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Colorado Counties

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Colorado Counties

Colorado currently has sixty-four counties. The Counties of Colorado are important components of government since the state has no secondary civil subdivisions such as townships. Two counties, the City and County of Denver and the City and County of Broomfield, have consolidated city and county governments.. No organized Counties of the District of Louisiana, the Territory of Missouri, or the Territory of Nebraska existed within the present boundaries of the State of Colorado.

Custer County, Colorado

Custer County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Westcliffe
Year Organized: 1877
Square Miles: 739

Court House:

P.O. Box 150
County Courthouse
Westcliffe, CO 81252-0518

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Custer County is named in honor of George Armstrong Custer, the U.S. Army Colonel defeated at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Custer County was created by the Colorado legislature on March 9, 1877, out of the southern half of Fremont County. Originally set in Ula, the county seat moved to Rosita in 1878, and to Silver Cliff in 1886 before settling in Westcliffe in 1928. It was named in honor of Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer, who had died the previous year.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 740 square miles (1,916 km²), of which, 739 square miles (1,914 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (3 km²) of it (0.14%) is water.

The county is very rugged and would be virtually inaccessible without roads. The lowest point of the county is around 6,000 feet (1,800 m) in elevation, but most of the county is rugged and mountainous. The county seat of Westcliffe is about 7,800 feet (2,400 m) and along with nearby town Silver Cliff lies in the Wet Mountain Valley which sits at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the west reach heights in excess of 14,000 feet (4,300 m) with Crestone Peak being the highest at 14,294 feet (4,357 m) and 7th highest fourteener in Colorado.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Fremont County
East: Pueblo County
Southeast: Huerfano County
West: Saguache County

Cities and Towns:

- Silver Cliff	town	Incorporated Area
- Westcliffe (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."