Colorado is Home to the Pinto Bean Capital of the World

If you really think about it, there are quite a few food items that are unique to regions and/or towns all across Colorado.

Read More: Are These Colorado’s Top 12 Signature Food Items? |

Some of these include the peaches in Palisade, Rocky Ford canteloupe, Olathe sweet corn, and while Pueblo green chiles aren't necessarily named after the Colorado city, they are quite popular in the southeastern Colorado town.

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While the above examples are pretty well-known to Coloradans and often even out-of-towners, there is one small town in the state that has a similar claim to fame that not everyone knows about; a small town known as Dove Valley, the Pinto Bean Capital of the World.

Colorado is Home to the Pinto Bean Capital of the World

In case you're not familiar, just north of the southwestern Colorado town of Cortez sits a smaller town known as Dove Creek.

The town, which is nearly a stone's throw away from the Utah border, is surrounded by farmland.

This is the small Colorado town that is known as the "Pinto Bean Capital of the World."

While only 635 people were reported in the 2020 census as living in Dove Creek, it is the "most populous municipality" in Colorado's Dolores County and serves as the county seat.

Besides being known as the self-proclaimed Pinto Bean Capital of the World, Dove Creek's biggest attraction is, appropriately, a large, concrete bean elevator on the western edge of the town.

In addition to pinto beans, the town is known for producing vast amounts of vegetable oil from locally grown sunflowers, safflower, and canola.