Cotopaxi is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Fremont County, Colorado, United States.

[6][7] These colonists, most of whom were related, traveled to Colorado in hopes of starting a successful farming community and to reap the benefits of the new Homestead Act, which would grant each head male of a family 160 acres (65 ha) of land.

The immigrants soon discovered, however, that the climate in the Colorado mountains was only suitable for growing crops for less than four months out of the year, and the first frost of winter killed most of what was still planted in the fields.

Only about six families remained in Cotopaxi to plant a third crop, which was wiped out by a large blizzard, and this officially ended the attempted farming colony in early June 1884.

[10] The school district directs the educational needs of western Fremont County including Cotopaxi and the surrounding communities of Coaldale, Howard, Swissvale, Wellsville and the Copper Gulch area.