Town file
Trinidad, Colorado
Trinidad, Colorado (Las Animas County, Colorado) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 296, "The Minister's Wife Is Filthy" (30 June 2022). Trinidad sits in southern Colorado, within about fifteen miles of the New Mexico border, in Las Animas County.
- Town
- Trinidad
- County
- Las Animas County
- State
- Colorado
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 296
- Approximate location
- 37.173, -104.490
Episode 296 / 30 June 2022 / 166 min / full
The Minister's Wife Is Filthy
"This is Trinidad, Colorado, in southern Colorado, only within 15 miles of the New Mexico border, in Las Animas County." about 0:05:07
The case: Murder of Dr Perry Nelson (June 1983); Murder of Glenn Harrelson (November 15, 1988). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2022
- Population
- 8,127
- Median age
- 40
- Median household income
- $37,000
- Median home value
- $148,500
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $980 a month
- Cost of living
- 82
- Religious
- 88.2%
- Property crime
- ▲ almost double
- Violent crime
- right on
History, in brief
- Trinidad was founded in 1862 because coal was discovered in the region. about 0:06:37
- By the late 1860s about 1,200 people lived there, many of them immigrants who came to mine coal. about 0:07:17
- Bat Masterson was the town marshal for a time. about 0:07:17
- In the early 1900s Aina Eloise Young became the first woman sports editor of a newspaper and the only woman sports writer to cover the World Series in 1908. about 0:07:36
- Trinidad had a popular semi-professional baseball team, and major league teams used to barnstorm through town to play exhibitions. about 0:08:01
- In 1902 the Bowen town coal mine, six miles north of town, suffered a gas explosion and fire that killed 13 miners, one of the worst mining disasters in the state up to then. about 0:08:34
- In January 1904 a fire destroyed most of the town's business section, and in September a heavy rainstorm caused severe flooding that flooded the Santa Fe railroad station. about 0:09:17
- High Times called Trinidad Weed Town USA in 2018, when 5.13% of the state's total marijuana sales came from a town of less than 10,000 people. about 0:09:46
- The town had 23 dispensaries, and the downtown section was called the weed mall area. about 0:10:29
The reviews read out
1 star
"After living there for eight months and spending time around the country, the reviewer calls it one of the worst towns they have ever been in anywhere."about 0:10:40
1 star
"After 18 months the reviewer says they were lied to and screwed everywhere, could not get a job at Walmart, now lives in Pueblo, and sums it up as Trinidad sucks."about 0:11:03
2 stars
"Beautiful mountains, fresh air and scenery, but no businesses, people moving out, horrible schools, and small old houses built close together to keep the wind from blowing between them, with no yards."about 0:12:21
1 star
"Nearly three years there were the most miserable and frustrating of the reviewer's life: jail on a protection order, a dog in a shelter, a lost job, no transport, and a police department called crooked and corrupt."about 0:13:35
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Walsenburg, Colorado35 miles
- Chimayo, New Mexico114 miles
- Kiowa, Colorado150 miles
- Gunnison, Colorado163 miles
- Byers, Colorado176 miles
- Tijeras, New Mexico179 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.