To tell the story we must start back in the earlier history of the earth when a shallow sea encompassed most of the area around, 300 million years ago in what is labeled as the Pennsylvanian Period.

[16] The innumerable canyons,[17] draws, and gullies of the area held creeks, rivers and streams which attracted the early Fremont and Ute peoples.

The art of the historical Utes records their history of conflict with the white settlers who began moving into the area in the 1800s.

All supplies were freighted—first from Salt Lake City, Utah, by team and wagon, then from Grand Junction, Colorado, via Douglas Pass.

By 1913 there were enough ranching and farming families in the area to necessitate the building of a large one-room school house (now located in the Rangely Outdoor Museum.

The well was capped until everything changed for this sleepy little town with the large demand for oil required during the Second World War.

By 1946 raising cattle and sheep, farming, shallow oil well drilling, and mining coal were no longer the principle industries.

Company camps were built in many places in the valley, and in 1947 Rangely was incorporated as a town with Fred Nichols[26] voted in as Mayor.

[27] In the 1960s the Rangely oil field was a major producer in the country and deemed such an important strategic asset that bomb shelters were built at the college and supplied with coats, blankets, food and water.

The Weber Basin, has recovered an additional 12 million barrels of oil from the shallower Mancos Shale at depths less than 2000 feet.

The Unit provides jobs for approximately 300 individuals and makes up about 70 percent of the property tax revenue for Rio Blanco County.

[29] The Duckbill Dinosaur, which ultimately took on the name of Walter, was excavated and the fossils were airlifted to a federal repository on Colorado Northwestern Coummunity College's Craig Campus on Thursday, July 11, 2019.

Near Rangely are the following prehistoric Fremont culture sites listed as National Register of Historic Places:[30] As of the 2020 census, there were 2,299 people, 1,118 housing units, and 825 families in the city.

[31]For decades, Rangely has been the location of an unused water tank, prized for its remarkable internal resonance, in which sounds may sustain for up to 40 seconds.