San Luis

San Luis. . , Colorado's earliest non-Indian occupants were Hispanos. Migrating north from present-day New Mexico in the mid-1800s. These colonists battled the Ute Indians for control of the San Luis Valley while the United States and Mexico warred over the lands of the Rio Grande. The region ended up in U.S. hands, but this valley remained a Hispano enclave. Carlos Beaubien, owner of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant, encouraged fifty families to settle here in 1851. These Hispanos founded San Luis, the first significant town in the state. Today San Luis boasts Colorado's oldest continuously used irrigation ditch, its oldest building, and its oldest families. The village's culture, social structure, language, and communal form of agriculture remain firmly rooted in Hispano tradition. , Since opening its doors on June 22, 1857, the R and R Grocery in San Luis , Colorado's oldest continuously used business , has been operated by two of the town's founding families. Original proprietor Dario Gallegos stocked locally grown produce along with clothing and dry goods hauled in from Santa Fe, St. Louis, and points between. In 1874 his daughter married A. A. Salazar, son of another town pioneer; the families operated the store jointly until 1894, when the Salazars took sole control. Over the years R and R has served as a natural community center; folks come to meet and greet as well as to shop. Twice ravaged by fire (in 1895 and 1947), the building still retains some of its original adobe walls. , [photo captions] , . Several generations of the Lopez family gather, c. 1950