The Town of Mancos has created a vision through community engagement that promotes a resilient, diverse, and healthy community which prioritizes restoration and stewardship of the land, air and water of the Mancos Valley.  The Town is defined by its history, all its people and the land where we live, work and play. The Town appreciates that it was built on ancestral tribal lands whose descendants continue to contribute to the rich social, cultural and economic fabric of the community. Mancos will continue to pursue measured growth as a means to a dynamic future in harmony with the natural world.

~ Town of Mancos Vision Statement, 2022

The Town was founded in 1894, though cattle ranchers had been settling the Mancos Valley since the 1870s. Before then, the area had been a part of New Spain and Mexico, and had been inhabited by the Ute and Navajo people. The name “Mancos” comes from the famous Dominguez-Escalante Expedition of 1776, though the reason for the name remains unclear. Somewhere in the town is the point at which the Expedition crossed the Rio Mancos on its way to California from Old Mexico.

At the time it was founded, Mancos served as the primary commercial trading center for eastern Montezuma County, rivaling the Town of Dolores further north. At that time, the City of Cortez, now the County seat, was barely a bend in the wagon trail.

Mancos was a stop along the Denver, Rio Grande & Southern Railway, connecting to Durango to the east, and to the Telluride mining districts up north, via Dolores. Ranchers in the Mancos Valley provided beef, timber, and other agricultural products to the mining camps.

The first known inhabitants of the Mancos Valley and the surrounding Four Corners region were the ancestral Pueblo Indians. Evidence of their culture can be found throughout the area, including the magnificent cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park and at the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park. The Canyon of the Ancients Visitor Center in Dolores supports a museum and research center. For more information, contact the Mancos Valley Chamber of Commerce.