Yampa, CO

Yampa is a Routt County statutory town of 399 residents in the 2020 census, set along Colorado State Highway 131 about 30 miles south of Steamboat Springs. Homesteaders arrived along the stagecoach route in the 1880s, the town incorporated in 1906, and the railroad reached it in 1908, opening access to coal fields across the Yampa Valley. The town's proximity to the Flat Tops gives it the well-earned role of gateway to that wilderness landscape. The valley remains close at every turn of town.

ATTRJeffrey Beall / CC BY-SA 3.0

South Routt School District places its elementary and preschool campuses in the heart of Yampa, while secondary students attend school on the hill above Oak Creek. Historic buildings include Crossan's Market, the Van Camp Stage Stop, Yampa Bible Church, Yampa-Egeria Museum, and Yampa Ladies Aid Hall. Outdoor services, mining and agricultural contractors, lodging, and tourism now share the town's economy. Yampa still carries its rail-and-coal past through a small mountain town built for the valley around it.