Dolores, CO

Dolores is a Montezuma County statutory town at the mouth of the Dolores Valley, where the Dolores River reaches the upper end of McPhee Reservoir. A post office opened in 1878, the town incorporated in 1900, and the Rio Grande Southern Railroad made Dolores a transportation stop before the reservoir covered the earlier company town of Big Bend. The Dolores Project later changed the regional water map through McPhee Dam and irrigation works, while the Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center and Museum keeps nearby Ancestral Puebloan history close at hand. Dolores is a Colorado river town shaped by rail, reservoir, irrigation, and deep valley history.