Cotopaxi, CO

Cotopaxi is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place located in and governed by Fremont County, Colorado, United States. The 2020 census counted 44 residents. The CDP is a part of the Cañon City, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area. The Cotopaxi, Colorado, post office opened on May 25, 1880. Today, Cotopaxi has a few small businesses, the most notable of which is the Cotopaxi General Store. This general store was opened in the early 1920s and has since been connected to a Sinclair gas station.

ATTRDaniel Turner / CC BY-SA 3.0

A newcomer can read Cotopaxi through the overlap of its older landmarks, surrounding geography, and current places. For a newcomer, Cotopaxi comes into focus through those concrete links among its past, landscape, and current routines. Cotopaxi is also known for its early failed colony of approximately 63 Russian-Jewish immigrants who first settled there in early 1882. Cotopaxi is lies on both sides of the Arkansas River, 33 miles west of Cañon City, the county seat, and 25 miles southeast of Salida.