Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1875.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Deer Trail’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Deer Trail is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Deer Trail’s overall grade.
Few Colorado towns list much on the Register (a typical Colorado town has 1.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Deer Trail’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (22% of Colorado towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.6 points). Two sources give 1870.
Founding year: Wikipedia (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Deer Trail’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Deer Trail was founded when the Kansas Pacific Railway built a station in what is now Deer Trail in 1870. The town was platted by the railway in 1875 and soon became a shipping point for grain, livestock, and eggs. The Deer Trail, Colorado, post office opened on June 3, 1875. The Town of Deer Trail was incorporated on February 3, 1920. By the late 1920s Deer Trail grew into a town larger than it is today with two banks, five grocery stores, and three hotels. The Great Depression of the 1930s took a major toll on the town's economy, and a further blow took place in June 1965 when a devastating flood destroyed or severely damaged the businesses along main street. Many of these buildings were never rebuilt. The site of Deer Trail hosted the first rodeo exhibition on July 4, 1869.
Passages that mention Deer Trail, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of the city of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado1880Read the page →
Read the text
On the Kansas Pacific road, there are several small stations in Arapahoe County, all of which as yet are merely headquarters for stock men. Of these. Deer Trail is the most important, being a considerable shipping-point for cattle, and provided with extensive stock yards built by the Company. Deer Trail is fifty-seven miles east of Denver, and is in the center of an extensive
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Deer Trail, 1870 to 2020
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Deer Trail. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1968Deer Trail 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 Deer Trail.
Questions about Deer Trail’s history
What year was Deer Trail founded?
In 1870, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Deer Trail’s post office opened in 1875, and the census of 1930 counted 390 people here.
How does Deer Trail rank for history?
Deer Trail is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Deer Trail?
14% of Deer Trail’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.6 points), against a typical 2.5% for a Colorado town; the median home was built in 2011.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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