Trinidad has long been a traditional jumping-off point for travel into this region of Colorado. For centuries, Native Americans passed this way seasonally to and from hunting grounds, Spanish explorers marched through in search of glory and gold in the 1600s and 1700s, and in the 19th century fur trappers traveled the Santa Fe Trail here, followed by railroad builders, prospectors, soldiers, and countless others. The area is centered on the Scenic Highway of Legends, an 80-mile drive that brings together landscapes, cultures, and characters from across Colorado, with the Spanish Peaks standing at its heart. To Native Americans the peaks were Huajatolla, or “breasts of the Earth,” an earthly paradise where the world began, while Spanish conquistadores believed they concealed secret mines and hidden treasures, myths that later drew American gold seekers as well. Trinidad stands on the border between mountains and plains and has long been a cultural junction. In the first half of the 19th century, the Santa Fe Trail brought Americans, Mexicans, and traders from the United States to this spot, and by 1900, when Trinidad had become a coal-mining center, its population included immigrant workers of more than 32 nationalities. The region’s architecture, cuisine, languages, and stories reflect these many threads. Trinidad also lies beside the Purgatory River, whose name came from a legend about Spanish soldiers on an 1594 expedition east of here who disobeyed orders in pursuit of adventure and treasure, fought among themselves, and saw their commander murdered; some returned to Mexico, while the rest were attacked by Comanches. More than two centuries later, Mexican merchants on the Santa Fe Trail found the soldiers’ armor by the river, and because the men had died without last rites, the stream became known as El Rio de las Animas Perdidos en Purgatorio, the River of Souls Lost in Purgatory.