US Forest Service

About forestry service, 84534, Montezuma Creek, UT, US, Colorado

Dolores is a Statutory Town located in Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 885 at the 2020 United States census. == Description == Dolores (Spanish for "sorrows" and named for the river on which it is located) is located at the mouth of the Dolores Valley and the upper reaches of McPhee Reservoir, approximately 40 miles (64 km) from the Four Corners Monument. Established as a station on the Rio Grande Southern Railroad, it replaced the earlier town, Big Bend, now covered by McPhee Reservoir. McPhee Reservoir is named for a company town founded by New Mexico Lumber Company, that is now covered by the reservoir. == History == The following are Dolores area historic sites of the Ancient Pueblo People: The Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center and Museum, and the on-site Domniguez and Escalante Pueblos are listed on the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties and the National Register of Historic Places listings in Montezuma County, Colorado. Canyons of the Ancients National Monument O'Brien Site, an Ancient Pueblo settlement of 11 pueblos occupied between AD 1075 - 1150. Other historic sites added to the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties and National Register of Historic Places include: Lebanon School, also known as the Lebanon Schoolhouse Southern Hotel, also known as Benny's Hogan and the Rio Grande Southern Hotel == Geography == At the 2020 United States census, the town had a total area of 425 acres (1.721 km2), all of it land. The town is confined to a narrow valley bottom along the Dolores River near the point where the river turns from flowing southward out of the San Juan Mountains to the north. Built-up areas outside the town limits include extensive residential, commercial, and minor-industrial areas upstream in the valley floor, on Summit Ridge to the south-southwest, and on high ground to the west, at the intersections of Colorado Highways 145 and 184.