Grand River.
• The western border of Larimer County was not firmly defined until a Colorado Supreme Court decision in 1886 set the boundary as the Continental Divide. Prior to that decision, cartographers and most residents had placed North Park in Summit County and later in Grand County. This has lead to quite a bit of confusion about the history of Jackson County places prior to 1886. For further discussion and period map details see my Larimer County border maps.
• We are ignoring the political issues surrounding the 1901 act creating the original Adams County from the northern part of Arapahoe County. Very different Adams County boundaries were drawn in the revised act that lead to the May 1903 expansion of Washington and Yuma County. Some references show (quite correctly) southern Washington and Yuma County places located in Adams County in 1901-1903. Most, as we did, simply ignore the Adams County lineage and show the area as being transferred directly from Arapahoe County.
• Many Colorado place names were derived from the original French, Spanish and Indian names.
• American travelers on the Santa Fe Trail dubbed the Purgatoire River the "Picketwire" River. That name variation has been carried forward to present day maps that show the Purgatoire River flowing through the Picketwire Valley in Las Animas County.

Primary Sources

• Atlas of Colorado Ghost Towns, Volume 1, by Leanne C. Boyd and H. Glenn Carson, copyright 1984, published by Cache Press, Deming, New Mexico, ISBN 0-9416120-19-0
• Atlas of Colorado Ghost Towns, Volume 2, by Leanne C. Boyd and H. Glenn Carson, copyright 1985, published by Cache Press, Deming, New Mexico, ISBN 0-9416120-35-2
• Colorado Post Offices 1859-1989, William H. Bauer, James L. Ozment and John H. Willard, copyright 1990, published by The Colorado Railroad Museum, Golden, Colorado, ISBN 0-918654-42-4. This is the definitive book for the name, county and dates of operation of Colorado Post Offices. However, the book doesn't provide maps showing the PO location within the designated county boundaries.
• Colorado State Archives
• Colorado Place Names, by William Bright, copyright 1993, published by Johnson Books, Boulder, Colorado, ISBN 1-55566-102-5. This is a great book. There are many place names in the book that are not listed here, including many geological feature names, names of regions, etc. The derivation of many of the place names is also provided in the book.
• Colorado Atlas and Gazetteer, copyright 1997 and published by DeLorme, P. O. Box 298, Yarmouth, Maine, 04096. www.delorme.com. ISBN 0-89933-206-4.
• James Sorrell, redhorse@swissonline.ch, who submitted many corrections, additions, and suggestions! Thanks!
• Rand McNally Railroad and Road Atlas (various editions, 1895-1998) United States Postal Service Archives, Post Office locations and dates of operation.

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