Yampa is the gateway to the Flattop Mountains. Originally named Egeria, Yampa was first inhabited by white men as a hunting camp. Peter Simon, Sam Fix and Henry Crawford filed the first claims in 1881. Both Simon and Fix owned the Antlers property at separate times between 1910 and 1913. The town was renamed Yampa in 1886 after the many yampa plants that grew in the area. Yampa, from 1880 to 1900, was a shipping center for goods hauled by horse-drawn wagons from the railroad in Wolcott to the homesteaders and farmers in the Steamboat Springs area and Hamilton. The first school was established in 1885. The first store, Hernage’s was established in 1886, as was the first inn, which was the site of the Montgomery Ranch. That same year, a sawmill was in operation alongside the Yampa River. By 1902, approximately 400 people lived in the town of Yampa, the same number that lives here today. They were providing services to the homesteaders and ranchers, railroad workers, timber crews and coal miners who worked close by. By 1902, three sawmills and a brickyard were in operation. By the time Yampa was incorporated in 1906, there were 12 sawmills. The Monte Cristo (later, the Grand) and the Antlers Hotels were built next to each other on Moffat Avenue in 1902 or 1903. This was and still is the main street through town. Both hotels were later destroyed by fire. Moffat Avenue was part of the main stage line from Wolcott to Steamboat and the stage stopped at the Antlers Hotel and Saloon. The street was built double the width as it is today to accommodate daily business, the stagecoaches, rodeos, horseraces, and July 4th celebrations. It was also wide enough for the cattle and sheep drives that headed to the stock pens on the railroad line just east of the town.

By 1908, the railroad stopped in Yampa on its way from Denver to Craig and eventually replaced the stagecoach. The railroad brought tourists to visit Trapper’s Lake in the Flattops and sportsmen to fish and hunt in the area. In response to the growing number of tourists, Yampa’s third hotel, the Royal Hotel, was built in 1910. It remains just east of the Antlers on the other side of Moffat Avenue. The railroad also made it possible to transport to other parts of the country the large lettuce and spinach crops, which were produced in the meadows around Yampa. However, by the 1950’s Yampa could not compete with the California and Arizona produce markets. A few bad growing years and a dwindling labor pool also led to the final decline of Yampa’s lettuce industry.

The population of Yampa has remained at approximately 400 people since the early 1900’s. Cattle, sheep and hay now support the local economy, along with the income that comes from tourism. Yampa continues today as a friendly, rural, family-oriented town.