Como, Colorado - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

and a U.S. Post Office

United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...

in Park County

Park County, Colorado

Park County is the 17th most extensive of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county was named after the large geographic region known as South Park, which was named by early fur traders and trappers in the area. The geographic center of the State of Colorado is...

, 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...

. The Como Post Office has the ZIP Code

ZIP Code

ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

80432.

Located at the northern end of South Park

South Park (Colorado basin)

South Park is a high intermontane grassland basin, approximately 10,000 ft in elevation, in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. It encompasses approximately 1,000 square miles around the headwaters of the South Platte River in Park County approximately 60 mi southwest of Denver...

, the town is a historic mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

settlement founded during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush in 1859. It sits approximately one-half mile (1 km) north of U.S. Route 285

U.S. Route 285

U.S. Route 285 is a north–south United States highway, running 845 miles through the states of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. The highway's northern terminus is in Denver, Colorado, at exit 201 on Interstate 25. Its southern terminus is in Sanderson, Texas at an intersection with U.S....

, approximately 9 miles (15 km) northeast of Fairplay

Fairplay, Colorado

The Town of Fairplay is a statutory town that is the county seat and the most populous town of Park County, Colorado, United States. Fairplay is located in South Park at an elevation of . The town is the fifth-highest incorporated place in the State of Colorado. The population was 610 at the...

. It is accessible by an unpaved county road off Highway 285 leading northwest over Boreas Pass

Boreas Pass

Boreas Pass, elevation , is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States. The pass is located on the continental divide, at the crest of the Front Range along the border between Park and Summit counties...

(to Breckenridge

Breckenridge, Colorado

Established in 1859, the historic town of Breckenridge is a home rule municipality that is the county seat of Summit County, Colorado, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the town had a population of 4,540. The town also has many part-time residents, as many people have vacation homes in the area...

) in the Front Range

Front Range

The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the north-central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encountered moving west along the 40th parallel north across...

. The mountains northwest of town form a dramatic background to the town site, which sits on the flank of Little Baldy Mountain. The town was named by prospectors and miners from Como

Como

Como is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy.It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como....

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

who came to work the gold fields of the area.

In 1879 the town became the location of a roundhouse

Roundhouse

A roundhouse is a building used by railroads for servicing locomotives. Roundhouses are large, circular or semicircular structures that were traditionally located surrounding or adjacent to turntables...

of the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad

Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad

The Denver, South Park, and Pacific Railroad was a historic narrow gauge railway that operated in Colorado in the western United States in the late 19th century. The railroad opened up the first rail routes to a large section of the central Colorado mining district in the decades of the mineral boom...

, which was extended over Kenosha Pass

Kenosha Pass

Kenosha Pass, elevation , is a high mountain pass located in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States.The pass is located in the Rocky Mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, just northeast of the town of Fairplay, Colorado...

to reach the silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

mining areas during the Colorado Silver Boom

Colorado Silver Boom

The Colorado Silver Boom was a dramatic expansionist period of silver mining activity in the U.S. state of Colorado in the late 19th century. The boom started in 1879 with the discovery of silver at Leadville...

. The roundhouse served as a junction for trains going northward over Boreas Pass and southward toward Fairplay and over Trout Creek Pass

Trout Creek Pass

Trout Creek Pass is a mountain pass located in the Rocky Mountains of south-central Colorado in the United States. The pass sits atop the southern end of the Mosquito Range on the Park-Chaffee county line, between South Park and the headwaters of the Arkansas River to the west...

at the western end of South Park. The town has many historic weathered structures, including the roundhouse, and has the air of a ghost town

Ghost town

A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

that is still nevertheless populated, by 500 people. It has a small commercial district just off the main county road consisting of a post office and general store. The roundhouse is currently under renovation with intention of turning it into a principal tourist attraction in the area.

See also