Montezuma, Colorado
Encyclopedia
The Town of Montezuma is a Statutory Town located in eastern Summit County
, Colorado
, United States
. The town population was 42 at U.S. Census 2000. The town is a former mining camp that sits at an elevation of 10200 feet (3,109 m), just west of the Continental Divide
, nestled among mountains that reach an elevation of 12,000-13,000 feet (3,700-4,000 m) around it. It is situated in the upper valley of the Snake River
above the resort town of Keystone
in the Rocky Mountains
.
, the Emperor of the Aztec
s, consists largely of historical buildings and houses lining unpaved streets at the end of the paved county road that ascends the Snake River from Keystone near the west side of Loveland Pass
. The town sits in a high steep valley surrounded by forested peaks offering good access to higher national forest land destinations. The paved road up from Keystone leads mainly through national forest right up to the entrance of town, which is marked by a sign over the county road.
The town retains many older structures, some of them dating from the late 19th century, such as the picturesque school house dating from the 1880s, now a State of Colorado Historical Site. The town is often included in lists of ghost town
s in the Colorado Rockies
, but it nevertheless retains a small population of full-time residents, as well as many absentee homeowners.
From 2004 until 2009, a small low-powered FM
station (KMZM 96.5 then 96.7), which was receivable only near and in the town, operated from one of the houses.
Montezuma has some of the most popular backcountry skiing, biking, snowmobiling, snowshoeing and hiking trails in Summit County. Montezuma is listed as one of Colorado's top scenic places in John Fielder
's Best of Colorado.
in the vicinity of nearby Argentine Pass
. It was populated by prospectors coming over the passes from nearby Georgetown
. The town was incorporated in 1881. A local newspaper, the Montezuma Mill Run, began publishing in 1882. In its inaugural issue, the Mill Run described the town as having two hotels, three stores, three saloons, two blacksmiths, one shoemaker, and a number of restaurants and boarding houses.
In 1890, at the height of the Colorado Silver Boom
, the population reached nearly 1000. At the time, the town had two stores, a post office, two hotels (the Summit House and the Rocky Mountain House), and a sawmill. It eventually had a smelter, as well, which allowed local separation of the silver and lead
ores, which are typically found together in the region. At the town's peak, the mountainside around the town was location of numerous mines on the Belle and Blance lodes, operated by the Sts. John Mining Company, after which the nearby ghost town
of Saints John
is named. Saints John
now consists of three cabins near timberline, at 10,764 feet.http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=115:3:13354163349438948290::NO::P3_FID:182364
The town experienced a steep decline after the Silver Bust in 1893. It experienced a slight revival in mining interest in 1940, but has remained fairly quiet since World War II
. The town has experienced five major fires throughout its history, including ones in 1949 and 1958 which destroyed many of the historic structures, including the Summit House, which burned in the fire of Christmas 1958. Other fires in the 1970s and 1980s destroyed additional historic buildings and businesses, leaving the town with little current economic base. Presently, the town is experiencing a high surge of interest as the value of real estate in proximity to ski areas and with access to wilderness increases substantially.
In 2008, the Town Board of Montezuma and the Summit County Sheriff's Office began vigorously enforcing the county's prohibition of parking on county roads and private property within the town by ticketing and towing illegally-parked vehicles. The increased use of the nearby trails by recreational users had created a huge parking problem within the town, causing both safety and quality of life issues for the town residents. It was not uncommon for Montezuma Road to be literally a one-lane road, impeding any emergency vehicles that needed to get through Montezuma. Signs in town now direct recreational users to park their vehicles at the only legal trailhead for the area at Peru Creek, a USFS trailhead 0.75 miles (1.2 km) north of Montezuma. In addition, the Sheriff's Department has begun to crack down on speeders who do not obey the 20 mph speed limit.
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the town has a total area of 0.1 square mile (0.258998811 km²), all of it land.
of 2000, there were 42 people, 20 households, and 6 families residing in the town. The population density
was 548.4 people per square mile (202.7/km²). There were 35 housing units at an average density of 457.0 per square mile (168.9/km²). The racial make up of the city was 100% White. 2.4% of the population were Hispanic
or Latino
of any race.
