Manassa, CO

Manassa is an eastern San Luis Valley town with a strong northern New Mexico and Mormon settlement story. Families moving north from New Mexico shaped the mid-19th-century community, and farming and ranching still set the scale. Manassa students attend North Conejos schools, with the elementary school in town and older grades based near La Jara. The local map points outward to the rest of the valley, but the town has a clear identity of its own. That balance matters more here than a postcard version of the valley.

ATTRJeffrey Beall / CC BY 4.0

Then there’s Jack Dempsey, the Manassa Mauler, who was born here and became world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. The Jack Dempsey Museum occupies his birth cabin, and Pioneer Days brings the town’s history back onto Main Street each summer with a parade and community events. Manassa sits near the Great Sand Dunes and the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, but the best way to read it is still as a working valley town with one very famous son.