Baca County History

by the Plainsman Herald

Category: Baca County

  • The Last J.J. Steer

    UPDATED: March 29, 2020- In the American west, it was common practice for early large cattle operations to file on only parcels of land that contained access to water.  This allowed those operations to control  a great deal of the public domain land.  The J.J. Ranch was founded in 1869. By 1879 the JJ controlled…

  • Blanchat: by Dr. Bill Stoner

    NOTES:  This post enhances a previous post: “An Old Stone Schoolhouse in Springfield”  If you recall Joseph Blanchat was a stonemason who helped build that building.   The article below was posted first in the Plainsman Herald awhile back.  Thanks, Bill for the work on this.  I have added a few artifacts supporting this article.…

  • 2017 Baca County Fair: Early Baca County History Presentations

    Steve and I would encourage you to bring maps, clippings, and stories that will add to the database of information about places all over the area of what is now called Baca County.   Very excited to get the chance to share a few more tidbits about early Baca County Colorado History.  

  • 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…