Glenwood Springs, Colorado, United States

🇺🇸 Glenwood Springs is a home rule municipality that is the county seat of Garfield County, Colorado, United States. Glenwood Springs is located at the confluence of the Roaring Fork River and the Colorado River, threading together the Roaring Fork Valley and a series of smaller towns up and down the Colorado River.

Glenwood Springs is a historic destination for vacationers with diverse natural amenities, most particularly the hot springs.

History For centuries the area that is now Glenwood Springs was populated by Indigenous people before the colonization of the Americas. The oral history of the Kapuuta and Mouache bands recall that Glenwood Springs is located within the "traditional Nuuchiu tuvupu (The People's Land) of the Subuagan and Parianuche bands". Fred Conetah's History of the Northern Utes states that the Yampa or White River bands used the area, which is now in the Ute ancestral jurisdiction. The Utes were nomadic hunter-gatherers who seasonally used the natural hot springs in the area. The U.S. government surveyed the land in the mid-19th century, although they had no claim on the land. An 1868 treaty negotiated by the Tabeguache Ute Chief Ouray preserved the hunting grounds in the area of present-day Glenwood Springs.

For a short time in the 19th century, Glenwood Springs was known as "Defiance", a name sometimes still used by local teams or businesses. Defiance was established in 1883, as a camp of tents, saloons, and brothels with an increasing amount of cabins and lodging establishments. It was populated with gamblers, gunslingers, and prostitutes. Isaac Cooper was the founder of the town. His wife Sarah was having a hard time adjusting to the frontier life and, in an attempt to make her environment somewhat more comfortable, persuaded the founders to change the name to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, after her hometown of Glenwood, Iowa.

Glenwood Springs, then a small encampment, was not the original county seat of Garfield County. Rather, a larger mining town that had been seeded with silver in order to attract miners on top of the Flat Tops mountains named Carbonate was the original county seat. Carbonate briefly had a post office, but the mail courier who won the contract to deliver mail to Carbonate found only one miner living there on his first delivery, which took 65 km horizontally and 1.5 km vertically. In the end, the courier paid the miner $100 in 1880s dollars to move out so that the post office could be closed and he would not have to make the journey again. Carbonate remained the county seat for only four months before Glenwood Springs was selected by voters as the new location.

The location of Glenwood Springs, and its railroad stop, established a centre of commerce in the area. The city has seen well-known visitors, including President Teddy Roosevelt, who spent a summer vacation living out of the historic Hotel Colorado. Doc Holliday, who was known for the O.K. Corral gunfight, spent the final months of his life in Glenwood Springs and is buried in the town's original Pioneer Cemetery above Bennett Avenue. Kid Curry is buried in the same location.

Glenwood Springs was one of the first places in the United States to have electric lights. The original lighting was installed in 1897 inside of the Fairy Caves in Iron Mountain. Later, a dam was built in Glenwood Canyon, providing water for the Shoshone power plant. The plant began producing power on May 16, 1909, and retains the largest and oldest water rights to the Colorado River, the "Shoshone Call", which is valuable for the protection of Colorado River water rather than the minimal electricity produced. In 2015, the town was named the "Most Vibrant Small Town Arts Environment in the United States" by Southern Methodist University and the 5th Best Place to Live in America by Outside magazine. It was named the "Most Fun Town in America" by Rand McNally and USA Today in 2011.

Geography Glenwood Springs is located in the narrow mountain valleys that host the confluence of the Colorado River and the Roaring Fork River. The surrounding terrain is steeply contoured on all sides, containing several caves. The geology of the area includes geothermal activity, such as the local hot springs, but it is also evidenced through other features such as the Dotsero maar. Occasional proposals to leverage the geothermal energy for other purposes arise. Glenwood Springs has experienced several mudslides throughout its history, a threat mitigated somewhat by public works.

Glenwood Springs is considered a walkable town by PBS and Walking Magazine, including in the Walking Town Hall of Fame. Though the town's geography makes it a natural environment for pedestrians and cyclists; there are also trails running throughout and around the city that resulted from planning efforts that began in the 1980s in response to congestion and traffic.

Due to civic planning during the early years of the city, Glenwood Springs owns some senior water rights to tributaries of the Colorado River. Glenwood Springs water supply is sufficient for its population, unlike some areas of the American West, conservation plans have been enacted anyway for largely environmental reasons. The town's drinking water is supplied primarily through senior rights to major watersheds in the Flat Tops Wilderness Area, and the tap water is generally of safe quality.

Mineral deposits exist further up the Crystal River and in the Roaring Fork area, and petroleum resources are ample in western Garfield County, which brings tax revenue to Glenwood Springs. However, the town itself lies outside of the Colorado Mineral Belt, and there are no mineral or oil and gas sources near Glenwood Springs proper or its watersheds. While the paucity of minerals and oil was disastrous for early miners hoping to strike it rich, modern Glenwood Springs has none of the typical Colorado mountain town legacy of resource extraction, generally good air quality, water, and land. however, Valley inversions and heavy traffic to Aspen can lead to air quality problems during exceptionally cold spells of winter.

At the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total area of 3,740 acres (15.136 km2) including 5.4 acres (0.022 km2) of water.

Economy Glenwood Springs' economy has centered on hospitality for vacationers since its foundation, unlike many of Colorado's mountain towns, which were generally settled for mining or railroad purposes. While early railroad access and inclusion on main lines and proximity to Aspen catalyzed the city's growth, Glenwood Springs continued to attract visitors, and thus has not experienced the bust or quiet years most mountain towns endured.

Much of the tourism, particularly during the summer months, typically involves local outdoor sports or the amenities of the town. In the winter, the proximity of Glenwood Springs to multiple major ski resorts and its hot springs draw visitors. Autumn is scenic as the gambel oaks studding the hillsides change color, and spring brings a tide of violas and other flowers, particularly bulbs, from traditional daffodils to native sego lilies.

Glenwood does not primarily serve as a bedroom community. In 2020, it received stimulus money. Due to severe geographic constraints, if further population growth is to be accommodated, it must come primarily from multifamily infill development.

Bloomberg Business named Glenwood Springs the 7th wealthiest small town in America in 2015, due principally to the influence of Aspen. Glenwood Springs and Aspen share a micropolitan statistical area, and businesses often serve the entire Valley. Many small businesses start in the area due to the ambient wealth and a strong preference for local business, but they typically relocate to larger metropolitan areas after successful growth leads to needs for more affordable labor and physical resources.

Internet access Comcast provides cable modem access over coax to the entire city along with television and mobile service, while CenturyLink offers DSL service to all residents. In 2020, Glenwood Springs was locally installing 140 miles of fiber-optic networking to serve the city as a participating member of Project THOR, an initiative by the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments to bring networking to towns throughout north-west Colorado.