Resources & Further Reading

The resources below cover Trinidad, the trail country, and tools for researching the Tarabino story.

Trinidad & Colorado History

• History Colorado — the state historical society, operator of the Trinidad History Museum complex (the Baca House, Bloom Mansion, and Santa Fe Trail Museum) two blocks from the foot of the knoll. The single best starting point for the town's story.
• Santa Fe National Historic Trail (National Park Service) — maps, sites, and the history of the Mountain Branch that made Trinidad a town; includes the trail's surviving ruts and markers in Las Animas County.
• National Register of Historic Places — the federal register documents the El Corazon de Trinidad commercial district and many of the buildings the Tarabino brothers traded among.

Researching the Family & the House

• Chronicling America (Library of Congress) — digitized historic newspapers, including Colorado titles that carried the Famous Department Store's advertising and the social notices of Trinidad's Italian community.
• Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection — the state's own digitization effort, with deep runs of Trinidad papers; search "Tarabino" and settle in.

The Outdoors

• Colorado Parks & Wildlife — current information for Trinidad Lake State Park and Fishers Peak State Park, the mesa the house was built to face.
• Colorado Tourism Office — present-day travel planning for Trinidad, the Highway of Legends, and the southern mountains.

Trinidad's Arts

• Colorado Creative Districts — the state certification Trinidad holds; context for the town's working arts scene, which once hung its canvases through the inn's halls.

Local Arts Resources

The innkeepers highlighted Trinidad's arts council and a local fine-art studio. The arts resources above continue that local focus, and the town's creative life is best explored in person, on the blocks the attractions page walks through.