The Park County Heritage Resource Area was established in 1997 when the Governor of Colorado proclaimed this region to be one of the finest resource areas of Colorado and the West.  Accordingly, a portion of Park County was designated as one of Colorado's first official State Heritage Areas.  Park County and its partners have since garnered over $16 million for historic preservation, adaptive reuse planning and implementation, agricultural land conservation, interpretive exhibits and resource education, habitat restoration, and heritage tourism marketing, including this website.

The Park County Heritage Program is administered by the Tourism & Community Development Office, in conjunction with the Historic Preservation Office and 70 other active participants.  Our longstanding mission is to: Conserve Park County's most valuable natural and cultural resources, and utilize them to establish a sustainable local economy. In order to fulfill our mission, we have assembled a broad spectrum of partners and supporters that continue to generate funding for different projects and activities.

In 2009 legislation was passed by both houses of Congress designating South Park as one of 49 National Heritage Areas.  National Heritage Areas are places where natural, cultural, historic and recreational resources combine to form nationally distinctive landscapes arising from patterns of human activity shaped by geography. These areas tell nationally important stories about our nation and are representative of the national experience through both the physical features that remain and the traditions that have evolved within them. Accordingly, Park County now qualifies for up to $10 million from Congress to undertake a variety of historic preservation, heritage tourism, resource education, and ranch recreation development projects.