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U.S. Route 36 in Colorado

section of U.S. Numbered Highway in Colorado, United States

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ2139397 ↗
Source-derived summary

U.S. Route 36 (US 36) is a United States highway that travels from Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado to Kansas. In Colorado, the highway traverses an east–west route mostly in the northern portion of the Great Plains. At its west end, the road connects several small mountain towns such as Estes Park and Lyons to the larger metropolitan areas of Boulder and Denver. As it continues eastward, it connects to several other small towns and rural highways on the plains before crossing the state line into Kansas.

Route description

Rocky Mountain National Park to Boulder

US 36 begins at Deer Ridge Junction in Rocky Mountain National Park, where it intersects US 34 (Trail Ridge Road) on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. It exits the park at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center and enters the town of Estes Park, where it is briefly overlapped with US 34 Business until it meets (but does not cross) the main US 34 again at an intersection shaped like the letter K. On its way out of Estes Park it intersects SH 7 at South St. Vrain Avenue, for the first of three times.

It then descends southeast through North St. Vrain Canyon to the town of Lyons, which it enters on Main Street. At 5th Avenue in Lyons, it intersects SH 7 again, beginning an overlap to Boulder which is signed only as US 36.

Editorial summary

“U.S. Route 36 in Colorado” enters the record as section of U.S. Numbered Highway in Colorado, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Route, Colorado and section can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 233-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1926. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Route, Colorado and section.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“U.S. Route 36 in Colorado” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Route, Colorado and section provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2139397. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “U.S. Route 36 in Colorado”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow U.S. Route 36 in Colorado primary sources, U.S. Route 36 in Colorado archive and Route research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “U.S. Route 36 in Colorado”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “U.S. Route 36 in Colorado” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.