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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.

Gunnison County, Colorado

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

County Seat: Gunnison
Year Organized: 1877
Square Miles: 3,239

Court House:

200 E Virginia Avenue
County Courthouse
Gunnison, CO 81230-2248

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Gunnison County is named in honor of John Williams Gunnison, the U.S. Army captain who explored the region.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Gunnison County is located in the heart of the Colorado Rockies. It was named after Captain John W. Gunnison, who explored the area with a party of 60 men in 1853. The County boasts of some unusual town names such as Bacon, Citizen, Dinner Station, Old Man's Cabin, Ruby, Pie Plant, Tin Cup and Yule Creek.

The first settlement was Richardson's Colony which was founded in 1874 on the site of present-day Gunnison. It was abandoned shortly thereafter. In 1877 the Ute Indian Agency of Los Pinos was established. In the same year Gunnison County was carved out of Lake County. By 1879 Professor Sylvester Richardson and Colorado Governor John Evans decided to try again and founded the town site of Gunnison. Gunnison became the County Seat and the courthouse was finished in 1880. Pitkin County was carved out in 1881, and 2 years later, in 1883 the Counties of Delta, Mesa and Montrose were also carved out.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 3,260 square miles (8,443 km²), of which, 3,239 square miles (8,388 km²) of it is land and 21 square miles (54 km²) of it (0.64%) is water.

The elevation of the county ranges from 7,000' to 14,000'. Summers are pleasant, but Gunnison County is noted as being one of the coldest areas of Colorado in the winter (-20 degrees is common). Approximately 85% of Gunnison County is Federal land owned by the United States Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Curecanti National Recreation Area. The economic base is tourism, skiing, education, mining and ranching. Western State College of Colorado is located in Gunnison. The college has an enrollment of approximately 2,500 students. Gunnison County population was 11, 931 in July 1995.

The town of Marble, located in northern Gunnison County, is the site of the Colorado Yule Marble Company which produced the marble used to build many famous buildings and monuments in America, including the Lincoln Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Crested Butte was established in 1879 as a coal mining region, but nowadays is a popular ski area and resort town.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Pitkin County
East: Chaffee County
Southeast: Saguache County
Southwest: Hinsdale County; Ouray County; Montrose County
Northwest: Delta County; Mesa County

Cities and Towns:

- Crested Butte	town	Incorporated Area
- Gunnison (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Mount Crested Butte	town	Incorporated Area
- Pitkin	town	Incorporated Area
- Salida	city	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."