Gunnison, Colorado
Encyclopedia
The historic City of Gunnison, a Home Rule Municipality, is the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

 and the most populous city of Gunnison County
Gunnison County, Colorado
Gunnison County is the fifth most extensive of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado in the United States. The county population was 15,324 at the 2010 census. The county was named for John W. Gunnison, a United States Army officer and captain in the Army Topographical Engineers, who surveyed...

, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

 of 5,854. It was named in honor of John W. Gunnison
John W. Gunnison
John Williams Gunnison was an American military officer and explorer.-Biography:Gunnison was born in Goshen, New Hampshire in 1812. He graduated from West Point in 1837, second in his class of fifty cadets. His military career began in Florida, where he spent a year in the campaign against the...

, a United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 officer who surveyed for the transcontinental railroad in 1853.

Gunnison is the home of Western State College of Colorado
Western State College of Colorado
Western State College of Colorado is a four-year public liberal arts college located in Gunnison, Colorado. The enrollment stands at about 2400 students with a high percentage, one-fourth, from out of state. The far flung appeal for some students is found in the idyllic mountains and ski slopes...

. The Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport
Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport
Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport , also known as Gunnison County Airport, is a public airport located at the southern edge of Gunnison, Colorado...

 serves the valley and nearby Crested Butte
Crested Butte, Colorado
Crested Butte is a Home Rule Municipality in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. A former coal mining town now called "the last great Colorado ski town," Crested Butte is a destination for skiing, mountain biking, and a variety of other outdoor activities...

 with both commercial airline
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...

 and general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

 flights.

Gunnison's newspaper, Gunnison Country Times, is published weekly. There are also various radio stations that serve the area, including KWSB-FM
KWSB-FM
KWSB-FM is college radio station based at Western State College of Colorado in Gunnison. The station has been in continuous operation since January 1968 and recently celebrated its 40th anniversary with alumni and former staff. For a long period throughout the 1970s, it was the only station in the...

 (91.1), which is affiliated with Western State College. KBUT of Crested Butte also simulcasts NPR broadcasts at 89.9 FM.

Climate

Gunnison is located at the bottom of several valleys. Due to its location in the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

, cold air in all the valleys settles into Gunnison at night, making it one of the coldest places in winter in the United States, especially when snowpack is present. The average January low is -8 F, and the average July high is 82 °F (27.8 °C). The record low is -60 F, recorded at Blue Mesa Reservoir
Blue Mesa Reservoir
-External links:* Blue Mesa related information.* Reservoir maps, conditions and fishing reports...

. The record high is 98 °F (36.7 °C), set on August 15, 1931.

The city typically experiences moderate snowfalls, with an average of 50 inches (127 cm) per year. Early fall and late spring snows are not uncommon, and snow can remain on the ground in town from as early as November to as late as April. Surrounding mountains experience very heavy snowfall with longer periods of snow on the ground. Many locations average 300–400 in (762–1,016 cm) of snow annually. The snow is welcome to the area, as it is beneficial to water supplies and local ski resorts. Total liquid precipitation averages nearly 11 inches (27.9 cm) per year in the city of Gunnison, while surrounding mountains may receive anywhere from 15 to over 40 inches (380 to 1,000 mm) annually, depending upon elevation and local topography.

History

After the killing of Curley Bill
William Brocius
William "Curly Bill" Brocius was a gunman, rustler and an outlaw Cowboy in the Cochise County area of Arizona Territory during the early 1880s. He had a number of conflicts with the lawmen of the Earp family, and he was named as one of the individuals who participated Morgan Earp's assassination....

, the Earps
Wyatt Earp's family
The Earp family included a number of lawmen, including patriarch and justice of the peace Nicholas Porter Earp, whose sons James, Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan, and to a lesser extent Warren Earp became legendary figures in American Old West.- Genealogy :...

 left Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

 and headed to Colorado. In a stop over in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...