There were 20 households out of which 25.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 25.0% were married couples
living together, and 70.0% were non-families. 35.0% of all households were made up of individuals and none had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.10 and the average family size was 3.33.
In the town the population was spread out with 19.0% under the age of 18, 11.9% from 18 to 24, 50.0% from 25 to 44, 19.0% from 45 to 64, . The median age was 36 years.
The median income for a household in the town was $38,750, and the median income for a family was $53,750. Males had a median income of $36,250 versus $16,250 for females. The per capita income
for the town was $31,924.
Summit County, Colorado
Summit County is the 19th most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States. The county population was 23,538 at U.S. Census 2000. The county seat is Breckenridge...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The town population was 42 at U.S. Census 2000. The town is a former mining camp that sits at an elevation of 10200 feet (3,109 m), just west of the Continental Divide
Continental Divide
The Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Gulf of Division or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain...
, nestled among mountains that reach an elevation of 12,000-13,000 feet (3,700-4,000 m) around it. It is situated in the upper valley of the Snake River
Snake River (Colorado)
The Snake River is a short tributary of the Blue River, approximately 15 miles long, in central Colorado in the United States. It drains a mountainous area on the west side of the Front Range in southeastern Summit County east of Keystone....
above the resort town of Keystone
Keystone, Colorado
Keystone is a census-designated place in Summit County, Colorado, United States. The population was 825 at the 2000 census. The Dillon Post Office serves Keystone postal addresses....
in the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
.
Description
The town, which is named for MontezumaMoctezuma II
Moctezuma , also known by a number of variant spellings including Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma and referred to in full by early Nahuatl texts as Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin, was the ninth tlatoani or ruler of Tenochtitlan, reigning from 1502 to 1520...
, the Emperor of the Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
s, consists largely of historical buildings and houses lining unpaved streets at the end of the paved county road that ascends the Snake River from Keystone near the west side of Loveland Pass
Loveland Pass
Loveland Pass, elevation 11,990 ft. above sea level, is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of north-central Colorado, U.S.A.....
. The town sits in a high steep valley surrounded by forested peaks offering good access to higher national forest land destinations. The paved road up from Keystone leads mainly through national forest right up to the entrance of town, which is marked by a sign over the county road.
The town retains many older structures, some of them dating from the late 19th century, such as the picturesque school house dating from the 1880s, now a State of Colorado Historical Site. The town is often included in lists of ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
s in the Colorado Rockies
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
, but it nevertheless retains a small population of full-time residents, as well as many absentee homeowners.
From 2004 until 2009, a small low-powered FM
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
station (KMZM 96.5 then 96.7), which was receivable only near and in the town, operated from one of the houses.
Montezuma has some of the most popular backcountry skiing, biking, snowmobiling, snowshoeing and hiking trails in Summit County. Montezuma is listed as one of Colorado's top scenic places in John Fielder
John Fielder
John Fielder is an American landscape photographer and nature writer. He specializes in photography and writings of the US state of Colorado...
's Best of Colorado.
History
The town founded in 1865 following the discovery of silverSilver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
in the vicinity of nearby Argentine Pass
Argentine Pass
Argentine Pass, elevation , is a high mountain pass that crosses the Continental Divide in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States....
. It was populated by prospectors coming over the passes from nearby Georgetown
Georgetown, Colorado
The historic town of Georgetown is a Territorial Charter Municipality that is the county seat of Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States. The former silver mining camp along Clear Creek in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains was established in 1859 during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush...
. The town was incorporated in 1881. A local newspaper, the Montezuma Mill Run, began publishing in 1882. In its inaugural issue, the Mill Run described the town as having two hotels, three stores, three saloons, two blacksmiths, one shoemaker, and a number of restaurants and boarding houses.
In 1890, at the height of the Colorado Silver Boom
Colorado Silver Boom
The Colorado Silver Boom was a dramatic expansionist period of silver mining activity in the U.S. state of Colorado in the late 19th century. The boom started in 1879 with the discovery of silver at Leadville...
