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<br />BACKGROUND INFOPM.>.TION
<br />
<br />A slow but steady growth rate is expected for the city and county in
<br />the foreseeable future.
<br />
<br />Settlement
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<br />The Streams and Their Valleys
<br />The North and ~iddle Forks form the Purqatoire (Picket
<br />Wire) River at their confluence about 29 miles west of Trinidad.
<br />These streams have their sources in the Culebra Range of the Sangre
<br />de Cristo Mountains. The Purgatoire River flows 186 miles in a north-
<br />easterly direction to join the Arkansas River near Las Animas, Colo~
<br />rado. Trinidad Dam controls the drainage from approximately 671
<br />square miles of the Purqatoire watershed. Below the dam, the study
<br />area comprises approximately 98 square miles of uncontrolled drain-
<br />age area. Watersh~ elevations range from 14,407 feet atop Culebra
<br />Peak to 6,025 feet in Trinidad. In the headwaters above Weston,
<br />Colorado, streambed slopes are several hundred feet per mile. Below
<br />that point to Long Canyon, slopes are in excess of 50 feet per mile.
<br />Streambed slopes average about 29 feet per mile throughout the study
<br />area. Upstream from Trinidad, the "Picket Wire" valley is narrow,
<br />varying in width from a few hundred feet to about one-fourth mile and
<br />throughout the study area the valley averages about 1500 feet. A wide
<br />streambed with low banks c~~racterize$ the main~stcm river which
<br />occasionally shifts across the valley.
<br />Raton Creek enters the Purgatoire River i~ediately west
<br />of the Trinidad city limits. An uncontrolled south bank tributary,
<br />Raton Creek, drains about 57 square'miles of a high MOuntainous
<br />region along the Colorado-New Mexico State line. Runoff from Fishers
<br />Peak--a prominent 9,627-foot landmark in the watershed--enters Raton
<br />Creek and other south bank tributaries. With slopes averaging 79
<br />feet per mile, Raton Creek is entrenched within a valley averaging
<br />about 1,000 feet in width in the Starkville vicinity.
<br />Vegetation ,varies throughout the Purgatoire River drain~
<br />age area. In areas above the timberline, the steep mountain slopes
<br />are void of vegetal cover. In the timber and woodland areas, a~~n,
<br />scrub oaks, pinon. juniper, and sagebrush. with scattered growths
<br />
<br />Trinidad, the county seat of Las Animas county, is
<br />located in the fertile Purgatoire River V~lley, some 14 miles north
<br />of Paton Pass on the Colorado~New Me~ico State line. The incredible
<br />gold~seeking Spanish conquistadors first visited the region in the
<br />early 1540's. Then, as today, Raton Pass served as a natural corri~
<br />dor through mountainous terrain, and the site of present~day Trinidad
<br />was favored by frontier travelers as a meeting place and camping stop.
<br />Significant settlement in the Trinidad vicinity began
<br />about the time of the Civil War (1861-65) with cattlemen predominant
<br />among the earliest homesteaders. Trinidad sobn developed as a cross-
<br />roads village, its inhabitants concerned primarily with northbound
<br />Texas cattle herds and traffic following the Mountain Branch of the
<br />famed Santa Fe Trail. By 1870, the primitive SpaniSh-Anglo town
<br />housed around 550 people.
<br />In 1878, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway
<br />reached Trinidad, forecasting the end of Santa Fe Trail commerce and
<br />also the community's transfor~tiQn from a typical ~~stern frontier
<br />settlement to become a booming center of coal mining activity. The
<br />r"qion'a vast coal deposits h..d long ,,.,,,n known, ..no tll" dVdildl>ility
<br />of rail transportation made large~scale commercial mining highly
<br />profitable. Trinidad was officially incorporated on December 30,
<br />1879. S~bstantial coal production continued as the mainstay of the
<br />area's economy until the very early 1900's, when a gradual decline
<br />
<br />began.
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<br />Today, Trinidad is easily accessible by air, road, and
<br />rail, including passenger service on the Amtrak railroad system.
<br />The city's civic boosterspuhlicize their corn",unity as being "The
<br />Gateway to the Rockies" and itil environs ail "A Vacation I'aradise. "
<br />I". 1970, the U.S. Bure3U of the Census reported " popu~
<br />lation of 9,901 for urban Trinidad and 15,794 for Las Animas County.
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<br />of bunch grass are found.
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