This year, Monte Vista marks 140 years since it was incorporated under the name it carries today.

But the town's story doesn't begin with a founder or a grand plan. According to the Monte Vista Historical Society, Monte Vista is unusual in that it can claim neither a single name nor a single founder.

It began with a water tank.

A Siding Called Lariat

In 1881, the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad put in a siding near what is now Fullenwider Park. It had a switch, a water tank and a section house, and it served early farm families from Swede Lane and Rock Creek.

The railroad called the spot Lariat.

Around the same time, a young widow named Lillian L. Taylor arrived with her two children and a supply of goods to sell. After she married Charles Fassett in 1882, she opened a small general store just south of the water tank.

The L.L. Fassett store did a little of everything. It was a home, a mercantile, the post office and even the town's first library.

Homesteaders followed. Henry Taylor filed on 160 acres at the townsite in 1882, and Hiram H. Marsh homesteaded the ground known today as Marsh Park.

The Town Called Henry

Then came Theodore C. Henry, a land and canal promoter who saw opportunity in the Valley's open ground and the water that could be brought to it.

In 1884 the townsite was bought for the Henry Town & Land Company, platted and named Henry after the promoter. Building started right away. Every town deed carried a no-liquor clause.

It didn't last. Henry had borrowed more than he could repay, and he left town — and his debts — behind.

An Insurance Company Steps In

In July 1885, the Travelers' Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, took over Henry's interests. The company invested heavily in land and buildings and asked local leaders to give the town a new name.

They chose one that anybody standing on Main Street could understand. Monte Vista is Spanish for “mountain view,” a nod to the San Juans to the west and the Sangre de Cristos to the east.

The townsite was replatted, and in 1886 Monte Vista was incorporated.

Built to Last

Once the town felt permanent, people wanted buildings that looked permanent too.

Much of downtown was built from a local volcanic stone quarried between Monte Vista and Del Norte. It's soft and pale when it comes out of the ground and weathers to a hard gray — less likely to burn than wood and a lot more durable. The stonemasons Campbell and Edwards settled in town in the late 1880s and built many of those structures.

Today that stone is a big part of why downtown Monte Vista is a designated historic district.

Peas, Pigs, Potatoes and Prosperity

The town grew on water and farming. When the Monte Vista Journal printed its first issue on Dec. 16, 1888, its slogan summed up the local economy: “Peas, Pigs, Potatoes and Prosperity.”

In 1892, Monte Vista landed the State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, today's State Veterans Community Living Center — one of the town's proudest early achievements.

In 1919 came the Ski-Hi Stampede, now the oldest pro rodeo in Colorado. Decades later, the spring return of the sandhill cranes gave the town another claim to fame with the Monte Vista Crane Festival.

140 Years On

Monte Vista is still the largest town in Rio Grande County, home to about 4,200 people as of the 2020 census.

A lot has changed since the days of the water tank and the Fassett store. But the things that built the town — the railroad, the water, the farms and people willing to start over — are still easy to see.

It started as a siding called Lariat. It was briefly a town called Henry.

For 140 years now, it's been Monte Vista. Happy birthday.