Posted by May 15, 2025
History Colorado‘s El Pueblo History Museum is excited to announce the opening of its newest exhibition Dog Patch: A Pueblo Community’s Legacy on May 17, 2025 and continues through to Apr 17, 2026. This community-driven exhibition is brought to life through extensive engagement with the residents of the Dog Patch neighborhood as part of History Colorado’s Museum of Memory Initiative and incorporates oral histories, artifacts, and personal accounts that highlight the resilience, perseverance, and pride of Pueblo.
A small community in Pueblo’s Eastside, Dog Patch is known for Chicano activism, self-advocacy, and being one of Pueblo’s most tightly-knit neighborhoods. The exhibition will showcase the uniqueness of Dog Patch as seen in the stories of its residents and illuminate the enduring connections they have established with one another by overcoming challenges.
“Dog Patch is a community that seemingly had to fight for every sidewalk and street light,” said Dianne Archuleta, director of El Pueblo History Museum. “Their tenacity in forging a community out of adversity is inspiring and being entrusted to share the history of the neighborhood at the El Pueblo History Museum is an honor and a privilege.”
Originally known as Eastwood Heights, Dog Patch was home to employees of two of the largest employers in Pueblo: Colorado Fuel & Iron and Pueblo Army Depot. The mill workers and laborers living in the neighborhood often built their own homes with whatever materials were available, including those they could salvage from their employers. Over the last 75 years of its existence, the community had to overcome substantial economic hardships so it could become an important part of the “Home of Heroes.”
Listen to the Dog Patch Corrido here.
Dog Patch: A Pueblo Community’s Legacy is made possible by a multi-year Museum of Memory project started in 2018 that included extensive community engagement sessions which guided the exhibition team’s understanding of the neighborhood. Thanks to the vital community input, the exhibition is able to tackle themes of resilience and preservation, while also highlighting how the neighborhood has changed over the years, as well as the impacts of urban development, displacement, and demographic shifts.
“Dozens of community members have gathered with History Colorado over the years to make sure we get this important snapshot of the vibrancy of Pueblo right,” Archuleta said. “This was truly a community-driven effort to make this a reality. Not only have we created this one-of-a-kind exhibition, but these stories are now part of the official record of Colorado which will be preserved by History Colorado for generations to come.”
Archuleta hopes Dog Patch: A Pueblo Community’s Legacy will encourage other communities in Pueblo to work collaboratively with History Colorado through its Museum of Memory Initiative in documenting and preserving their histories.
“Stories like Dog Patch’s are easily lost over the generations since they haven’t historically been documented by museums and are often only mentioned in passing, or with negative connotations, by historians and journalists,” Archuleta said. “Programs like Museum of Memory aim to remedy this by empowering communities to claim their spot in the official historical record of the Centennial State and become a permanent part of our Colorado story.”
Dog Patch: A Pueblo Community’s Legacy opens to the public on May 17 at the El Pueblo History Museum. The El Pueblo History Museum is located at 301 N. Union Avenue, Pueblo, Colorado, and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Admission for kids 18 and under is free every day.
Beginning on June June 3rd thru September 1st, El Pueblo History Museum is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.ElPuebloHistoryMuseum.org or call 719-583-0453.
