Carbondale, Colorado

Carbondale has been marketed as "The Ultimate Rocky Mountain Hideout" and has begun attracting a number of wealthy real estate buyers. Part of that attraction has been the location with Glenwood Springs to the north and Aspen to the southeast. Carbondale is also home to a unit of the Colorado Rocky Mountain College. The town is located on the south banks of the Roaring Fork River at the confluence with the Crystal River. The name comes from the fact that some of the earliest settlers hailed from Carbondale, Pennsylvania.

In the early days, Carbondale's economy revolved around providing agricultural goods to the silver miners in the Aspen area. When the silver mines petered out, the local farmers went into raising potatoes and did really well with that until the advent of industrialized agriculture in Idaho moved most of that activity to the rich volcanic soils in the Snake River Valley. In those days there was significant coal mining happening up the hill in the Crystal River Valley... until a methane gas explosion killed 15 miners underground in 1981. By 1991, nearly all the coal mines in the area were closed. With the hyperinflation of real estate prices in Aspen, many folks moved downstream to Carbondale and transformed the community into a bedroom community for Aspen workers.