Los Sauces is a small Spanish village, primarily Catholic, in Conejos County in the beautiful San Luis Valley of South Central Colorado. It was established in 1863 by Spanish settlers who came from Northern New Mexico. The name was chosen for the willows (sauces) that were growing in the area at that time. They settled on the Conejos Land Grant on the west side of the Rio Grande. They also grazed their animals on the east side of the river on land that was part of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant.
The village lies a short distance south of the confluence of the Rio Grande and Conejos Rivers. Near Los Sauces from the mid-1860's to 1870's there was a place with a ferry service where one could cross the Rio Grande. It was known as Stewart's Crossing. People coming from Fort Garland crossed the river here. The village is also a few miles north of the confluence of the Culebra River and the Rio Grande.
Los Sauces is nearly surrounded by the
San Luis Hills,
which extend further to the south. To the east is
the
Sangre de Cristo Range
(part of the Rocky Mountains). The spectacular and
majestic
Mount Blanca,
called "Sierra Blanca" by the Spanish people, is seen to
the northeast.
During the time of my mother's youth there in the Twenties
and the Thirties, the village had only about fifty
families. Today, the number has decreased to about
twenty-five. Several homes are now vacant. Most of the
working adults travel somewhere else in the San Luis Valley
for employment. Whereas years ago the village children
attended a three-room schoolhouse in the heart of the
village, today students attend school in nearby Sanford,
Colorado.
A National Historic Landmark,
Pike's Stockade,
is not far west from Los Sauces.
A former governor of Colorado,
Albert W. McIntire,
made his home in the 1880's on a ranch very close to the
Los Sauces area.