Historic Commercial Street, Trinidad, Colorado USA

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I awoke up to a knock on my hotel door by the room attendant cuz I was thirty minutes late on my 11 AM checkout. I called the hotel office and informed that I could check out in a hour. They nicely did not charge me extra for my late checkout.

I had places to see in Trinidad before I drove to my first back-country camp. I started on Commercial Street in the center of downtown Trinidad. (My last visit in Trinidad in 2017, Commercial Street was closed due to construction improving the street.) Many of the old buildings in Trinidad date back to the late 1800s. I had a nice slow drive on Commercial Street and made stops to shoot the neat old buildings.

Note: The last four pics that are West of Interstate Hwy 25 are on Arizona Ave on the way to Kit Carson (Trinidad City) Park.

According to Wikipedia, Trinidad was first explored by Spanish and Mexican traders on the Santa Fe Trail. Trinidad was founded in 1862 after coal was discovered in the area...bring many new people to the area. In 1876 Trinidad was officially incorporated, just before Colorado became an US state. In 1878 the railroad made it to Trinidad. In 1882 Bat Masterson served as the Trinidad marshal. Coal mining brought prosperity to the Trinidad area and by 1900 they had two English-language newspapers and one Spanish-language newspaper. Unfortunately the unregulated coal mining near Trinidad had its disasters. In 1902 the Bowen Town coal mine had an explosion that killed thirteen miners. That led up to the 1913-1914 coal mining strike of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company. In 1914 the strike was ended by strike-busters that murdered many workers and their families, in Ludlow just North of Trinidad.

Today Trinidad is a nice historic city with good people.

Completed

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Photos

old church
Arizona Ave.

grocer
Arizona Ave

garage
Arizona Ave.

business
Arizona Ave.