-
News from Baca County, July 16, 1898
The news from the July 16, 1898 Springfield Herald is exactly 121 years ago, July 16, 1898. In 1898 the editor of the Springfield Herald was L. A Wikoff. There wasn’t a lot of local news. Each week there was a weekly Crop report by F.H. Brandenburg out of Denver. They mention insurgents in Cuba…
-
Baca County News Nov 1898,
The following provides a sampling of a what was important in Nov 1898 as reported in the Nov 11, 1898 Springfield Herald. I think in the future I will tie these closer to the Month in which they occurred, but we will start with this one for now. There was very little local news. J.R.…
-
Those Who Have Claimed Baca County As Their Own
By Steve Doner “Although some may look at this list and say Virgina????, Spain???? this is the most complete listing of entities claiming the area known today as Baca County Colorado. Many such claims were made with the claimant not really knowing what they were claiming. They were essentially saying, “We own everything from here…
-
A Different Kind of Dust Bowl Story: Pretty Boy Floyd in Baca County, Colorado, 1934.
Charles Arthur Floyd (February 3, 1904 – October 22, 1934) was nicknamed Pretty Boy Floyd. Floyd has continued to be a familiar figure in American pop culture, seen by some as notorious, but by others as a tragic figure, he is partly seen as a victim of the hard times of the Great Depression. In…
-
When did it the Old Stone Schoolhouse become the Masonic Temple?
The question that led to this blog was, “When did it (the old stone schoolhouse) become the Masonic Temple?” I couldn’t answer the question off the top of my noggin so I went to a resource I found awhile back, James Hill’s 1941 Master’s Thesis, “A History of Baca County” Hill was superintendent at Vilas…
-
Boston, Lamar, & Sam Konkel’s “An Outlaw in Lamar”
There are many connections between Lamar, Colorado and the 1886-1887 Boom towns of Southeast Colorado. If you have not familiarized yourself with those boom towns click here to see a map. The news about migration to Southeast Colorado and those new towns was often reported in newspapers such as the following from the March 24,…
-
THE OLD SETTLEMENT AND THE NEW SETTLEMENT OF BACA COUNTY: by Sam Konkel
Sam Konkel told us much about the first wave of settlement in the 1886-1887 time frame. In this article from the December 21 1917 issue of the Springfield Herald he offers some observations comparing that first wave with the second wave starting in 1907 Sam as always is entertaining with his writing. I will leave…
-
Joy Coy, Colorado & the Coming of the Railroad
“Nearly everything lives in a hole in the ground; the rattlesnakes, prairie dogs, owls, ground-squirrels, and even the people.” -Letter from Joy Coy Colorado, 1916 Pritchett, Colorado lies in the extreme Southeast part of Colorado. There is not a lot of activity there these days. There is a school, a bar, a hotel for providing…
-
The Noted Burying Ground: Boston, Colorado
The “Noted Burying Ground” or Boston, Colorado Cemetery shown in the Dec 2018 photo below is all that is left of what was Boston, Colorado of the Southeast Colorado plains. There are two issues that must be clarified as we give you a bit of this story. The Southeast plains reference is important as there…
-
An 1887 Letter from Judge Jennings
Many of you are familiar with Judge JDF Jennings who was Vice President of the Boston or Atlantis (Colorado) Town Company from my book “Old Boston: As Wild As They Come.” The Judge aka Judge Jennings aka John D.F. Jennings was a former plantation owner, an attorney, and a physician. He served the Confederacy during…
