Mancos Town History

El Rio Mancos was named by Spanish explorers in the eighteenth century. Mancos means "Crippled One" and local legend has it that a member of an exploration party suffered an injury here, thus the name El Rio Mancos. Dominating the Mancos Valley on the west is the sheer face of Mesa Verde, meaning "Green Table". The spectacular cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park are on Mesa Verde.
The ancient Indian trail through the Mancos Valley and skirting Mesa Verde was the route followed by the earliest Spaniards and eventually became the Spanish Trail leading west from Santa Fe and veering north through Ute Territory to avoid the Navajos south of the San Juan River. Though Spain lost the San Juan Country to Mexico in 1821 and Mexico ceded it to the United States in 1848, the Spanish placenames are a reminder of the centuries-old Hispanic influence on the region. That influence, and the contribution of Hispanics, continues today.

The first modern settlers arrived that year, 1874, not to become ranchers but to prospect for gold in the nearby La Plata Mountains. By the end of the year, several prospectors had recognized that the rolling grasslands and magnificent groves of pines were a likelier source of profit than were the Silver Mountains. Each year more ranching and farming families came into the verdant valley.

The townsite of Mancos was laid out in 1881 and a post office was established there that year. Just south of Mancos the community of Webber was established in 1882 by members of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon). The Mormon families came into the Mancos Valley from Bluff in southeastern Utah and spread out from Webber to settle more of the Mancos and La Plata valleys. The descendants of those first Mormon pioneers continue to live on the family farms established in the 1880s.

A Quaker family, the Wetherills, arrived in the valley in 1881 and settled the Alamo Ranch on the Mancos River a few miles below Mancos. The Wetherill brothers grazed their cattle on top of Mesa Verde, then a part of Ute Reservation. Acting on instructions from the Utes, the Wetherill brothers "discovered" the spectacular cliff dwellings on Mesa Verde in 1888. The Wetherills became outfitters for the growing numbers of visitors wanting to see the ruins and went on to become famous in the annals of Southwestern archaeology.

Development of the Mancos Valley was slow until the arrival there of the Rio Grande Southern in 1891. From Mancos, the route of the Rio Grande Southern turned northwest toward the town of Dolores. The coming of the railroad brought an air of permanence and stability to the ten-year-old town. Mancos was the nearest rail stop to Mesa Verde and soon took on the title of "Gateway to Mesa Verde" to the Mesa Verde bound visitors who arrived there by train each year.

In 1951, sixty years after the Rio Grande Southern reached Mancos, the beleagured rail company went out of business. Declining mining production in the mountains along with modern highways and truck transport, were too much competition for a railroad that had struggled since the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchasing Act in 1893. By the end of 1951, railroad salvage crews had hauled away the last iron rails and today few visible traces remain of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad.

-Text and Photos, Courtesy of A Historical Touring Guide to the San Juan Skyway