Baca County History

by the Plainsman Herald

Author: Kent Brooks

  • Bringing Faith to a Mammoth Sized County: The Story of Lay’s Chapel

    Baca County Colorado is an expanse of prairie in Southeast Colorado that has at various times in its history has been known as the heart of the 1930’s Dust Bowl and a little later the Broomcorn Capital of the World.  However, like most places, there are stories of people who brought something to a place…

  • Ruts of the Santa Fe Trail: The Aubry Trail Cut Off — By Jim Womack

    Special thanks to Jim Womack for sharing spectacular photos as well as the following about the historical Santa Fe Trail  which passed through Baca County: One of the few remaining places you can see the wagon wheel ruts on the Santa Fe Trail; this is the Aubry Cutoff a few miles southeast of Campo, Colorado…

  • The Sidewalks of Old Boston

    The Springfield Herald had a regular series in 1918 called “Persons, Stories, and Incidents of Old Boston and the Old Days.”  The episode author is listed as “The Writer” who is actually Sam Konkel.   Left: Sam Konkel   Middle: Sam Konkel 188ish   Right Sam Konkel 1930ish Photos courtesy of Zaylan Konkel The October 19, 1918,…

  • Place Names of Baca County by Steve Doner

      This information was taken from the website – https://history.denverlibrary.org/sites/history/files/Place_Names_of_Colorado.pdf Some information may indeed be questionable, but we have to start somewhere. Information I have added is in italics. This format does not allow for grids so the listings follow -Town/Location Name – County – Type – Notes – Section/Township/Range – Reference To save space…

  • Known All Over Creation and Down in Arkansas as The Great County Builder: Sam Konkel

    The more I dig into the history of Baca County, the more I appreciate Sam Konkel’s contributions to the development of early Baca County.  He started the “Western World” paper in Old Boston and ran it throughout the three years Boston existed. He left the county for several years before returning to the high plains…

  • Another Baca County Wheeler: C. H. Wheeler

    Each and every small place is a cultural destination. Each small town has customs, history and traditions that make it unique.  I truly appreciate the opportunity to dig into many of these treasures that are Baca County history.   The following photo appears on page 62 (Campo history) of our 1983 Baca County History Book.  The…

  • Some More Old Vilas

    The Springfield Herald had a regular series in  either 1918 or 1919 called “Persons, Stories, and Incidents of Old Boston and the Old Days.”  I am a bit confuse on the year because several of the issues have the year 1918 marked out in pencil with 1919 written in. This occurs in several issues but…

  • Tioga County

    The Springfield Herald had a regular series in 1918 called “Persons, Stories, and Incidents of Old Boston and the Old Days.”  The episode author is listed as “The Writer”.  The February 1, 1918 edition of the series was titled “Tioga County”.   The story as told by the Herald is as follows: “Probably there are not…

  • The Challenge of the Broomcorn Harvesting Machine

    “No machine has yet been invented to successfully replace the hand labor.  The men, using broomcorn knives with sharp five-inch knives, move down rows in a field, bending the heads or brush with one hand and cutting the stalk about six inches below the bottom part of the brush with the other hand. “ -Pueblo…

  • The Rise and Fall of the U.S. Broom Industry

    Rise and Fall of the US Broom Industry is an overview of the broom & broomcorn industries in the U.S.  The foundation for  this post was provided to me by Sam Moyer Ph.D.  He gleaned much of this from BROOM, BRUSH & MOP, (especially Tim Monahan’s 1986 review) Sam Moyer, Ph.D.  My updates specifically focus…