126 articles
Denver
Denver, the capital and largest city of Colorado, the Mile High City, founded November 22, 1858 as a gold-rush town at Cherry Creek and the South Platte River and named for Kansas territorial governor James W. Denver.
Durango, Colorado
Durango, Colorado: county seat of La Plata County in the Animas River valley near Four Corners, founded 1880 by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, home to the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and a tourism-driven economy.
Elko, Nevada
Elko, Nevada: county seat of Elko County, founded 1868 on the Central Pacific Railroad, population 20,564 (2020). Gold-mining hub near the Ruby Mountains, home of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and National Basque Festival.
Ely, Nevada
Ely, Nevada: White Pine County seat at 6,200 ft in the Great Basin, a former copper-mining hub served by the Nevada Northern Railway (1905-1983) and now the gateway to Great Basin National Park on U.S. 50, the Loneliest Road.
Estes Park, Colorado
Estes Park is a Larimer County, Colorado town of about 5,800 residents and the eastern gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, named for settler Joel Estes, home of the 1909 Stanley Hotel, and a tourism-driven economy.
Fairplay, Colorado
Fairplay, Colorado: Park County seat in the South Park basin at 9,964 ft, founded by 1859 gold prospectors, briefly named South Park City (1869-1874), home of the South Park City Museum and Burro Days.
Farmington, New Mexico
Farmington, New Mexico: largest city of the Four Corners region, at the La Plata, Animas, and San Juan river confluence (Totah). Founded 1876, incorporated 1901; oil and gas hub now diversifying; population about 46,000.
Flagstaff, Arizona
Flagstaff, Arizona: county seat of Coconino County, a mountain city at about 7,000 feet near the San Francisco Peaks, founded from an 1876 flag-raising, a railroad hub from 1882, home of Northern Arizona University and Lowell Observatory, and a Route 66 city.
Florence, Colorado
Florence, Colorado: small statutory city in Fremont County's Arkansas River Valley, elevation 5,180 ft, population about 3,885. Founded 1862; early Colorado oil field; Antique Capital of Colorado with 100+ shops near the Royal Gorge.
Fort Collins, Colorado
Fort Collins, Colorado: home rule city and Larimer County seat at the Rocky Mountain foothills on the Cache la Poudre River; founded as Camp Collins in 1864, incorporated 1873, home of Colorado State University, population about 171,500.
Gallup, New Mexico
Gallup, New Mexico (Na'nízhoozhí, 'The Bridge'), county seat of McKinley County: founded 1881 as an Atlantic and Pacific Railroad railhead, Route 66 town, Native American art hub, 2020 population 21,899, Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project.
Gilbert, Arizona
Gilbert is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, incorporated July 6, 1920 and named for landowner William "Bobby" Gilbert. Once the Hay Capital of the World, it grew from 1,971 residents in 1970 to about 287,000 by 2025.
Gillette, Wyoming
Gillette, Wyoming: county seat of Campbell County, population about 33,400 (2020), founded 1891 as a Burlington Railroad terminus and named for surveyor Edward Gillette; an energy boom town known for the Gillette syndrome and the Wyodak coal mine.
Glendale, Arizona
Glendale, Arizona: West Valley city in metropolitan Phoenix, incorporated 1910, population about 250,000. Home of State Farm Stadium (Arizona Cardinals, three Super Bowls), Westgate Entertainment District, and the delayed $1.2 billion VAI Resort and Mattel Adventure Park.
Glenwood Springs, Colorado
Glenwood Springs, Colorado: Garfield County seat at the Colorado-Roaring Fork river confluence, elevation about 5,800 feet, population 10,395 (2025 est.), famed for its hot springs pool, Hotel Colorado, and Doc Holliday.
Golden, Colorado
Golden, Colorado: Jefferson County city founded 1859 as a gold-rush supply town, Colorado Territory capital 1862-1867, home of Colorado School of Mines and Coors Brewery, population about 20,467.
Grand Junction, Colorado
Grand Junction is the largest city on Colorado's Western Slope, sitting where the Colorado and Gunnison rivers meet. Founded in 1881, it had 65,560 residents in 2020.
Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls, Montana: third-largest Montana city and Cascade County seat on the Missouri River, founded 1884 by Paris Gibson, nicknamed the Electric City for its five hydroelectric dams, home to Malmstrom AFB.
Greeley, Colorado
Greeley, Colorado: Weld County seat founded in 1870 as the Union Colony, a temperance utopian agricultural community by Nathan Meeker and named for Horace Greeley; population about 115,000, home to the University of Northern Colorado and JBS meatpacking.
Gunnison, Colorado
Gunnison, Colorado: county seat of Gunnison County on the Western Slope, population 6,560 (2020), home of Western Colorado University (founded 1901), known as the icebox of Colorado and gateway to Crested Butte and Blue Mesa Reservoir.
Helena, Montana
Helena is the capital city of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. Founded as a gold-mining camp in 1864, it had 32,091 residents in 2020.
Henderson, Nevada
Henderson, Nevada: second-largest city in Nevada, in Clark County southeast of Las Vegas. Founded around the WWII Basic Magnesium Plant, incorporated April 16, 1953; population 369,167 (2025).
History of Las Vegas
The history of Las Vegas, Nevada spans its 1905 railroad land auction, the 1931 legalization of gambling, and growth from a water stop into a resort city.
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Idaho Falls, Idaho: largest city of eastern Idaho on the Snake River, seat of the Idaho National Laboratory; near EBR-I, first reactor to generate electricity (1951); 2025 estimate 71,785.
Jackson, Wyoming
Jackson, Wyoming: the only incorporated town in Teton County, at the southern end of Jackson Hole valley near Grand Teton and Yellowstone parks. Incorporated 1914; population about 10,700; tourism-driven economy with extreme housing costs.
Jerome, Arizona
Jerome, Arizona: historic copper-mining town on Cleopatra Hill in Yavapai County, incorporated 1899, once home to nearly 15,000, a National Historic Landmark since 1967, now an artist and tourist community of about 444 people.
Kalispell, Montana
Kalispell, Montana: county seat of Flathead County and largest city in northwest Montana, founded 1891 as a Great Northern Railway division point, incorporated 1892, gateway to Glacier National Park, population 31,851 (2025 estimate).
Ketchum, Idaho
Ketchum, Idaho: Wood River Valley city next to Sun Valley Resort, founded 1880 as a mining supply town named for David Ketchum; now a resort economy with Idaho's highest home prices and a severe workforce housing shortage.
Kingman, Arizona
Kingman, Arizona: county seat of Mohave County, founded 1882 as an Atlantic and Pacific Railroad stop, incorporated 1952. Population 32,689 (2020); located on I-40, US 93, and Route 66 at 3,449 feet.
Lake Havasu City, Arizona
Lake Havasu City, Arizona: Mohave County city (pop. ~59,000) on Lake Havasu, founded by Robert P. McCulloch, home of the relocated 1831 London Bridge; tourism-driven desert river city with Colorado River water entitlements.