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BACKGROUND INFOPM.>.TION A slow but steady growth rate is expected for the city and county in the foreseeable future. Settlement The Streams and Their Valleys The North and ~iddle Forks form the Purqatoire (Picket Wire) River at their confluence about 29 miles west of Trinidad. These streams have their sources in the Culebra Range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The Purgatoire River flows 186 miles in a north- easterly direction to join the Arkansas River near Las Animas, Colo- rado. Trinidad Dam controls the drainage from approximately 671 square miles of the Purqatoire watershed. Below the dam, the study area comprises approximately 98 square miles of uncontrolled drain- age area. Watersh~ elevations range from 14,407 feet atop Culebra Peak to 6,025 feet in Trinidad. In the headwaters above Weston, Colorado, streambed slopes are several hundred feet per mile. Below that point to Long Canyon, slopes are in excess of 50 feet per mile, Streambed slopes average about 29 feet per mile throughout the study area. Upstream from Trinidad, the "Picket Wire" valley is narrow, vuying in width from a few hundred feet to about one-fourth ll'lile and throughout the study area the valley averages about 1500 feet. A wide streambed with low banks c~~racterizes the main~stcm river which occasionally shifts across the valley. Raton Creek enters the Purgatoire River i~ediately west of the Trinidad city limits. An uncontrolled south bank tributary, Raton Creek, drains about 57 square'miles of a high MOuntainous region along the ColoradO-New Mexico State line. Runoff from Fishers Peak--a prominent 9,627-foot landmark in the watershed--enters Raton Creek and other south bank tributaries. With slopes averaging 79 feet per mile, Raton Creek is entrenched within a valley averaging about 1,000 feet in width in the Starkville vicinity. Vegetation.variesthlCoughoutthePurgatoireRiverdrain- age area. In areaS above the timberline, the steep mountain slopes are void of vegetal cover. In the timber and woodland areas, dS~n, scrub oaks, pinon, juniper, and sagebrush, with scattered growths Trinidad, the county seat of Las ~nimas county, is located in the fertile Purgatoire River V~lley, some 14 miles north of Raton Pass on the ColoradO-New Me~ico State line. The incredible gOld-seeking spanish conquistadors f1lC$t visited the region in the early 1540'5. Then, as today, Raton pass served as a natural corri~ dor through mountainous terrain, and the site of present-day Trinidad was favored by frontier travelers as a meeting place and camping stop. Significant settlement in the Trinidad vicinity began about the time of the Civil War (1861-65) with cattlemen predominant among the earliest homesteaders. Trinidad sobn developed as a cross- roads village, its inhabitants concerned primarily with northbound Texas cattle herds and traffic following the Mountain Branch of the famed Santa Fe Trail. By 1870, the primitive Spanish-~nglo town housed around 550 people. In 1878, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway reached Trinidad, forecasting the end of Santa Fe Trail commerce and also the community's transfor~tiQn from a typical ~~stern frontier settlement to become a booming center of coal mining activity. The region's vast co~l deposits h..d long ,,.,en known, "no the dVdildl>ility of rail transportation made large-scale commercial mining highly profitable. Trinidad wae officially incorporated on Oec<,mber 30, 1879. Substantial coal production continued as the mainstay of the area's economy until the very early 1900's, when a gradual decline began. Today, Trinidad is easily accessible by air, road, and rail, including pasoenger service on the Amtrak railroad systom. The city's civic boosterspul>licize their corn",unity as being "The Gateway to the Rockies" and itil environs as "J\ Vacation Paradise. " I". 1970, the U.S. Bureau of the Census reported " popu~ lation of 9,901 for urban Trinidad and 15,794 for Las Animas County. of bunch grass are found. , ,