Colorado Preservation, Inc.'s Endangered Places Program was launched in 1997 with the purpose of identifying historic sites throughout Colorado that are in danger of being lost. Modeled after the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, Colorado's Endangered Places program has been touted by the Trust as one of the best in the nation. Since its inception, the program has won the Stephen H. Hart award from the Colorado Historical Society and has been designated as an official Save America's Treasures project. The program has generated interest, recognition and funding for over one-hundred-twenty sites around the state, and has provided intensive technical assistance to seventy-four sites that have made the program's Most Endangered Places List.

Now in its thirteenth year, the purpose of the annual Colorado's Most Endangered Places List is to build awareness of and assistance for endangered historic places. Of the seventy-four places named to the list from 1998-2009, fourteen have been saved, thirty-five have experienced forward progress in the form of rehabilitation, stabilization, protection, preservation planning and/or assessment. Of the other twenty-five, twenty-two remain in alert and three have been lost.