The City of Trinidad

The City of Trinidad
     Trinidad is a small town with a population of some10 000 people.  It is located at an elevation of about 6000 feet in the Purgatoire River Valley about 200 miles south of Denver and some 20 miles north of New Mexico.  It is located on the Santa Fe Trail and was a rest stop for the wagons before they crossed the Raton Pass into New Mexico.  To the west are the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and to the east are the high plains where Clint Eastwood might have drifted.  It is the county seat of Las Animas County, the largest in Colorado.
     It is a picturesque town with old buildings, Victorian mansions, adobe houses, and brick paved streets.  It is a friendly town; if you ask someone a question be prepared for a conversation.  It is a town where people know each other and might be related to them.  A wide variety of cultures are represented.
    Trinidad has a Welcome Center for visitors.  The people who staff the center have been most helpful in getting us oriented while and after we moved here.  There are museums -- the Baca House, the A. R. Mitchell museum containing western paintings and artifacts, the Trinidad History museum, the Landon-Henritze Archeology Museum at Trinidad State Junior College and the Childrens' Museum at Old Firehouse #1.  The Highway of Legends is a drive that takes you past Lake Trinidad, through several coal mining towns, past geological oddities, over Chucera Pass to La Veta and into Walsenberg.
     Trinidad has a golf course, a skate park and aquatic center, movie theaters, restaurants, art galleries and shops.  A river walk runs along the Purgatoire River and there are a number of fine parks.  The Trinidad Triggers baseball team has their home field here.  Surrounding are a number of small communities that have much to offer.  I will try to expand on all of this as I write this blog.
     Names are interesting.  I have discovered that Trinidad refers to the Trinity.  Las Animas is Spanish for the souls.  The full name of the river is Rio de las Animas Perdidas en Purgatoire (Lost Souls in Purgatory River).  The story is that Spanish explorers reached the river and were killed somehow.  Since no priest was accompanying them, they could not be given last rites and would probably have to spend time in Purgatory.  And the mountains that sometimes glow read at sunrise are called the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (Blood of Christ Mountains).