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History · Boone

Boone’s post office opened in 1891, and 29% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Boone Santa Fe Railroad Depot. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1960 on, and the census since 1960.

1891first post office
1on the National Register
29%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Boone’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Boone began

When was Boone founded?

1891

The Boone post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Booneville (1863), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 548 in 19602020 census: 305135 years
Founding year: the first Boone post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Boone’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Boone’s homes were built before 1954.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Boone’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Boone’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewNepesta Bridge, Spanning Arkansas River…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Boone came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Boone.

Read it all →

Boone was founded as Booneville during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush by Albert Gallatin Boone, a grandson of Daniel Boone. The Booneville, Colorado Territory, post office opened on January 2, 1863. Boone was the first postmaster and for a brief time Indian agent to the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Colorado became a state on August 1, 1876. The name of the Booneville post office was shortened to Boone on December 5, 1891, and the Town of Boone was incorporated on September 22, 1956.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Boone, 1863 to 1960

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1863Post officeThe Booneville post office opens
  3. 1891Post officeThe Booneville post office closes
  4. 1891Post officeThe Boone post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1912Born hereJames Gilhula is born here
  7. 1960On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Boone, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Nepesta Bridge, Spanning Arkansas River on County Road 613Date?Nepesta Bridge, Spanning Arkansas River on County Roa…
Today5 recent
Public Meeting at Boone Community Center2019Public Meeting at Boone Community CenterAn eclectic house in tiny Boone, a little railroad settlement with an even smaller Main Street in Pueblo County, Colora…2015An eclectic house in tiny Boone, a little railroad se…Weathered and damaged old barn in rural Pueblo County, Colorado, near the little railroad settlement of2015Weathered and damaged old barn in rural Pueblo County…An eclectic house in tiny Boone, a little railroad settlement with an even smaller Main Street in Pueblo County, Colora…2015An eclectic house in tiny Boone, a little railroad se…COMap-doton-Boone2005COMap-doton-Boone
On the map

Boone on the map in 1960

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Boone.

Boone on the 1960 USGS map1960Avondale sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Boone.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Nepesta Bridge, Spanning Arkansas River on County Road 613
Retake this viewNepesta Bridge, Spanning Arkansas River on County Road 613

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Boone’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Boone

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1997
Boone Santa Fe Railroad Depot
Boone Santa Fe Railroad Depot
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Combination depot1
Boone Santa Fe Railroad DepotCombination depot

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Boone, census by census

01002003004005006001960198020002020Peak: 548

Between 305 and 548 people in every census since 1960.

7 censuses, 1960–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Boone’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Boone’s post office has been open since 1891. Another post office, Booneville, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Booneville
1863–1891
Boone
1891–today
18601940today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Boone’s history

What year was Boone founded?

The Boone post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Boone?

One place: the Boone Santa Fe Railroad Depot (listed 1997).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (4), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.