Although history books usually begin with the 19th-century gold rush to the central Rockies, the real story of Colorado is here, on the wind-swept plains of the Colorado South East Region.

In the 1540s, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the first gold-seeker, and his band of conquistadores arrived and in 1806, Colorado received its first emissaries from the United States led by Zebulon Pike. In 1833, Old Bent's Fort, the first American settlement, was built.

The fact is, almost everything that has happened in Colorado happened in the Colorado South East Region first.

The Arkansas River represents a direct line into the past. The Santa Fe Trail ran right alongside it, bringing traders and, later, armies into one of the country’s last Native American strongholds. For legendary frontiersmen such as Kit Carson and John C. Fremont, the Arkansas River provided a gateway to the Rockies.

Homesteaders traveled upstream in their wake, moving in tandem with the railroad crews and building towns of Lamar, La Junta, and Rocky Ford ... that still dot the banks of the river today.

The two largest cities of the Colorado South East Region, Trinidad and Pueblo, made their wealth on ranching, coal mining, and commerce.

Today the region possesses the dignity that comes with age. There’s no heritage or hurry here, no rush to riches, time is as plentiful as the prairie shortgrass.

If you miss this quiet corner of the state, you’re missing out on something special.