The Wet Mountain Valley is one of Colorado’s hidden gems. Located at an elevation of 8,000’ between the Wet Mountain and Sangre de Cristo Mountain ranges, the Valley is home to two small mountain communities, Silver Cliff and Westcliffe and a wonderful panorma of the Rocky Mountains.

Spanish explorers, miners, ranchers and modern-day motorists have all marveled at this breathtaking view of the Sangre de Cristos. This 100 mile stretch includes 54 peaks over treeline, and seven over 14,000’. After the Spanish gold-seekers, and the occaisional explorer or trapper, Hispanic shephers were the next men of European descent to use the Wet Mountain Valley. Starting in the 1860s they grazed their sheep in the Valley in summer. They moved back to the lower elevations near present-day Gardner in the winter.

By 1868 farmers like Josiah Horn had begun settling permanently in the Valley, raising crops for their own use and grazing cattle on the open range. In 1870 the Colfax German Colony, composed of more than 250 German men, women, and children from Chicago, settled in the southern end of the Valley. They attempted to communally farm the land but the experiment soon failed and many of the colonist left the area. Others remained and their descendants still farm and ranch the original homesteads today.

Looking Into the Past. (photo on right) In the Summer of 1994, Jim Perkins and his 103-year old mother, Fanny Harper Perkins visited the Harper family homestead in the high ranch meadow. Here they are peering into the room where Jim was born in 1916.

Soon, other parts of the Valley were also being farmed. Many settlers from Great Britain located at the north end of the Valley, often for health reasons. The high mountain air with its low humidity was especially beneficial to sufferers from tuberculosis. Unitl a generation or two ago the locals still referred to the south part of the Valley as the “German” end and to the north part as the “English” end with their separate schools and even their separate cemeteries.

In 1872 the Valley’s economy changed dramatically with the discovery of gold and silver at Rosita, about six miles east of Silver Cliff. Thousands of miners and businesses rushed into the Valley looking for their fortunes. In 1878 high grade silver was discovered in the center of the Valley and the town of Silver Cliff was born overnight. In 1880 with a population of more than 5,000 Silver Cliff was the third largest city in Colorado.

In 1881 the narrow gauge railroad was brought into the Valley by railroad magnate and industrialist General Palmer of Colorado Springs. His proxy, Dr. William Bell, located the railhead at the new town of Westcliffe one mile west of Silver Cliff, forcing many Silver Cliff businesses and residents to place their buildings on rollers and move them to plots (sold by Bell) at the new railhead.

By the the late 1800s much of the ore had played out and the country’s economic dependence on silver was gone. Most of the Valley’s miners and “boomers” left the Valley. The Valley reverted to its agricultural roots. Today, the Wet Mountain Valley, though little known outside the area, is a popular recreation mecca. Locals and visitors enjoy camping, mountain hiking, horeseback riding, backpacking, cross-country skiing, fishing, hunting, and recreational driving. Westcliffe offers interesting locally owned shops that offer arts and crafts as well as traveler necessities.

The Wet Mountain Valley is a special treat for visitors looking for an off-the-beaten-path touring experience that evokes the old Colorado. While evidencing some of the development impact that has so affected much of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West, the Valley and the area have largely remained intact and pristine.

Your visit to the Valley can be enhanced by taking advantage of one or more of our Wet Mountain Valley Loop Tours. The One-Room Schoolhouse tour is especially fun and is greatly enhanced by a new book published in late 2001 by local historian Irene Francis, The One-Room Schoolhouses of Custer County.

The Ranching and Homestead Heritage tour is highlighted by the magnificently intact historic 1870 Beckwith Ranch six miles north of Westcliffe on Highway 69.

The Mining Tour takes in Silver Cliff and the Defender Mine.

Special video and self-guided tour maps/brochures are being developed for each these loops and should be available in 2002. In the interim, for local tour information check with the Custer County Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center near the corner of Main Street and 4th Street in Westcliffe. (719) 783-9163