It serves a fairly large surrounding landscape, along with a few ranches, located along a gently sloping hillside traversed by a highway.

[4][5][6] On the west side of Centennial Ridge a copper claim was discovered by Jacob Schnitzler in 1896.

Loggers returned to the area in 1905 to cut timber for a coal mine near Coalmont in Jackson County, Colorado.

Acme Consolidated Gold & Mining Company, headed by Isaac Van Horn, bought up timber land around the town, the townsite (Interstate Town Site Company), opened a sawmill, a planing mill and lumber yard, and opened a newspaper, the Centennial Post.

The partners in Acme Consolidated Gold & Mining Company, Van Horn, Fred A. Miller, and Edward R. Miller, also formed the Laramie, Hahns Peak and Pacific Railway to transport the coal out to eastern markets.

Most activity around the mine area ceased after the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the advent of the Great Depression.

[10] According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 16.3 square miles (42.2 km2), all land.

Public education in the community of Centennial is provided by Albany County School District #1.