The entire 40-acre (160,000 m2) site, including both the Association land and the adjacent Chautauqua Park, was designated a National Historic Landmark on February 10, 2006.

The site is bounded on the north by Baseline Road, on the northeast by residential back yards on 10th Street, and on the southeast, south, and west by the City of Boulder Mountain Parks.

Later in April, the Bachelder Ranch site was selected and purchased for the Chautauqua; the grounds, one mile (1.6 km) south of the city, were named Texado Park.

However, the two greatest disappointments of the initial season were first, that no residential cottages had yet been constructed; and second, that the electric streetcar line from downtown Boulder to Texado Park had not been built in time for the opening.

They traveled the 1.5 miles (about 2 km) from the Boulder railway station to the Chautauqua on foot or in horsedrawn vehicles, via dirt roads that were alternately dusty and muddy.

The 1898 fee was $75 for the entire six-week season, including tuition, admission to all lectures and entertainments, all boarding and lodging, and round-trip rail fare to Boulder from any location within a 100-mile (200 km) radius of Fort Worth, Texas.

The Collegiate Department of the Chautauqua offered 51 different classes in mathematics, chemistry, botany, physics, psychology, education, as well as English, Latin, Greek, French, and German language and literature.

The evening program for July 21, 1898, was "Edison's Genuine Projectoscope, Colorscopic Diorama and Wargraph, with Music, reproducing scenes of the war with Spain."

The activities of the 1898 Chautauqua season were to continue and expand from that date to the 1920s, except for the Collegiate Department, which was largely supplanted by the summer session of the University of Colorado beginning in 1904.

The Electric Street Railway from downtown Boulder to Texado Park was started in late April 1899 and completed on June 24, 1899, ten days ahead of the opening of the second Colorado Chautauqua season.

The prohibitionist cause was a continuing theme in the early days of Chautauqua lectures, as were women's suffrage, Populist politics, and a nondenominational Christian message of self-improvement.

But starting with the 1918 season, in the face of higher costs for lecturers and entertainers, the Colorado Chautauqua Association decided to increase the number of movies.

They also pledged that the motion pictures selected would be the "best productions on the screen" and would be limited to films that were morally uplifting and suitable for family viewing.

The 1918 Colorado Chautauqua movie menu included Oliver Twist, The Bluebird, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and The Vicar of Wakefield, among others.

Although the Colorado Chautauqua Association continued to schedule a few lectures and musical performances (including annual appearances by groups representing SPEBSQSA and the Sweet Adelines, which persist into the 21st century), by the 1950s the vast majority of activities at the Chautauqua consisted of second-run movies in the Auditorium, presented with marginal projection and sound equipment.

The Colorado Chautauqua had entered a dormant period, although some traditions continued, such as the nondenominational summer Sunday School program.

The city of Boulder was entertaining various ideas for the Chautauqua grounds including demolition in favor of building a new convention center on the site.

In 1974, Daily Camera editor Laurence Paddock completed an application to list the Chautauqua Auditorium on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Colorado Chautauqua gradually returned to its roots in the late 20th century, scheduling much more live music and a modest number of additional lectures.

Guest performers have included composer-pianist Peter Kater, Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai, Doc Watson, Hot Rize, George Winston, Bill Monroe, Lyle Lovett, Randy Newman, Bobby McFerrin, Bruce Cockburn, Suzanne Vega, Bela Fleck, Roger McGuinn, Loudon Wainwright III, Michelle Shocked, and the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

From a near-collapse in the early 1970s, The Colorado Chautauqua recovered to become a permanent part of the Boulder community and a piece of living history.