Montezuma County, Colorado

3 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7 AT A GLANCE MONTEZUMA COUNTY, COLORADO WHAT: A county of 27,000 WHERE: Located along the borders of Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona WEBSITE: www.montezumacounty.org Montezuma County, COLORADO M ontezuma County, Colorado not only embraces an extraordinarily long and rich history, but its future is also looking bright. “I keep meeting with people and the common thread that I’m hearing is that we are definitely at this precipice to start developing and doing some really great things here,” says Montezuma County Economic Development Coordinator, Jessica Thurman. “We are definitely going to start showing the fruits of our labor in the next five years.” Located in the southwestern corner of Colorado, Montezuma County was first settled in approximately 600 AD. The area was occupied by the Ancestral Puebloans, who left behind many sandstone dwellings. Ruins of these ceremonial structures remain today, the most famous being the Cliff Palace, located in Montezuma County’s famous Mesa Verde National Park. Between the Ancestral Puebloans and 19th century the area was occupied by the Ute Tribes. The Ancestral Puebloans were agrarian. The Ute were hunter/ gatherers. The area was resettled in the late 19th century as a prominent area for ranching and mining. CELEBRATING HISTORY AND PROGRESS