The Norwood Public Library was first established in 1939 by the Ladies’ Study Club in a one room log cabin, one of the first homesteads and donated by Gladys Herndon.

The cabin was disassembled and moved by truck to a property at the corner of Summit and Spruce streets where it was reassembled.  In 1979, the Library District was established by ballot. The library was expanded in the 1980s to a second room and again in 1996, at which time the entire building was renovated under the watchful eye of Director Barbara Youngblood. After her retirement in May of 2010, Carrie Andrew was hired as the new director.

The library was well-used but not able to meet the evolving needs of the community. In 2012, the Library purchased twelve acres of land on Pinion Street. Eight acres were later sold to San Miguel County for future housing development The district name was officially changed in 2013 to the Lone Cone Library District. After many years of planning and gathering community feedback, the Library passed a mill levy in 2016 to allow for the building and subsequent operations of a new library facility. Work on the new facility broke ground in May of 2018 and opened to the public.

In May, 2019. In September of 2019, the Lone Cone Library was named Library of the Year by the Colorado Association of Libraries for the extreme effort and community support that it took to create a resource of such magnitude in a community of our size.   At this time, the library is focusing on expanding programs and community partnerships to bring a variety and plethora of opportunities to our community.

Our next big project is to begin conceptual design of the development of our grounds. This is an exciting project where we plan to partner with other community organizations as we envision an educational, relaxing and inspiring space for citizens and visitors the same.

Carrie Andrew stepped down from her position as director in 2024, in which the current director, Todd Bittner was hired.