Mountain Men, Mules And Miners

Trinidad, Colorado, celebrates its Old West heritage with gusto every day.

- Leo W. Banks

No one could confuse life in this peaceful Southern Colorado town of 8,000 on the Purgatoire River with the razzmatazz of Hollywood. But they do share one trait, a sign in the overlooking hills that serves as an ever-present beacon, a reminder to travelers where they’ve landed.

Trinidad. The sign even lights up at night, as if to declare that this one-time trading center on the Santa Fe Trail, patrolled by city marshal Bat Masterson in 1882, has become a tourist destination that draws half a million a year to its museums, shops and extraordinary late-Victorian architecture.

Some 55 of these beautiful buildings stand downtown in the El Corazon de Trinidad National Historic District, which has a superb concentration of adobe and brick structures from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

“I think we’ve finally been discovered,” says Mayor Phil Rico. “We’re the first stop as you drive north from New Mexico over Raton Pass. Visitors love the friendly people and the authentic architecture.”