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A 1933 Dust Bowl Thanksgiving
Football Game Between Springfield and Lamar Includes Former Professionals The 1920s earned the moniker “The Golden Age of Sports” due to the dawn of high-level competitive athletics and the rise of exceptional athletes across various disciplines. With increased leisure time and improved transportation, individuals exhibited unwavering devotion to local sports, fostering an unprecedented sense of…
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Crop Prospects for Southeast Colorado in 1888
PERSONS Stories and Incidents of the Early Day East Enders Before Baca County became a county in the spring of 1889 it was the eastern end of Las Animas county. As spring is upon us, I thought it might be good to look back at the crop prospects in Southeast Colorado in 1888. The following …
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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.…
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Tributary Towns
As a continuation of my look at Southeast Colorado Boom towns (1886-1889) I thought I would toss out an interesting town ad for Lamar. Almost all of the towns which popped up during that era had an advertisement that was placed in newspapers “back east” (usually Kansas) to encourage settlers to come west. This is…
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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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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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Sunrise in Southeast Colorado
Thought I would start posting a few Baca County Sunrises… I shared a few of these with one of our Baca County Facebook groups and below is how people describe those. I have included in this gallery those posted on Facebook and all of the other good pictures taken on my January 28, 2015 morning…
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How My Grandparents Met: by George Chatham
By George Chatham My Great-Uncle Elmer Chatham filed a “homestead” claim to 320 acres on South Horse Creek, located 7 1/2 miles north and 2 miles west of Springfield. That claim was proved January 12, 1917. It was on this homestead that I grew-up. Because Fred Chatham, my grand-father, wasn’t old enough to file a…
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The Old Stone Schoolhouse in Springfield
“…the handiwork on that building – during those times – defies description.” -Aug Blanchat We’ve talked many times about the old Springfield School our social media groups and how it was built in 1889 by the Swiss Stonemason Joseph Blanchat. This is an update to the previous blog. The building served as the elementary and…
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Were the Dirty Thirties the Good Old Days?
Posted with permission of Gloria Jean. Original article appeared in the Huckaby Times (Cousin Newsletter), April 2004 On Sunday April 14th, 1935, the sun came up in a clear sky. The day was warm and pleasant, a gentle breeze whimpered out of the southwest. Suddenly a cloud appeared on the horizon. Birds flew swiftly ahead…
