Story of the Land

Photograph of Mount Sopris, taken in the late 1800s

Mount Sopris, the sentry that keeps watch as we travel between campuses, is named after Richard Sopris, a Captain of the 1st Regiment of Colorado. Sopris, also a one time mayor of Denver, led a group of 14 gold explorers on an unsuccessful expedition to our area in 1860. The explorers, awed by the 12,965 foot mountain, named it Sopris Peak after their expedition leader. Although they left the Roaring Fork Valley with no gold in their satchels, Sopris and his expedition did gather information that was used to create the first map of Colorado.

The Ute called the mountain Wemagooah Kazuhchich, which is translated as “ancient mountain heart sits there.”

Zoom in on the bottom right quadrant after you click the link to view a high resolution map created by the Ferdinand V. Hayden led US Geological Survey of Mt. Sopris and the Roaring Fork Valley published in 1877.