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Valdez, ColoradoPhoto: Jeffrey Beall · CC BY 4.0
–Not graded
History · Valdez

100% of Valdez’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1891 on.

0on the National Register
100%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Jeffrey Beall · CC BY 4.0

What stands out about Valdez’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Valdez are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 18913 editions of the USGS map, 1891 to 1982. Watch Valdez change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Valdez’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the map

Valdez on the map, 1891 to 1982

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

Valdez on the 1891 USGS mapValdez on the 1900 USGS mapValdez on the 1982 USGS map1891Trinidad sheet · 1:125,000

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

The story

How Valdez came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Valdez.

Read it all →

Colorado Fuel & Iron, under the guidance of first John D. Rockefeller and then his son John D. Rockefeller Jr., greatly expanded in the southern Colorado coalfields in the decade following their 1903 investment in the company. Among these expansions was the construction of the Valdez mine in 1907. Soon after its creation, the mine was renamed to "Frederick" and rapidly expanded, producing bituminous coal sent to the coking ovens at Segundo. Frederick coal was also, from 1918 onwards, shipped towards the CF&I Minnequa steel mill along the Colorado and Wyoming Railway, part of the company's vertical integration strategy. During this early period, Apache Indians reportedly frequented the town and surrounding area.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Valdez, 1882 to 1917

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1882Post officeThe Madrid post office opens
  3. 1891On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 20th century
  5. 1917Post officeThe Madrid post office closes
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
Famous people

Famous people close to Valdez

Nobody well known was born in Valdez itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Paul L. ModrichAmerican biochemist · b. 1946
Snatam KaurAmerican singer-songwriter · b. 1972
Erskine SanfordAmerican actor · b. 1885
E
Erick HawkinsAmerican dancer and choreographer · b. 1909
Petro VlahosAmerican cinema pioneer · b. 1916
John Edgar ChenowethAmerican politician · b. 1897
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and places now gone

Another post office, Madrid, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hamlets and corners on the map
MadridTijeras
Gone or out of use
Madrid Plaza Minemine

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

SegundoIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Valdez’s history

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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.