Preservation & Archaeology

Survey & Designation

Surveys come in many forms and may involve:

  • the identification of historic homes in a residential area,
  • the recording of commercial buildings in a downtown district,
  • the gathering of archaeological information in a remote portion of the state.

These surveys are often spurred by agencies or municipalities proposing federal, state, or local projects or undertaken by local governments and organizations to support preservation goals and activities such as design review, historic designation, or heritage tourism. The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is available to assist with the planning and documentation of these surveys.

With the assistance of the SHPO, those sites identified by surveys as Colorado’s most historically and architecturally significant buildings, structures, and sites may be formally listed on the National Register of Historic Places or the State Register of Historic Properties. Properties listed in the National or State Register may be eligible for investment tax credits for approved rehabilitation projects. Listed properties are also eligible to compete for grants from Colorado's State Historical Fund. These grants may be used for acquisition and development, education, and survey and planning projects.

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Survey & Inventory Forms  

Access many of our site forms, all on one page.  Follow this link for management data forms, archaeology component forms, isolated find forms, architectural inventory forms, cultural landscape forms and much, much more.

  • Nomination Forms

    National and State Register nomination instructions and forms.

  • Colorado School of Mines students conduct the ground-penetrating radar survey at Roselawn Cemetery.

    Survey & Inventory Forms

    Online versions of the Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation cultural resource forms and the survey manual.

File Access  

An important part of a survey is finding out what work has already been conducted in your project area. Our office maintains records of sites and surveys across the state.  The file access page gives you step-by-step procedures of how to get access to that information and the associated documents. 

An additional resource is our Compass database, which provides qualified individuals with access to much of the data available from the main SHPO cultural resource database.

Submitting your Data  

Many of our programs strongly encourage digital data submission.

This page provides you with  basic guidelines for data submission to our offices. Some of this information also pertains to hard copy submissions.  Find out more about how to submit site forms and GIS shapefiles, and how to sign up for MoveIt, our digital submission platform.

Preservation Planning Resources  

This is a great starting point for those conducting Historical & Architectural Surveys and for those nominating properties to the National Register of Historic Places and the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties. 

The links on this page will help you find many of the resources on this web site that you need for recording historical and architectural sites.