, Wyatt and Holliday
Doc Holliday
John Henry "Doc" Holliday was an American gambler, gunfighter and dentist of the American Old West, who is usually remembered for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his involvement in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral...

 had a falling out but remained on fairly good terms. The group split up after that with Holliday heading to Pueblo
Pueblo, Colorado
Pueblo is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The population was 106,595 in 2010 census, making it the 246th most populous city in the United States....

 and then Denver. The Earps and Texas Jack
Texas Jack Omohundro
John Baker Omohundro , also known as "Texas Jack," was a frontier scout, actor, and cowboy.He was born at Pleasure Hill, near Palmyra, Virginia, to John B. and Catherine Omohundro. In his early teens, he left home, made his way alone to Texas, and became a cowboy...

 set up camp on the outskirts of Gunnison, where they remained quiet at first, rarely going into town for supplies. Eventually, Wyatt took over a faro
Faro (card game)
Faro, Pharaoh, or Farobank, is a late 17th century French gambling card game descendant of basset, and belongs to the lansquenet and Monte Bank family of games, in that it is played between a banker and several players winning or losing according to the cards turned up matching those already...

 game at a local saloon.

Slowly all of the Earp assets in Tombstone
Tombstone, Arizona
Tombstone is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West. From about 1877 to 1890, the town's mines produced USD $40 to $85 million...

 were sold to pay for taxes, and the stake the family had amassed eroded. Wyatt and Warren joined Virgil in San Francisco in late 1882. While there, Wyatt rekindled a romance with Josie Marcus, Behan's one-time fiancée. His common-law wife Mattie waited for him in Colton but eventually realized Wyatt was not coming back (Wyatt had left Mattie the house when he left Tombstone). Earp left San Francisco with Josie in 1883, and she became his companion for the next 46 years (no marriage certificate has been found). Earp and Marcus returned to Gunnison where they settled down, where that state’s governor refused to extradite Wyatt back to Arizona on the grounds that he could not get a fair trial, and Earp continued to run a faro bank
Faro (card game)
Faro, Pharaoh, or Farobank, is a late 17th century French gambling card game descendant of basset, and belongs to the lansquenet and Monte Bank family of games, in that it is played between a banker and several players winning or losing according to the cards turned up matching those already...

.

Gunnison residents isolated themselves from the surrounding area during the Spanish Influenza epidemic for two months at the end of 1918. All highways were barricaded near the county lines. Train conductors warned all passengers that if they stepped outside of the train in Gunnison, they would be arrested and quarantined for five days. As a result of the isolation, no one died of influenza in Gunnison during the epidemic. This served as partial inspiration for the novel The Last Town on Earth
The Last Town on Earth
The Last Town on Earth is a 2006 novel by Thomas Mullen. The novel focuses on the town of Commonwealth, Washington in 1918 during World War I and the emergence of the Spanish Flu. The town agrees to quarantine itself from the outside world, to hopefully save itself from the flu...

.

Geography

Gunnison is situated at an altitude
Altitude
Altitude or height is defined based on the context in which it is used . As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The reference datum also often varies according to the context...

 of 7703 feet (2,347.9 m).

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the city has a total area of 3.2 square miles (8.3 km²). All of it is land and none of it is covered by water. Gunnison is near Blue Mesa Reservoir
Blue Mesa Reservoir
-External links:* Blue Mesa related information.* Reservoir maps, conditions and fishing reports...

. One can travel to Gunnison from the towns of Salida
Salida, Colorado
The City of Salida is a Statutory City that is the county seat and most populous city of Chaffee County, Colorado, United States. The population was 5,504 at the U.S. Census 2000.-History:800px|thumb|left| Panoramic View of Salida, 1910...

 and Buena Vista
Buena Vista, Colorado
Buena Vista is a Statutory Town in Chaffee County, Colorado, United States. The population was 2,195 at the 2000 census.Buena Vista is located in central Colorado roughly midway between Salida and Leadville in the Upper Arkansas River Valley at an elevation of . The area between Buena Vista and...

 by going over Monarch Pass
Monarch Pass
Monarch Pass is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of south-central Colorado in the United States.The pass is located on the continental divide at the southern end of the Sawatch Range along the border between Gunnison and Chaffee counties, approximately west of the town of Salida. The...

. U.S. Route 50
U.S. Route 50
U.S. Route 50 is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching just over from Ocean City, Maryland on the Atlantic Ocean to West Sacramento, California. Until 1972, when it was replaced by Interstate Highways west of the Sacramento area, it extended to San Francisco, near...

 is the main east-west thoroughfare through the town. There os a population of a little over 15,000.

