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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Dust Bowl Research Update: Origins of the term”Dust Bowl”, Maps and more
I have been collecting artifacts of the Dust Bowl as it relates to Baca County for awhile. My focus is compiling a resource that tells the “Dust Bowl” story from the perspective of the Baca County Newspaperman, in particular, Springfield Democrat Herald, Editor Ralph Williams. However, the research from other newspapers across the country…
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Kliesen City, Colorado’s Namesake
As is normal, I was looking for something else when I discovered the namesake of another long gone Baca County Colorado town. Mostly what we know about Kliesen City is that it was located north of the tracks, north of Vilas, Colorado. The present day Konkel lollipop factory is just south of what was Kliesen…
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Names of Springfield Residents of 1889 Disclosed in Letter this Week…
The names of those who lived in Springfield and community back in the year 1889 disclosed in a The Democrat-Herald (Springfield, Colorado) 25 Jan 1935. — clipping from the Springfield Herald, the predecessor to The Democrat-Herald. This is a reprint of a February 25, 1889 letter written from Springfield, Colorado and reprinted in the…
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A 1907 View of the Santa Fe Trail.
We have had several conversations about the portion of the Santa Fe Trail which crosses Baca County. Most recently we posted Jim Womack’s “Ruts of the Santa Fe Trail, The Aubrey Trail Cutoff.” The following article in the Springfield Herald (Springfield, Colorado) May 31, 1907, is attributed to the Syracuse Journal, but no specific issue. It…
