HB 18-1351 Summary

• Directs the Colorado Department of Transportation to mark significant route segments and sites of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail with suitable signs, subject to funding availability from gifts, grants, or donations.

• Requires the Department of Transportation to consult with culturally affiliated American Indian tribes before posting any signs to preserve landscape, ecological, and ethnographic characteristics.

• Permits signs to include the original indigenous name as a secondary interpretive theme in accordance with tribal consultations.

• Expands the existing penalty statute for damaging historic trail monuments to apply to all historic trails under Colorado law, not just the Santa Fe Trail.

• Establishes legislative intent to recognize the complex history of the Old Spanish Trail, including both positive trade activities and negative impacts such as slavery, for educational purposes.