Cottonwoods, hero of the plains and mountains

The proud old cottonwood trees – we see them around Denver and the rest of Colorado, the century-old trees along rivers, irrigation ditches and mountain canyon creeks. Tall leafy cottonwoods were here when the first explorers, gold seekers and homesteaders arrived, today still a reminder of when this place was home to only animals and roaming native peoples.

For generations, nomadic tribes on the Great Plains sought the cottonwoods’ shady shelter, camping in tipis beside waterways like Arkansas and South Platte Rivers. Cheyenne, Arapaho and other Plains dwellers used their wood to make implements and tools, tipi poles and cradleboards, and they wove cottonwood twigs and small branches into baskets.

Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark discovered and exploited several western species of cottonwood on their 1803-04 expedition to the Pacific Northwest. They hollowed out the tree trunks to fashion “dugouts” – logboats that carried supplies and expedition members up the Missouri River.

Early settlers on America’s Great Plains observed how cottonwoods followed water, growing along streams and rivers. As farmers irrigated crops, the trees flourished along ditches and canals. On plains and prairie, rows of cottonwoods line riverbanks to form “gallery forests.” The trees’ broad-spreading branches create windbreaks, give shade and provide habitat for various bird species, squirrels, raccoons, opossums and even honeybees hives. The stately tree is an emblem of the Great Plains and the official State Tree of Kansas and Nebraska.

The cottonwood belongs to the Poplar family, according to Colorado author Kathleen Cain’s insightful book – The Cottonwood Tree, an American Champion. The tree occurs in eight different species, three of them common to our state.

The plains cottonwood, Populus Deltoides, grows from 3,500’ to 6,500’ altitude. It reaches a height of 50 to 75 feet, and its diameter can exceed 36 inches. The plains cottonwood grows along stream and river bottoms and serpentine creeks and where canyons open out onto the plains. These trees have thick, dark, furrowed bark and leathery leaves triangular in shape – some say heart-shaped – with toothed or wavy edges.

The narrowleaf cottonwood, Populus Angustifolia, is a tree of the canyons and mountain streamsides, extending from the 5,000’ foothills up to 9,000’ in the mountains. Its slender leaves are 4” long and tapering at the tips. The brown terminal bud is very resinous and somewhat fragrant, and it can be used for yellow dye. The bark is smooth and cream-colored, but dark and furrowed and ridged near the base.

The Rio Grande cottonwood, Populus Deltoides subspecies Wizlizenii, favors altitudes of 4,000’ to 7,000’ and grows from central Colorado southward through New Mexico. Its wood was used by native peoples to build ladders into their kivas, subterranean one-room spiritual spaces. Famed Taos artist Georgia O’Keefe portrayed the graceful cottonwood in several of her paintings. New Mexican wood carvers, santeros, crafted santos from its wood – statues of saints, angels and religious figures displayed in home altars and in rural churches. Arizona’s Hopi tribes carve the soft cottonwood root into kachinas, colorful mystical dolls that represent an array of deities. In Colorado’s San Luis Valley and in New Mexico, cottonwood groves growing along the scarce waterways are called bosques, Spanish for “woodlands.”

The cottonwood served many purposes. Early arrivals to Colorado Territory harvested prairie cottonwoods they found growing here. From the brittle wood they made crude furniture, crates, pallets, match sticks, fence posts – even caskets – as well burning it to heat their homes.

Homesick for shady streets of Midwest and New England, pioneers transplanted the trees from beside streams and rivers into fledgling settlements such as Boulder, Fort Collins and Lake City. They were soon rewarded with shade: cottonwoods can grow as fast as 4 to 5 feet a year. Homesteaders “proved up” Timber Claims by planting cottonwoods on vast vacant acreage. Despite messy cottonseeds produced by female trees in spring, the trees became an essential part of both rural and urban landscapes. Today, a few civic parks and more than one golf course have at least a couple cottonwoods.

The tree’s name is scattered across Colorado. The tiny village of Cottonwood, also known as Helena, sprang up in the San Luis Valley and became a “respectable settlement” by 1867. It survived into the early 1900s, but surrendered its name to the present-day community of Cottonwood in northeastern Douglas County, basically a subdivision of Parker.

A more durable community is Alamosa, whose name means “cottonwood grove” in Spanish. It is the largest municipality in the San Luis Valley and functions as a gateway to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Today, a city of around 10,000, Alamosa still has plenty of cottonwoods especially along the Rio Grande River that runs through the Alamosa City Park.

Cottonwood Hot Springs and Cottonwood Pass lie west of Buena Vista. In 1879, the Rocky Mountain News reported that a “new and elegant” spa hotel with pointed gables and broad veranda had opened beside the bubbling hot springs in Cottonwood Canyon. Sadly, the Cottonwood Springs Sanitarium burned in 1885, but its modern-day replacement – Cottonwood Hot Springs Inn and Health Spa – offers cozy lodging and soothing soaks beside crashing Cottonwood Creek.

Several historic Colorado mines honored the mighty tree. In southwestern Colorado, the Monarch Cottonwood Mine produced a bit of gold in the Sherman mining camp south of Lake San Cristobal and Lake City. A Cottonwood Mine also operated near Buena Vista and another outside Silvercliff, during the 1880s.

Today, we still find the name sprinkled around the state. Cottonwood Cellars, a family-owned winery at Olathe, produces tasty local wines from its local vineyards – 4,000 cases per year. Cottonwood Center for the Arts is a creativity cauldron in Colorado Springs with dozens of art classes and affordable studio space for 80 artists. Cottonwood Farms in Boulder features agricultural tours for schoolchildren and harvest festivities such as a straw bale maze and cornfield maze.

And the towering cottonwoods can be found around Colorado. In fall, cottonwood leaves turn golden yellow like those of their younger brother, the aspen. Places to view golden cottonwoods include the South Platte River, Golden Gate Canyon northwest of Golden and Clear Creek Canyon walkway just west of Golden.

Cottonwoods grow at Chatfield Arboretum and Deer Creek Canyon above it, and at the Denver Botanical Gardens. Of course, Cottonwood Canyon, Cottonwood Lake and Cottonwood Pass west of Buena Vista are prime viewing spots. In the San Luis Valley, Crestone has a shady bosque and the Gunnison River Valley is studded with cottonwood. Lake City, in the silvery San Juan Mountains, treasures the narrowleaf cottonwoods planted by pioneer citizens.