The Basics

Location

Archuleta County is located in southwest Colorado, situated at the junction of highways 160 and 84 at an elevation of 7,079 feet. The county seat, Pagosa Springs, is located just 28 miles north of the New Mexico border and 60 miles east of Durango. It is also near the Four Corners, where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona meet.

Geography

Land area (square miles) — 1,350
Persons per square mile — 9.1

Physical Description

Archuleta County comprises 872,960 acres. Only 34 percent of lands in Archuleta County are in private ownership. Tribal lands comprise 14.4 percent of the county. Most of the northern and eastern portions of the county (51.6 percent) are within the San Juan National Forest and are under the management of the U.S. Forest Service. There is a total of approximately 2.8 million acres of national forest and Bureau of Land Management land surrounding Archuleta County.

Population Archuleta County

2019 Estimate — 14,029

Newspaper

The Pagosa Springs SUN
Weekly newspaper with daily online updates at
www.pagosasun.com.
Located at 457 Lewis St.
(970) 264-2100

Housing and Income

Median value of housing — $314,400
Households — 5,858
Persons per household — 2.23

Per capita money income — $31,629

Median household income — $52,221

Persons in poverty — 10.8 percent

Taxes

Sales and User Tax: 2.9 percent state and 4 percent county. County tax revenue is divided between county and town.

Lodgers’ Tax: A 4.9-percent tax is collected from the lodging industry. Those revenues are used for tourism promotion in both the town and the county.

Primary source of town and county revenue: Retail sales taxes, property taxes and charges for services.

Government

Town Government: www.pagosasprings.co.gov
Home Rule Municipality
Town council with elected mayor and six councilors elected for alternating four-year terms, town administrator is appointed.
Date of Incorporation: 1891.

County Government: www.archuletacounty.org
Three county commissioners elected for alternating four-year terms.

Tourism and Business Development

The Pagosa Springs SUN
(970) 264-2100
www.explorepagosa.com
www.pagosasun.com

Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board
(866) 438-4917
visitpagosasprings.com

Pagosa Springs Community Development Corp.
(970) 264-2360
pagosaspringscdc.org

Pagosa Springs Area Chamber of Commerce
(970) 264-2360
pagosachamber.com

Road Conditions

Colorado Department of Transportation

(303) 639-1111, cotrip.org

New Mexico Road Report

(800) 432-4269, nmroads.com