Montezuma, CO

Montezuma occupies a high pocket of Summit County, above Keystone in the upper Snake River valley and just west of the Continental Divide. At about 10,200 feet, it is one of Colorado’s highest incorporated communities, and the elevation is part of the town’s daily character: the approach is steep, the streets remain largely unpaved, and the surrounding peaks close in quickly. The town’s small size makes every surviving building more noticeable, from old homes to the structures that still mark the former camp.

ATTRUser:McManus42 / CC BY-SA 3.0

Silver brought the first rush in 1865, when prospectors came over the passes from Georgetown after discoveries near Argentine Pass. By 1884, Montezuma had more than a hundred buildings, along with a schoolhouse, church, post office, newspaper, stores, and hotels. Fires in 1949 and 1958 erased some of that built-up center, but they did not remove the basic outline of the place. Montezuma remains a road-end settlement in the mountains, where the Snake River valley, mining history, and high-alpine weather are all impossible to separate from the town itself.