Press "Enter" to skip to content

Colorado Central Magazine

How did Cotopaxi get its Quecha name?

Brief by Central Staff

Local History – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Along the Arkansas River between Salida and Cañon City abides the settlement of Cotopaxi, which inspired a recent call inquiring if we knew how it came by its unusual name.

“How Cotopaxi got its name is unknown,” according to historian Virginia McConnell Simmons in The Upper Arkansas Valley, but we can start speculating in Ecuador, home of the above Cotopaxi.