Naturita, CO

Naturita had 485 residents in 2020, in the San Miguel River valley of southwest Montrose County. The post office opened on October 21, 1881, under the name Chipeta; less than a year later, on September 15, 1882, it took the name Naturita, a Spanish-derived word associated with “little nature.” Colorado 97 and 141 meet the town’s high-desert setting, with the San Miguel flowing northwest toward the Dolores River.

ATTRJeffrey Beall / CC BY 4.0

Mining is written into Naturita’s modern landscape, especially the uranium and vanadium work that shaped the surrounding communities. A former processing site sits about three miles northwest of town between Highway 141 and the San Miguel, and the area’s industrial history now sits alongside river valleys, mesas, and open country used for hiking, boating, and other outdoor trips. Naturita also belongs to Colorado’s dark-sky movement, so the night landscape matters here as much as the daylight one. The result is a town where a short main-street drive can lead quickly into geology, river country, and the traces of an older mining economy.