The town of San Luis is the longest continually-inhabited non-indigenous or non-native settlement in Colorado, meaning people have lived there since the town was first settled in 1851. San Luis was part of the New Mexico territory until Colorado became a territory in 1861. The Hispanics who founded the town of San Luis came from New Mexico and spoke Spanish. They moved into the valley to farm and to raise sheep and other animals. 

The Costilla County Courthouse is the oldest county courthouse in Colorado. It was finished in 1883. Costilla County was one of the original 17 counties in Colorado territory. Today, Costilla County has many small towns in it. The county seat, where the courthouse is located, is in the town of San Luis.

Costilla County Courthouse (adobe), San Luis, Colorado.

Photograph, Costilla County Courthouse (adobe)

History Colorado

Settlers dug the People’s Ditch, also known as the Acequia, by hand to bring water from the Culebra River to the fields in San Luis. It is the oldest irrigation ditch in continuous operation in Colorado. Many people in San Luis use the Acequia and are responsible for keeping it clean of weeds and for sharing the water. As with La Vega, this communal way of sharing water is part of San Luis’s Spanish heritage

Settlers dug the People’s Ditch, also known as the Acequia, by hand to bring water from the Culebra River to the fields in San Luis. It is the oldest irrigation ditch in continuous operation in Colorado.

Photograph, San Luis People’s Ditch

Photograph, Irrigating Ditch, San Luis Valley

The R&R Market is Colorado’s oldest business. Dario Gallegos, one of the first settlers in San Luis, opened the business in 1857. His great-great-grandson Felix Romero now owns the store.

The oldest mercantile store in the state of Colorado in the town of San Luis. Known as "Salazar's", the store was founded ca. 1857 by Dario Gallegos; in 1874, A. A. Salazar bought an interest in the store, which continued in operation by members of the Salazar family into the 20th century.

SER.2553.938 R-R Market.png

R&R Market

San Luis was part of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant, originally owned by Carlos Beaubien. Beaubien was also one of the original grantees of the Maxwell Grant. The purpose of the land grants was to encourage Mexican citizens to settle and develop the area and secure the land from U.S. encroachment. The land grants never worked out the way they were intended because the land became part of the United States when the Mexican-American War ended. The United States was supposed to honor the land grants under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Map of Mexican Land Grants in Colorado, from "Private Land Claims in Colorado*" address by Ralph Carr before the Annual Meeting of the State Historical Society, December 10, 1947 - published in Colorado Magazine.

Discusses the 15,000 square miles of southern Colorado which was subject to the Mexican land grant system. Includes individual discussions of each land grant.

Colorado Magazine Vol. 25, no. 1 (pp. 10-30)
https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2018/ColoradoMagazine_v25n1_January1948.pdf

Map from Article, Mexican Land Grants in Colorado

Religion was very important to Hispano settlers in the San Luis Valley, but most communities had no priests to conduct services. So towns established small, local moradas, or meeting houses, throughout the valley for Hispano, Catholic laymen devoted to the church called penitentes. Moradas were one way that isolated communities preserved language, faith, and customs far from large churches.

Adobe Morada, San Francisco (near San Luis)

Folio Box 10

Description from Antonito community 2023: “La Morada de San Francisco before it was restored. 40 members participated in Lenten practices yearly. This is the second morada. The first one was across the road.”

Photograph, Adobe Morada

The town of San Luis is the longest continually-inhabited non-indigenous or non-native settlement in Colorado, meaning people have lived there since the town was officially settled in 1851, but smaller groups began arriving after 1828. San Luis was part of the New Mexico territory until Colorado became a territory in 1861. The Hispanos who founded the town of San Luis came from New Mexico and spoke Spanish. They moved into the valley to farm and to raise sheep and other animals.<< Click on the map to learn more about San Luis

The Sangre de Cristo Parish was established in 1881 and its church, in the town of San Luis, was finished in 1894. Other churches in the parish are found in the nearby towns of Fort Garland, Garcia, Chama, San Acacio, San Francisco, Blanca, and San Pablo.

The word “colcha” means “quilt” in Spanish.  Colcha making is an art that dates back hundreds of years.  Hispano families in the San Luis Valley have been practicing this form of traditional weaving for centuries.  The artist who made this colcha painstakingly hand embroidered a patchwork map of important places in Southern Colorado’s San Luis Valley. 

Hispanic weaving. This colcha has been hand-embroidered into a patchwork map of southern Colorado's San Luis Valley. Houses, churches, roads, pastures, mountains, and other landscape features and names are embroidered onto a square frame.

Colcha of The San Luis Valley

Colcha, The San Luis Valley

The first settlers of San Luis made many of their homes out of adobe bricks. Adobe is made of mud and straw mixed in just the right combination and dried in the sun until hard. Adobe was a great building material for the area because there were so few trees around to provide wood.

Horno, near San Luis, Colorado.

An horno, which means “oven” in Spanish, is a beehive-shaped outdoor oven made of adobe. They are popular in areas once controlled by Spain and then Mexico.

Photograph, Horno

San Luis has many elements of a Spanish town, including La Vega, the Spanish word for “field.” La Vega is a big piece of land outside of town where all the town’s residents can let their animals graze. It was originally about 633 acres. Instead of each farmer having a designated pasture, La Vega is owned and shared by all.

The Sierras y Colores mural by Carlos Sandoval describes the history of the San Luis Valley.  A woman in the center holds a basket of fruits and vegetables, referencing the fertile valley.  The artist describes both the conflict and convergence of cultures in southern Colorado, while acknowledging the indigenous peoples living in the valley.

Catholicism was very important to the people who settled San Luis. The town has many religious sites, including the Stations of the Cross Shrine. The shrine is formally known as la Mesa de la Piedad y de la Misericordia (“Hill of Piety and Mercy”) and is a small adobe church high on the hill in town. The Stations of the Cross is a series of bronze sculptures, each depicting a moment during the crucifixion of Christ.

Standards for Colorado's Oldest Town: San Luis

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework