Pawnee Pioneer Trail | Northeast CO visit our website Colorado's northeastern high plains show the traveler and native adventurer that Colorado is more than just mountains.  The 128 mile Pawnee Pioneer Trails Scenic and Historic Byway gives visitors an opportunity to experience the roll of the prairie, the run of the river, the majestic Pawnee Buttes rising from the plains, the lost dreams of the homesteader, a sea of grass, and scenic sunsets over the Rocky Mountains.

Downtown Littleton | Littleton, CO visit our website Downtown Littleton is a place to experience a classic small town "Main Street" atmosphere within the larger Denver metropolitan area.  Accessible from downtown Denver by car, light rail or bike path, the historic downtown district includes buildings featuring a diverse array of architectural styles.  Numerous independent businesses, galleries and restaurants line Main Street and the adjoining side streets.

Four Mile Historic Park | Denver, CO 720-865-0800 | visit our website Four Mile Historic Park is a 12-acre park, home to the Denver area's oldest standing structure, Four Mile House.  It was built in 1859 to serve as a stage stop, wayside inn, and tavern for travelers on the Cherokee Trail headed to newly founded Denver City.  Levi and Millie Booth, owners from 1864 until the 1940s, grew the small wayside inn to a 600-acre working ranch/farm.

Redstone | Redstone, CO 970-963-2526 | visit our website Redstone is a 19th-century historic gem, hidden in the dense aspen and blue spruce of the White River National Forest.  The town of 92 people is located on the West Elk Loop Scenic and Historic Byway (Colorado Highway 133), the doorstep of the Snowmass/Maroon Bells Wilderness Area.  In 2008 it was designated as a Preserve America Community.  The Crystal River flows through the village founded in 1901 by coal and steel baron John Cleveland Osgood to house the men (and their families) who worked the Redstone coke ovens.  These "cokers" turned Coal Basin's high-grade metallurgical coal into the coke which fired the blast furnaces that helped build America.

Oak Creek Tracks and Trails Museum| Oak Creek, CO 970-736-8245 | visit our website One hundred years ago, tiny Oak Creek, Colorado was attracting new residents from around the globe.  Immigrants from Poland, Turkey, Yugoslavia and Japan arrived in Oak Creek seeking work in the nearby coal mines.  Others founded new businesses in the quickly growing downtown commercial district.  In 1908, the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railroad reached Oak Creek and the town became a refueling stop for coal-hungry locomotives.   By 1915, some 2,000 people lived in Oak Creek, and more than 30 businesses operated in a collection of one and two-story masonry and wood-frame buildings.  Six of these businesses were saloons.

Steelworks Museum of Industry and Culture | Pueblo, CO 719-564-9086 | visit our website Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) played a major part in the industrialization of the West. It was the first integrated steel mill west of the Mississippi, controlling all of the natural resources necessary to produce steel: coal, iron ore, limestone and water.  Begun in 1872 by General William Palmer to provide steel rails for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, CF&I was later controlled by John Osgood of Redstone, Colorado and John D. Rockefeller.   The company produced necessities for the West, including iron rails, fencing, nails, and steel pipes.  The reach of CF&I was broad; the company owned and operated 62 mines and quarries and numerous sales offices and subsidiaries across the country.

Independence Ghost Town | Pitkin County, CO 970-925-3721 | visit our website The town of Independence lies in a picturesque meadow on the west side of Independence Pass alongside State Highway 82 at an altitude of 10,880 feet.  According to legend, Billy Belden, one of the original prospectors in the Roaring Fork Valley, hit a rich vein of gold on July 4, 1879 and named the claim, and the tent city around it, Independence.

Grand Mesa National Scenic Byway | Mesa and Delta Counties, CO visit our website The nationally designated Grand Mesa Scenic and Historic Byway crosses over the Grand Mesa on a 63 mile trek ranging from the orchards of the valley floor to the alpine meadows of its 11,000-foot summit.  You can begin your trip in Plateau Canyon, where Highway 65 joins I-70 approximately 30 miles east of Grand Junction or in Cedaredge at the Byway Welcome Center next to Pioneer Town.

Camp Amache National Historic Landmark | Granada, CO visit our website Camp Amache is one of ten Japanese American Internment camps established across the country by the Federal Government in 1942 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  It was the only Japanese internment camp located in Colorado.

Byers-Evans House Museum | Denver, CO 303-620-4933 | visit our website Built in 1883 by founding Rocky Mountain News publisher William Byers and sold in 1889 to the family of William Gray Evans an officer of the Denver Tramway Company, the Italianate Byers-Evans House is a testament to the growth of a new frontier city. Using his position in the newspaper business, William Byers was an enthusiastic promoter of Denver as the leading city of the west.  The Rocky Mountain News promoted Denver as the Queen City of the Rockies, imagined possibilities of an active river front on the South Platte, and championed the importance of irrigated agriculture.  In 1859, Byers authored one of 17 guidebooks welcoming newcomers to Denver.  He was also significant in forming the city's new Chamber of Commerce.

This project is paid for in part by a State Historical Fund grant
from the Colorado Historical Society.