Growing out West: Early Colorado homesteaders, ranchers lay foundation for High Country communities

Steamboat Springs History Museum/Courtesy photo“You don’t become a state in the United States if you don’t have enough money to support yourself,” Storm said. Austrian immigrant Peter Stanko Sr. purchased 160 acres In 1907 along the Yampa River near Steamboat Springs from Logan Crawford, son of the town’s founder. “There are very few families that can say this, but we’ve had four generations graduate from Steamboat Springs High School.” Steamboat Springs History Museum/Courtesy photoIn 1908, the railroad arrived and the city’s depot became one of the largest shipping points for cattle in the West, Adams claimed. In Steamboat Springs, Jim Stanko said that the homesteaders built the “rural Western tradition that all the newcomers come to town wanting to be a part of.”