Cotopaxi, Colorado got its name from a prospector named Henry 'Gold Tom' Thomas, who'd mined in South America and thought the local peaks looked just like the Ecuadorian volcano Cotopaxi. The general store has been here since the early 1920s — now bolted onto a Sinclair station — red phone booth out front and all. Pure roadside Colorado on the banks of the Arkansas in Bighorn Sheep Canyon.
Cotopaxi, Colorado 6,362 ft
- The town was named after Cotopaxi, one of the world's highest active volcanoes, in Ecuador.
- Prospector Henry 'Gold Tom' Thomas named it after mining in South America, struck by how the surrounding mountains resembled the Ecuadorian volcano.
- The Cotopaxi General Store opened in the early 1920s and is now joined to a Sinclair gas station.
- Its post office opened on May 25, 1880.
- In 1882 it was the site of a short-lived colony of about 63 Russian-Jewish immigrant settlers.
- The town sits along US-50 and the Arkansas River in the heart of Bighorn Sheep Canyon.