Four Corners Resettled

Communities across the Four Corners developed through water projects, relocation, rail connections, mining, and tourism. Cortez was settled in the 1870s around Mitchell Springs, the area’s only permanent water source, and after farming proved unprofitable because of limited water, the original Montezuma Water Company was established in 1885 and work began in 1887 on a tunnel and canals to divert water from the Dolores River to Cortez and Montezuma Valley; today it is recognized as the Archeological Center of the United States and the Gateway to Mesa Verde National Park and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Towaoc, a Ute word meaning “all right,” became the home of the Ute Mountain Ute Indians after they moved west from what is now the Southern Ute Reservation in Ignacio in the 1890s, first settling at Navajo Springs before relocating to the base of Sleeping Ute Mountain, where Towaoc is now the tribal headquarters and the tribe operates the Ute Mountain Casino, hotel, and resort and offers tours of Ute Tribal Park archeological sites. Rico grew from mining claims staked in the mid-1860s in the surrounding San Juan Mountains, expanded after silver ore was discovered in 1879 and the 320-acre townsite was platted, received people and supplies over the Scotch Creek Toll Road because the Ute Indians controlled access to the Pioneer Mining District, and boomed after the Rio Grande Southern Railroad arrived in 1891, reaching nearly 5,000 people by 1892. In the Dolores River Valley, Big Bend was first settled in 1878, but after the Rio Grande Southern Railroad bypassed it, the town relocated along the tracks and became Dolores, named for the river. In Mancos Valley, prospectors first wintered in dugout cabins in 1874, a post office and school followed by 1878, and the arrival of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad in 1891 and the establishment of Mesa Verde National Park in 1906 helped make Mancos a base for visitors traveling by rail and then horseback to the cliff dwellings.

Cortez, Colorado · United States