Highway of Legends
Weston, CO

Weston was originally named Los Sisneros, after Juan Sisneros, a rancher who settled in the area in the l880s. Settlers in the area also tried to name it La Junta, meaning "the junction" in Spanish, as the South Fork and the North Fork of the Purgatoire meet here. However, that name had been taken. In 1889, the first post office was established and the town was named Weston, after the town's first postmaster Bert Weston. The Rocky Mountain Timber Company, which logged the area heavily in the late l800s and early 1900s, used the town as a supply base.

Prior to occupation by the Spanish and Americans, the area along the Highway of Legends was home to several Native American Tribes, including the Mohuache Ute and the Jicarillo Apache, who lived in the foothills and mountains. The Comanche and Kiowa hunted and camped along the upper Purgatoire River. And on the high plains east of Trinidad and Walsenburg, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe roamed.

West of Weston can be seen the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which received their name from the Spanish. These early explorers noticed that the mountains turned red when catching the first rays of a sunrise, and named them "Sangre de Cristo" (Blood of Christ). Up on those mountains, somewhere near timberline, is a very rich gold mine. The story claims that an old prospector (no one quite recalls his name) came down from the Sangres with a nugget so rich that he survived on it for a year. As the years passed, the prospector returned to town once each year, each time carrying another nugget with which to buy a year's supplies. It is recalled that he told someone he used the reddish color of the morning on the snow to find his mine. After his death, many searched for the mine, but no one has ever found the "Gold where the Snow Turns to Blood."