Cortez doesnt carry the title of Colorados oldest surviving community, but it isnt too far behind.
San Luis, Colo. southeast of Alamosa, is the oldest. Hispanic settlers founded San Luis in 1851, several years after the Mexican-American War and a decade before Congress formed the territory of Colorado.
Although the founding dates for some Colorado communities appear fairly clearly defined, others are debatable, said Bill Convery, state historian with History Colorado, a state historical society. Historians dont have a standard for defining when a community is founded.
I dont think theres a legal standard, he said. It usually is when the town is incorporated.
However, basing a communitys founding on the date it was incorporated as a governing body doesnt always work, Convery said. For example, some local governments continue to operate under state guidelines for town government instead of incorporating their own governing document.
Denver was formed Nov. 23, 1858, Convery said. Although it started as a town, the community was called Denver City.
In the case of Denver, they date (the founding) in terms of the Denver City Town Co.,
basically the stockholders that came together to form
the town of Denver City, Convery said. They werent officially incorporated (as Denver City) until three or four years later, but they got their founding (date) from that company.
Denvers founders had to compete with other communities like Golden to become the financial and political center of Colorados gold rush, so marking an early founding date helped Denver at the time, Convery said.
Even the capital citys founding date is debatable, Convery added.
In Denvers case, there was a sliding scale of dates they could have used, he said.
Many historians use the opening of a post office as a date for a communitys founding, Convery said.
Thats a more informal way of doing it, he said.
Cortezs post office opened in 1887, according to research by Jim Davenport published in Volume 2 of Great Sage Plain to Timberline: Our Pioneer History, a book about Montezuma Countys past.
Other people tie a communitys founding to the date its streets and blocks were platted, Convery said.
Cortez was platted in 1886.
Different communities may depend on different types of people, such as a historian or a government official, to define when the community was founded, Convery said.
Theres no set standard, he said.
Reach Russell Smyth at russells@cortezjournal.com or 564-6030.