La Veta ( lə-VEE-tə, Spanish for “the vein”) is a statutory town in Huerfano County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 800 as of the 2010 United States Census.

Col. John M. Francisco, the sutler at Fort Garland, and his event partner, Henry Daigre, purchased 48,000 acres of estate in Cuchara Valley in 1862. The house was share of the Vigil land grant. They conventional a unity for farmers and ranchers, with Francisco Fort as the trailer center. The 100-foot-square building was build up with 2-foot thick adobe walls, interior rooms, that opened going on to a central plaza. It was built taking into consideration a flat roof subsequently gun ports along the parapets. In 1863, the fort was attacked by a band of Ute Indians. Men got on the roof to defend the fort, and a volunteer rode to Fort Lyon. The Utes departed past the troops arrived.

In 1871, the settlement was named Spanish Peak and a read out office was established. New settlers came to the area with the introduction of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. The narrow gauge railroad, which crossed La Veta Pass, was the highest U.S. railroad pass at the time. A depot, the La Veta Pass Narrow Gauge Railroad Depot, was built one block north of the fort and the town was platted by the railroad in 1876. The fort is now operated by the Huerfano Historical Society. A reveal office called La Veta has been in operation before 1876. The community was named for a mineral deposit close the indigenous town site, La Veta meaning “mineral vein” in Spanish.

On the hours of daylight of 8 November 1913, William Gambling, a miner who had refused to colleague the 1913-1914 United Mine Workers of America strike neighboring the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, was intercepted and accosted by pro-strikers as he was traveling to the dentist in La Veta. He left the dentist’s office complex and was picked in the works by a car carrying three mine guards and a driver. A volley of gunfire was aimed at the car, killing whatever but Gambling. At least five men were arrested by the Colorado National Guard regarding this incident, part of the to the front stages of the Colorado Coalfield War.