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Pitkin is an incorporated statutory town in Gunnison County, high in Colorado's central Rocky Mountains; despite its name, it is not located in Pitkin County.

Pitkin was founded in 1879 as a mining camp and is said to have been Colorado's first mining camp west of the Continental Divide.

The camp was originally named Quartzville, after Quartz Creek, the stream that flows through town, and was renamed Pitkin in honor of Frederick Walker Pitkin, then the governor of Colorado.

Colorado State Archives records give Pitkin's incorporation date as April 5, 1880, and the town is often described as the oldest incorporated town on Colorado's Western Slope.

Pitkin boomed almost overnight: by June 1882 it had more than 60 businesses and over 1,000 residents, and its census population peaked at 1,891 in 1880.

The Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad reached Pitkin in 1882 by way of the Alpine Tunnel east of town, the first tunnel constructed through the Continental Divide in Colorado and, at 11,523 feet, the highest railroad tunnel in North America at the time; the line was abandoned in 1910.

When the mines played out, Pitkin shrank dramatically and its population has remained below 100 since the Great Depression, although the summer population swells to roughly 200 to 300 people.

The town's population was 72 at the 2020 census, up slightly from 66 at the 2010 census, and the census put the town's median age at 59.5 years.

Housing in Pitkin is dominated by vacation homes: the 2020 census counted 170 housing units in town, of which only 30 were occupied year-round and 128 were held for seasonal or recreational use.

Pitkin covers about 0.26 square miles and sits at an elevation of about 9,229 feet, roughly 28 miles northeast of Gunnison, the county seat.