Del Norte

You trace Del Norte’s official beginning to 1871, when surveyors used a mariner’s compass to lay out a town site, and on December 14, 1872, twenty-two incorporators filed papers that let them sell deeds, creating a community that moved from Conejos County into the brand-new Rio Grande County in 1874 before the county line shifted again to its present position in 1876.

Long before those dates, Clovis and Folsom peoples left arrowheads and campsites in the valley, and later Utes, Navajos, Kiowas, Arapahoes, and Jicarilla Apaches spent warm seasons here hunting game and gathering plants. Spanish land grants began pressing northward in the 1500s, Mexican land grants reached the San Luis Valley after 1821, and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848 transferred the region to the United States.

Fort Massachusetts rose in 1852, Fort Garland followed in 1858, mountain men trapped furs, and the Homestead Act of 1862 drew families from the eastern United States and Europe. Fourteen New Mexican families recorded a trek north in 1859, and travelers followed Ute trails that historians now call the West Branch of the north branch of the Old Spanish Trail.

Prospectors changed everything in 1870 when they found gold in the Summit District. On September 13, 1873, P. J. Peterson and F. H. Brandt opened the Little Annie Mine, and Del Norte boomed. Homes, businesses, schools, and churches appeared quickly, the San Juan Prospector began printing in 1874, and roads were built to move equipment, goods, and men into Summitville, Creede, Lake City, and other camps, making the town the “Gateway to the San Juans.”

Cultures mingled fast. First People traditions blended with the customs of Primeros Pobladores from New Mexico, and settlers from Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and England formed their own close-knit neighborhoods. The community took its name from the “grand river of the north,” the Rio Grande del Norte.

After the Brunot Treaty of 1873 opened nearby peaks to mining, Del Norte thrived until the 1893 repeal of the Sherman Act slashed silver prices. Miners left, yet ranching and farming kept the town alive, and many of those early families still work the land today. A short-lived movement even proposed a new state called San Juan with Del Norte as its capital.

Through the twentieth century the town saw cycles of boom and bust, and it now blossoms with mountain biking, hiking, climbing, fishing, hunting, paddling, skiing, and plans for a white-water park along the river. Grande Avenue’s preserved facades remind you of gold-rush days, and the 2019 decision to move Rio Grande National Forest headquarters here shows that Del Norte continues to write new chapters while honoring every layer of its past.

Del Norte anchors county-level archives, exhibits, and events at the Rio Grande County Museum, and supports regional music/arts through the Rhythms on the Rio festival along the river.

• Mining Origins & Boom
  Del Norte emerged in the early 1870s as a base for nearby mining operations, especially the Little Annie Mine discovered by Brandt. By 1874, it had grown into a bustling support town for miners in the San Juan mining districts.
• Multicultural Roots
  The town became a cultural melting pot, benefited by influences from Hispanic settlers, Swedish, Irish, German, Swiss, Austrian, and other immigrant communities.
• Environmental Legacy – Summitville Mine
  Around 25 miles south of Del Norte stood the Summitville Mine, infamous for a major toxic runoff incident in the 1980s. The resulting Superfund cleanup, led by the EPA and costing over $155 million, left a significant environmental mark on nearby waterways.

• J. Searle Dawley (1877-1949)

  A pioneer in early U.S. filmmaking, born in Del Norte and regarded as its most historically prominent native

• Billy LeRoy and Sam Potter (The LeRoy Brothers)

  Brothers known for their stagecoach and train robberies in the late 1800s—nicknamed the "Colorado Highwaymen." Their capture and subsequent lynching in a vigilante action in Del Norte in 1881 remain infamous events in local lore.

  Though not heroes, their story is a vivid—and cautionary—chapter in the town’s law-and-order saga.

• Josephine Silva

  A descendant of early settlers in the Del Norte area (the La Loma de San José community), she shared personal accounts of that era in a 1969 interview later published by the San Luis Valley Historical Society. Her reflections preserve early settler experiences for future generations.

1. Del Norte is named from the river Rio Grande del Norte, or "large river of the north".
2. The astronaut Kent Rominger, attended Del Norte High School. Kent is an American former astronaut, former NASA Chief of the Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center, and a captain in the United States Navy.
3. While Denver ultimately became the capital, Del Norte was among the cities actively vying for the position in the early days of Colorado statehood. In a 1881 vote, Denver won the majority with 66% of the vote