Our city has undergone a series of metamorphoses over the years. Read about its most pivotal moments.

Ute Women, Southern Colorado

Trinidad’s Original Inhabitants

For over 10,000 years, Indigenous people lived along the cottonwood-lined valleys of the Spanish Peaks and Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The Southern Ute, Comanche, and Apache considered these mountains to be the abode of the gods. Tribes camped along the riverbank and hunted for game in the foothills.

Historic Photo, Trinidad, CO

Early Settlers

Starting in the 16th century, Spanish and Mexican traders began exploring the area. They named the river “Río de las Ánimas,” or “River of Spirits,” to warn others about the dangers of the Ratón Pass. After a massacre was said to have occurred on its banks, a Spanish priest renamed the waterway “El Rio de las Ánimas Perdidas,” or “The River of Lost Souls.” Later, French traders called it the Purgatoire River, because these bodies were never consecrated.
Santa Fe Trail Plaque, Trinidad, CO

Santa Fe Trail

Between 1821 and 1880, this nearly 800-mile commercial highway connected Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico, with Trinidad’s stretch used to ship freight to budding Denver. In 1846, America’s Army of the West followed it to invade Mexico. After the Mexican-American War, the trail became a national route linking U.S. states to the new southwestern territories. Military supplies were hauled to supply forts, while mail, stagecoach lines, gold seekers, missionaries, and settlers also passed through. Though railroad expansion replaced the Santa Fe Trail, its remnants still run through Main Street in downtown Trinidad. The Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway also traces this history.

Early Downtown Trinidad, Colorado

Establishing Trinidad

The Colorado Gold Rush attracted droves of traders and their caravans, including Felipe Baca, a prosperous farmer and rancher from New Mexico. Impressed with Purgatoire Valley’s agricultural potential, Baca’s team started planting crops around 1860. Baca emerged as a prominent leader, and local prospectors began surveying a townsite along the Santa Fe Trail. Gabriel Gutierrez, the town’s only businessman and a saloon owner, was honored with naming the new community. Land grants encouraged settlement.
Trinidad and the Wild West. Vintage Rodeo shot.

Trinidad and the Wild West

The colorful cast of characters rolling through Trinidad included the likes of Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and other rough-and-tumble types. The city sat at the intersection of two major rail lines, making it a strategic hideout for outlaws like Black Jack Ketchum, a member of Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid’s Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. In 1882, Bat Masterson was appointed city marshal – serving briefly until it was discovered he was moonlighting as a faro card dealer.
Coal Miners, Trinidad, CO

A City of Coal

Beginning in the 1870s, coal mines sprang up across the rugged landscape. Camps dotted the hills around Trinidad, and immigrant workers flocked to the region, bringing a fusion of cultures and customs. The mining workforce was diverse, including Hispanics, Italians, Slavs, Hungarians, Greeks, Poles, Germans, and Scandinavians. Miners often worked in scorching ovens, turning coal into coke, a form of hard coal free of impurities. Colorado colliers were paid by the tonnage of extracted coal, rather than by hours worked. Tasks like tunneling or laying tracks were known as “dead time,” leading miners to prioritize speed over safety to make a living. Coal profits poured into the area, resulting in new public buildings, businesses, and homes.
Labor Tensions in Trinidad, CO

Rising Labor Tensions

In August 1913, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) invited Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron (CF& I) to meet about miners’ grievances in company-owned coal camps. These grievances included low pay, long hours, troubling management practices, and dangerous conditions that had caused a death rate twice the national average. When the organizers were rebuffed, about 10,000 miners went on strike. Among their demands were a 10-cent pay raise, an enforced eight-hour workday, and the right to live and trade outside company-owned towns. In response, miners were evicted from company housing and settled in tent colonies nearby. Mother Jones rallied strikers – and her subsequent arrest activated women to the cause. CF&I hired Baldwin-Felts “detectives” to intimidate and spray bullets on sleeping miners and their families.
Ludlow Massacre, Colorado

The Ludlow Massacre

On April 19, 1914, gunfire erupted between striking miners and the Colorado National Guard, raging for 14 hours. The state militia used machine guns and later set the Ludlow colony ablaze. Three miners, including organizer Louis Tikas, were captured and killed, and four women and 11 children suffocated in the flames. The event was the single deadliest event during the Colorado Coalfield War. In retaliation, bands of miners destroyed property and skirmished across the state. Order was restored by federal troops, but the massacre sparked outrage. While no concessions were made to strikers, the massacre forced labor reforms in mining towns and paved the way for the enactment of child labor laws and the eight-hour workday. Today, visit the Southern Colorado Coal Miners Memorial & Museum to learn more about the deeply entrenched impact of coal culture and these historic events.

Drop City Historic Photo, Colorado

Counterculture Central and Drop City

Trinidad’s welcoming atmosphere made it an early hub for individuals seeking alternative and countercultural lifestyles. In 1960, four art students and filmmakers established Drop City, an experimental community known as the first rural hippie commune. The group created a joint living and working space near Trinidad, centered around the Drop Art movement. Influenced by Buckminster Fuller and Steve Baer, the growing population constructed domes and zonohedra as shelters. Though Drop City dissolved by 1979, it influenced other utopian and intentional living movements.
Two Happy Women

Sex Change Capital of the World

Themes of individuality and self-expression continued into 1969, when a social worker approached Dr. Stanley Biber, an Army surgeon in the Korean War and general practitioner in Trinidad, with a request for what was then termed “gender reassignment surgery.” After consulting medical references and a colleague in New York, Dr. Biber completed the procedure. It was the first of more than 4,000 surgeries that would transform Trinidad into a destination for individuals seeking affirming care and the chance to live authentically.

Kuehl Fine Arts Trinidad, CO

The Creative Revival

Trinidad’s creative revival is shaping a bold new chapter for the city. The downtown arts scene hums with energy from Space to Create and its hub, The Commons, where artists and performers showcase their work through art shows, workshop spaces, and open-mic nights. Guided by CREATE Trinidad, a state-certified Creative District, this movement unites makers, musicians, and visionaries in celebrating the city’s artistic spirit. New galleries and studios fill historic storefronts, while public art brightens alleys and plazas. Events, live music, and hands-on classes invite everyone to participate, fostering a community where innovation, artistry, and collaboration continue to thrive.

Explore Generations of History

Discover landmarks and sites, and learn more about the diverse cultures that created and molded Trinidad.

Downtown Trinidad, Colorado