Well, folks, Alamosa has been named USA Today’s Best Small Town Cultural Scene. Alamosa and a fine selection of 10 other communities across the nation were put up to an online vote. This community came together and showed the rest of the country that Alamosa has something special going on. 

“I can’t say I’m too surprised. The community really did come out in force kind of as a whole. The support for this program, for this nomination was just overwhelming throughout the entire community,” said Beth Sumner, Visit Alamosa’s director of destination development. 

The voting went from March 1 to April 1. Voters could cast one vote per day each day. From towns in every corner of the U.S. Alamosa came out on top. 

“We have a great destination, of course we’re gonna win,” said Visit Alamosa’s executive director, Kale Mortensen. “It’s hard not to be emotional, right? You grow up in a place like this and you have your family here and you want to continue to see the growth but you also want to keep it as it is.”

He said the nomination was great, but winning is “really reflective of the community and what everybody values here.” 

Growth and deep-rooted heritage go hand in hand in Alamosa and the San Luis Valley. Sure, Alamosa is the geographic center of the SLV, but it’s a cultural crossroads that brings people from each cardinal direction into the mix of it all. 

Starting out as a railroad town, it’s no surprise that Alamosa has endured the times. The soil here is rich and despite an ongoing war over our water, the Rio Grande isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. 

We’re surrounded by mountains that some see as walls or gates to the outside world – but really, those mountains are reason enough alone to see what’s on the other side. Whether you’re looking in or out. Since the beginning of human history people have come to the “Cradle of Civilization” for just that: civilization. Human history runs deep here and human history will continue to carve new pathways and lay down plots of land for a long, long time. 

After the Wheeler Party ascended Blanca Peak, William Bueler wrote, “Nothing can surpass, either in ruggedness or in grandeur, the little piece of country immediately about us. When we first set foot on the summit we were struck by this beautiful subordination of summits we had not before seen anywhere among the mountains of Colorado.”

This “best’ award confirms what we here in the Valley already know.