The Area

Gateway, Colorado, is located southwest of Grand Junction, Colorado, where the West Creek flows into the Dolores River. Surrounded by the Uncompahgre Plateau, Piñon Mesa and La Sal Mountains, this quaint, tight-knit community is embraced by tall canyon walls, cottonwoods and a vivid blue sky.

History Buff?

Gateway, Colorado has a rich history steeped in the ancient peoples of the Fremont, Anasazi, and Ute tribes, who once made these canyons and plateaus their home. Gateway has played host to gangs of cattle rustlers who used these canyon walls as hideouts from the law, miners who tunneled deep into the earth with the hope of finding their fortunes, and ranchers who have grazed thousands of cattle across Unaweep’s windswept grasslands. The canyon witnessed a copper boom around the turn of the century, and decades later, the U.S. Army processed ore from nearby Uravan to produce the uranium used in the first atomic bombs. Marie and Pierre Curie used radium from area mines in their treatment of cancer.

The first known homesteaders came to Gateway in 1884 in search of their fortunes. Fur trappers, miners, and ranch families all tried their luck in this rugged southwestern landscape. In 1903, homesteading families built a small, dirt-floored cabin to be used as a schoolhouse. The next year, the post office was established and the name “Gateway” was chosen for the small settlement.

Gateway quickly became a strong community based around cattle ranching, farming and lumber milling. Later, Uranium mining was the economic driver for the community for decades, and the little town of Gateway grew and flourished.

Once the Uranium market went bust and the hundreds of mines in the area began to close, so followed the thriving community. Over time, Gateway lost the last of its restaurants and its grocery store. Many people moved away looking for work. Remaining residents had to make the long drive to Grand Junction for supplies and other necessities.

Today, with the opening of Gateway Canyons, the local community once again has a grocery store and multiple restaurants. There are new jobs created in the town and a renewed interest in this once-forgotten rural community. Several thousands of the surrounding acreage has been purchased for preservation. And while pride and sentiment for our community’s colorful heritage remains strong, the future of Gateway is once again strong as well.

Geology Fan?

The word Unaweep is an indian word meaning, “two mouths.” Unaweep Canyon is the only place in the world where one creek has a nearly imperceptible break, sending water off in opposite directions. Unaweep Canyon cuts through the soft red sandstone of the Uncompahgre Plateau, exposing stone dated to Precambrian times. Ancient rivers silted the rock away, exposing more than a hundred million years of the geologic record and fossils of dinosaurs and early amphibians. Human artifacts from ancient civilizations, as well as modern man, abound in Gateway, from the rock art and pertroglyphs of the Anasazi and Freemont tribes to the modern ruins of the Driggs mansion, Hanging Flume and Coke Ovens.

There’s always a story worth exploring in the area surrounding Gateway.