Baca County History

by the Plainsman Herald

Category: Baca County

  • Horse Thieves Paradise: John Jennings leads Colorado Vigilantes into No Man’s Land

    Here are a few clippings about the citizens “of half a dozen Colorado villages, Boston, Springfield, Vilas, Minneapolis, and Carriso and also Richfield in Kansas, are uniting to make an expedition against its horse thieves into No Man’s Land.” It appears this trip was led by none other than John Jennings who at the time […]

  • Preacher Evans: The Great Orator of Minneapolis, Colorado

    Public speaking was an important part of life in 19th century America. Whether you wanted to win an election, win support for a reform movement, or become a successful minister, you needed to learn how to deliver crowd-pleasing speeches. Candidates for office debated one another. Evangelical ministers hoping to win people to their denominations could […]

  • Theatre in 1880s Southeast Colorado: Ten Nights in a Bar Room

    A part of the history of Old Boston, Colorado  which might go unnoticed is the attempt by the town founders to build a civil and cultured existence in an environment that seemed to produce anything but civility. Their attempts at taming the “noted burying ground” as it was described in the following news clipping seems […]

  • Cooling Troughs in SE Colorado: Includes A Video Tour by Steve Doner

    EDITORS NOTE: We have included videos from our good friend Steve Doner’s Youtube Channel. If you like history Subscribe Now. We live in an era where refrigeration allows us to have foods from all over the world.  Modern refrigerated trucks and ships bring us foods which are kept in the fridge or freezer for months, […]

  • Grandmother Eva Ratliff by Kathryn Ratliff Benes

    With all of the news focused on COVID-19, I can’t help thinking about my Grandmother Eva Ratliff. As a young woman, she lived with her family in Pittsburg, KS where she taught school. She was told that, because of her weak immune system, that she would likely die unless she moved to a dry climate. […]

  • Jack Ratliff by Kathryn Ratliff Benes

    Editors Note: I’ve often mentioned Jack Ratliff as the other Baca County Wanderer when writing about Orville Ewing. If you search online for Jack Ratliff will also find numerous postcards such as the one below which he sold during his travels. We are fortunate to be able to post the following below from his granddaughter […]

  • Growing up in Baca County Episode 10 By John Havens

        On Saturday afternoons and evenings there was usually a little more activity in Vilas than other times, unless there was a ball game going on out of town.      Farmers would come to town and bring their cans of cream to leave at Tony’s Market and to stock up on groceries for the coming […]

  • More Poems from Grandma Bamber…

    This is the 3rd of posts of Nellie Grover Bamber. It again is a true pleasure and honor to get to post these for my friend Nancy Hall Nelson. The image of Grandma Bamber printed on an early dot matrix printer is a piece of history in itself. The poems? Priceless. In the not so […]

  • Growing up in Baca County by John Havens. Episode 9 part 2

       Dad and Uncle Tony always looked forward to a reunion at the Boise City Cemetery of the Havens and Snodgrass clan.  Then we went from Boise city to Guymon to place flowers on the grave of the 13 year old sister of my Dad’s and Uncle Tony.  She had died during the year the […]

  • Growing up Baca County Episode 9- By John Havens

        At one time Vilas could boast of a fairly large Hardware and Lumber Yard operated by the Hoarse Retherfords.  It was located on the North side of Main Street to the far East.  Coming back West was Mr. Wheeler’s Store. I believe there were 2 little houses located to the East side of the […]