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History · Crestone

Crestone’s post office opened in 1880, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

Most of Crestone was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1989. Its Register listing is the Crestone School. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1982 on, and the census since 1910.

1880first post office
1on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Crestone’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Crestone began

When was Crestone founded?

1880

The Crestone post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Cristonie (1872), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 231 in 19102020 census: 141146 years
Founding year: the first Crestone post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Crestone’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 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost two-thirds of its people between 1910 and 1970, then grew 4-fold.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Crestone’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewGalena1901: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Crestone, census by census

0100200192019401960198020002020231 in 1910Low: 34

Lost two-thirds of its people between 1910 and 1970, then grew 4-fold.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

The story

How Crestone came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Crestone.

Read it all →

The first settlement in the Crestone area occurred after the American Civil War with the granting of the Luis Maria Baca Grant No. 4 in 1860 to the heirs of the original Baca Grant at Las Vegas, New Mexico. Title to the grant at Las Vegas was clouded by a second grant of the same land to the residents of Las Vegas, the Bacas having abandoned their grant after the deaths of the founder to a Mexican soldier in 1827 and of his oldest son at the hands of the Navajo in 1835. The Baca heirs were offered alternative lands from the public lands of the United States. The square tract selected is 12.5 miles (20.1 km) on a side south of Saguache County Road T south of Crestone. The Bacas deeded the land to their attorney, but it soon passed by tax sale to a third party. The ranch headquarters were on Crestone Creek to the southwest of Crestone. The Baca Grant was one of the first large tracts of l…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Crestone, 1872 to 1982

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1872Post officeThe Cristonie post office opens
  3. 1873Post officeThe Cristonie post office closes
  4. 1880BuiltCrestone School is built
  5. 1880Post officeThe Crestone post office opens
  6. 20th century
  7. 1901In the archiveGalena1901
  8. 1910CensusPopulation peaks at 231
  9. 1915In the archiveGalenaScene
  10. 1982On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Crestone, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s–1910s2 items
Galena19011901Galena1901GalenaScene1915GalenaScene
1920s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today3 recent
Houses in Crestone, Colorado (2003)2003Houses in Crestone, Colorado (2003)Hoffman's Old Cabin2003Hoffman's Old CabinFootbridge (1)2003Footbridge (1)
On the map

Crestone on the map, 1982 to 2001

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Crestone. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Crestone on the 1982 USGS mapCrestone on the 2001 USGS map1982Crestone 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 Crestone.

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.

Galena1901
Retake this viewGalena1901, 1901

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Crestone

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
4
each building in a district counts
first listed
1986
Crestone School
Crestone School, built 1880
Buildings
Crestone SchoolBuilt 1880

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Crestone’s post office has been open since 1880. Another post office, Cristonie, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Cristonie
1872–1873
Crestone
1880–today
18701950today

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

Questions about Crestone’s history

What year was Crestone founded?

The Crestone post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Crestone?

One place: the Crestone School (listed 1986).

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 (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.