Trinidad, city in southeastern Colorado on the Purgatoire River. The seat of Las Animas County, Trinidad is located about 23 km (about 14 mi) north of the New Mexico border. Trinidad began as a coal-mining center and now is an agricultural and tourist hub. The Trinidad State Recreation Area is about 6 km (4 mi) to the west. The city is home to a junior college and many museums, including the Baca House and Bloom Mansion, two homes from Trinidad's early days; the Louden-Henritze Archaeology Museum; the Santa Fe Trail Museum; and the A. R. Mitchell Memorial Museum of Western Art.
The land that is now Trinidad was situated on a branch of the Santa Fe Trail, an overland route from western Missouri to Santa Fe (now in New Mexico). Spanish explorers, fur trappers, and Hispanic farmers were the first nonnative peoples to visit and settle the area. The town was established in 1859, and coal mining developed here after the Santa Fe Railroad and the Denver and Rio Grande Railway arrived in the mid-1870s. Trinidad was incorporated in 1879. The city is said to be named for either the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity or for Trinidad Baca, the daughter of a settler. Population 9,663 (1980); 8,580 (1990); 9,078 (2000).
