Clear Creek County renames roads in Colorado to replace derogatory wording
If you're exploring around Mount Blue Sky in Clear Creek County on the Evergreen side, you might notice a few changes to the road signs along the way up. Much like the change from Mount Evans to Mount Blue Sky, roads containing a slur against Native American women have been removed in lieu of non-problematic names.
The three changes are as follows:
1. Pine Valley Road will replace Old Squaw Pass Road
2. Blue Sky Trail will replace Little Squaw Pass Road
3. Raven Ridge Road will replace Squaw Mountain Trail
Clear Creek County said the road name changes were a combined effort between the Mapping Department and the Road and Bridge workers, along with a renaming committee. A survey was sent to neighbors asking for their input on what the names should be changed to, so long as they did change altogether.
While you can still find some non-county street signage showing the old names, the official county road signs have been changed at this point, and Clear Creek County said it is working to get the names adjusted online for places like Google Maps and Waze.
Cassie Childers, who now lives on Pine Valley Road, said she was glad to see the name change from the slur to something else.
"The only thing I'm unhappy about is having to redo my car registration and all of that," Childers said, laughing. "That's the hardest part for us."
"It's a bit of a headache," County Spokesperson Megan Hiler said. "A lot goes into changing your address name... but we want Clear Creek County to be welcoming to everyone and we really kept that in mind."
The county believes it has removed the last remaining signs with the slur involved.
