RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Colorado >> La Plata County >> La Plata >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about La Plata. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added La Plata to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with La Plata, please Contact Us.


We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about La Plata (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for La Plata. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the east contained birth and death records; the county to the north contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Although our information shows that the community of La Plata is historic, it would have been located within present day La Plata County.

To see how the shape of Colorado's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of La Plata County: Archuleta, Dolores, Hinsdale, Montezuma, San Juan & San Juan (NM).

Below are the counties that are near La Plata. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to La Plata:

  • La Plata County     (The home county of La Plata)
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Plata, with the one closest to La Plata listed first.
    • Hesperus
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Fort Lewis ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Fort Lewis is located in La Plata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Lewis
    • Hermosa
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Hermosa is located in La Plata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hermosa
    • Durango
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Rockwood
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Rockwood is located in La Plata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockwood
    • Carbon Junction
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Carbon Junction is located in La Plata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carbon Junction
    • Marvel
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Florida
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Florida is located in La Plata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Florida
    • Vallecito
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Bondad
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Bondad is located in La Plata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bondad
    • Gem Village
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Gem Village is located in La Plata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gem Village
    • Bayfield
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Ignacio
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Dolores County
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Plata, with the one closest to La Plata listed first.
    • Rico
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Rico is located in Dolores County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rico
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 262 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rico <2>
    • Dunton ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Dunton is located in Dolores County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dunton
  • Montezuma County
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Plata, with the one closest to La Plata listed first.
    • Mancos
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Mancos is located in Montezuma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mancos
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,398 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mancos <2>
    • Dolores
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Cortez
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Cortez is located in Montezuma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cortez
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 8,734 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cortez <2>
    • McPhee ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • McPhee is located in Montezuma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McPhee
  • San Juan County
    • Graysill ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Graysill is located in San Juan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Graysill

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to La Plata, see our County-by-County Page for La Plata.

Cemeteries Near La Plata ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of La Plata.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for La Plata - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for La Plata covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from La Plata, with the one closest to La Plata listed first.

  • Thompson Park Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Hesperus Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Sheek Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Hay Gulch Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Green Mtn. Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Greenmount Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenmount Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Greenmount Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the southwest of Durango.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1013065 <3>
  • Cedar Grove Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Mancos Pioneer Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Webber Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Animas Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Hermosa Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Kline Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (12 more) ...
    • Marvel Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Crestview Memorial Garden
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Rico Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.

While we didn't find La Plata in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of La Plata.

These communities are listed based on their distance from La Plata, with the one closest to La Plata listed first.

  • Fort Lewis ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Fort Lewis is located in La Plata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Lewis
  • Trimble
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Trimble is located in La Plata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trimble
  • Durango
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Hermosa
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Hermosa is located in La Plata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hermosa
  • Rockwood
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Rockwood is located in La Plata County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockwood
  • Rico
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Rico is located in Dolores County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rico
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 262 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rico <2>
  • Dolores
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Cortez
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Cortez is located in Montezuma County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cortez
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 8,734 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cortez <2>

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around La Plata. See our List of 1890's Communities around La Plata.

Newspapers Published in La Plata ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 75 newspapers that have been published in the area around La Plata.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of La Plata, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for La Plata.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to La Plata:

Footnotes ...

<1>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about La Plata, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- La Plata) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.