, the population reached nearly 1000. At the time, the town had two stores, a post office, two hotels (the Summit House and the Rocky Mountain House), and a sawmill. It eventually had a smelter, as well, which allowed local separation of the silver and lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
ores, which are typically found together in the region. At the town's peak, the mountainside around the town was location of numerous mines on the Belle and Blance lodes, operated by the Sts. John Mining Company, after which the nearby ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
of Saints John
Saints John, Colorado
Saints John, originally called Coleyville, is a former silver-mining town in Summit County, Colorado, USA. About a mile from the town of Montezuma, Saints John was the site of one of the first silver discoveries in Colorado...
is named. Saints John
Saints John, Colorado
Saints John, originally called Coleyville, is a former silver-mining town in Summit County, Colorado, USA. About a mile from the town of Montezuma, Saints John was the site of one of the first silver discoveries in Colorado...
now consists of three cabins near timberline, at 10,764 feet.http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=115:3:13354163349438948290::NO::P3_FID:182364
The town experienced a steep decline after the Silver Bust in 1893. It experienced a slight revival in mining interest in 1940, but has remained fairly quiet since World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The town has experienced five major fires throughout its history, including ones in 1949 and 1958 which destroyed many of the historic structures, including the Summit House, which burned in the fire of Christmas 1958. Other fires in the 1970s and 1980s destroyed additional historic buildings and businesses, leaving the town with little current economic base. Presently, the town is experiencing a high surge of interest as the value of real estate in proximity to ski areas and with access to wilderness increases substantially.
In 2008, the Town Board of Montezuma and the Summit County Sheriff's Office began vigorously enforcing the county's prohibition of parking on county roads and private property within the town by ticketing and towing illegally-parked vehicles. The increased use of the nearby trails by recreational users had created a huge parking problem within the town, causing both safety and quality of life issues for the town residents. It was not uncommon for Montezuma Road to be literally a one-lane road, impeding any emergency vehicles that needed to get through Montezuma. Signs in town now direct recreational users to park their vehicles at the only legal trailhead for the area at Peru Creek, a USFS trailhead 0.75 miles (1.2 km) north of Montezuma. In addition, the Sheriff's Department has begun to crack down on speeders who do not obey the 20 mph speed limit.
Geography
Montezuma is located at 39°34′53"N 105°52′4"W (39.581389, -105.867778).According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the town has a total area of 0.1 square mile (0.258998811 km²), all of it land.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 42 people, 20 households, and 6 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 548.4 people per square mile (202.7/km²). There were 35 housing units at an average density of 457.0 per square mile (168.9/km²). The racial make up of the city was 100% White. 2.4% of the population were Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
or Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
of any race.
There were 20 households out of which 25.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 25.0% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, and 70.0% were non-families. 35.0% of all households were made up of individuals and none had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.10 and the average family size was 3.33.
In the town the population was spread out with 19.0% under the age of 18, 11.9% from 18 to 24, 50.0% from 25 to 44, 19.0% from 45 to 64, . The median age was 36 years.
The median income for a household in the town was $38,750, and the median income for a family was $53,750. Males had a median income of $36,250 versus $16,250 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $31,924.
See also
- Colorado municipalitiesColorado municipalitiesThe U.S. state of Colorado currently has 271 active incorporated municipalities, including 196 towns, 73 cities, and two consolidated city and county governments.-Municipal government:...
- Silverthorne Micropolitan Statistical AreaSilverthorne Micropolitan Statistical AreaThe Silverthorne Micropolitan Statistical Area is a United States Census Bureau defined Micropolitan Statistical Area located in the Silverthorne area of the State of Colorado. The Silverthorne Micropolitan Statistical Area is defined as Summit County, Colorado. The Micropolitan Statistical Area...
- State of Colorado
- Summit CountySummit County, ColoradoSummit County is the 19th most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States. The county population was 23,538 at U.S. Census 2000. The county seat is Breckenridge...
, ColoradoColoradoColorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...