The Cuchara River Valley is known for its cuisine, its community of more than 100 working artists, and the dramatic landscape of the Spanish Peaks area. A remarkable system of more than 500 igneous dikes radiates out 25 miles from the Spanish Peaks and led to the area's designation in 1976 as a National Natural Landmark; these intrusive igneous rocks forced their way into seams in the sedimentary rock, and the dikes range from one foot to 100 feet wide, are up to 100 feet high, 10,000 feet deep, and as long as 14 miles. Colonel John Francisco built Francisco Fort by 1862 around a central plaza, and it became a center of protection and commerce for its builders and nearby settlers; today the original adobe fort serves as a museum and visitor center and hosts special events throughout the summer. Traveling in 1847 with Ceran St Vrain from Bent's Old Fort to Taos, 17-year-old Lewis H. Garrard praised the twin Wah-to-yah and the vast view in words later published in 1850. In the 1970s, an art group in La Veta began a craft and art fair in the park, formed Friends of the Arts Guild, and in the 1980s built an Arts Center that evolved into SPACe in the 1990s. In Cuchara, fifth-generation families return to their mountain homes every summer, a tradition founded in 1900 with Cuchara Camp for Families.