Winter

Winter activities for Gunnison include skiing at Crested Butte
Crested Butte Mountain Resort
Crested Butte Mountain Resort is a ski resort located at Mount Crested Butte in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States.Crested Butte Mountain Resort opened in 1960 and has since developed a long and unique history. Known for offering extreme and diverse terrain, the mountain is considered one of...

, snowmobiling, cross country skiing, hunting, and snowshoeing.

Summer

Activities during the summer in Gunnison include fly fishing
Fly fishing
Fly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial 'fly' is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or 'lure' requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting...

 on the Gunnison River
Gunnison River
The Gunnison River is a tributary of the Colorado River, long, in the Southwest state of Colorado. It is the fifth largest tributary of the Colorado River, with a mean flow of 4320 ft³/s .-Description:...

, hiking, biking, rafting, boating, hunting, and climbing. One rafting practice is to rent a raft in Almont
Almont, Colorado
Almont is an unincorporated town and U.S. Post Office in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. The ZIP Code of the Almont Post Office is 81210.-History:...

 and drift 10 miles (16.1 km) down the Gunnison River to the town of Gunnison.

Gunnison also hosts festivals and farmers markets during the summer months.

Cattlemen's Days

A rodeo in Colorado takes place over a 10-day period in July. It features PRCA Rodeo
Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association is an organization whose members compete in rodeos throughout North America, primarily in the United States. The PRCA sanctions rodeo venues and events through the PRCA Circuit System. Its championship event is the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo...

 activities as well as family-based activities.

Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 5,409 people, 2,083 households, and 904 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 1,684.6 people per square mile (650.6/km²). There were 2,276 housing units at an average density of 708.9 per square mile (273.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 93.49% White, 0.78% African American, 0.78% Native American, 0.55% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 1.79% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 2.55% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.91% of the population.

There were 2,083 households out of which 21.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.3% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 7.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 56.6% were non-families. 32.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.17 and the average family size was 2.83.

In the city the population was spread out with 15.1% under the age of 18, 39.0% from 18 to 24, 24.9% from 25 to 44, 13.6% from 45 to 64, and 7.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24 years. For every 100 females there were 120.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 122.4 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $25,768, and the median income for a family was $41,761. Males had a median income of $27,016 versus $21,194 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the city was $15,196. About 10.1% of families and 24.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.8% of those under age 18 and 6.6% of those age 65 or over.

In the media

Gunnison County is the setting of the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 film Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, although the film was actually shot in the towns of Port Coquitlam and Port Moody, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. Gunnison is also the setting of the 1960-1961 syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 television series Two Faces West
Two Faces West
Two Faces West is a 39-episode half-hour syndicated television western series set in Gunnison in southwestern Colorado, which aired from October 17, 1960, to July 31, 1961. It stars Scottish native Charles Bateman in the dual roles of twin brothers, Rick January, M.D., and Marshal Ben January...

.

In 2009, Gunnison appeared as a launch site and mission control facility in Stephen Baxter
Stephen Baxter
Stephen Baxter is a prolific British hard science fiction author. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering.- Writing style :...

's post-apocalyptic science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel, Ark
Ark (Baxter novel)
Ark is a hard science fiction novel by UK author Stephen Baxter. It comes as the sequel to Baxter's acclaimed 2008 novel Flood. Ark deals with the journey of Ark One, which Baxter has revealed to be a long-range spaceship, and the continuing human struggle for survival on Earth after the...

.

See also

  • Curecanti National Recreation Area
    Curecanti National Recreation Area
    Curecanti National Recreation Area, in Colorado, is formed by three reservoirs, named for corresponding dams on the Gunnison River. The national recreation area borders Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park on the west...

  • Gunnison County, Colorado
    Gunnison County, Colorado
    Gunnison County is the fifth most extensive of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado in the United States. The county population was 15,324 at the 2010 census. The county was named for John W. Gunnison, a United States Army officer and captain in the Army Topographical Engineers, who surveyed...

  • Old Spanish National Historic Trail
  • State of Colorado
    • Colorado municipalities
      Colorado municipalities
      The U.S. state of Colorado currently has 271 active incorporated municipalities, including 196 towns, 73 cities, and two consolidated city and county governments.-Municipal government:...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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