Twin Lakes, Lake County, Colorado

Twin Lakes is a pair of glacier-carved alpine lakes about south of historic Leadville, Colorado. They are downstream along the Arkansas River, whose headwaters are by Leadville. The lakes, however, are on a tributary, Lake Creek, which joins the Arkansas just below the lakes. After dredging, the lakes now have a surface area of, and they serve as a reservoir to store water for use in the Front Range. Both east and west lakes are recreation areas for boating and fishing.
Twin Lakes is also the name of an adjacent census-designated place and a post office in and governed by Lake County, Colorado, United States. The Twin Lakes post office has the ZIP Code 81251. At the United States Census 2020, the population of the Twin Lakes CDP was 204.

History

Lake County, one of the original 17 counties created by the Colorado legislature in 1861, was named for the Twin Lakes. As originally defined, Lake County included a large portion of western Colorado to the south and west of its present boundaries. The Twin Lakes District has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974.

The Twin Lakes and the Twin Lakes CDP are located about south of Leadville, the county seat. The CDP is bounded on the east by U.S. Route 24, on the south by Colorado State Highway 82.

The United States Census Bureau initially defined the for the