EASTERN COUNTIES

Eastern Colorado seldom drew people for its scenic beauty, as did the mountains and hot springs. While those who settled the plains were primarily farmers and ranchers, there were also businessmen, who saw an opportunity to operate stores and offer services. Every new business drew drummers, or traveling salesmen, who required rooms for themselves and their wares. With the smaller communities’ growth came the need for teachers and other professionals, who also required temporary housing.

Hotels struggled on this meager fare, and many did not last long. The settlers and businesses that did survive in eastern Colorado heroically battled drought, heat, isolation, ravenous insects, frequent tornados and the housekeeper’s bane, warm Chinook winds that repeatedly blew fine layers of dust into every crevice. But the people of eastern Colorado are a hardy lot, and their perseverance has paid off in the permanent communities that today dot the plains like welcome oases.

BACA COUNTY

Baca County was created by the Colorado legislature in 1889 from portions of Las Animas County. It is in the southernmost eastern corner of the state, named for Colorado territorial legislator Felipe Baca.

Springfield

Springfield began officially on April 12, 1887, so named because most of its residents had lived in Springfield, Missouri. One of the first commissioners was Frank Tipton, whose original eighty acres are believed to have been the original town site. With the establishment of a courthouse, a jail (mostly for horse thieves) was required.

For some $3,000, the town constructed a two-cell steel cage. The jail opened for business in 1889, and it was reported that the sheriff could not exceed ninety-five cents for feeding prisoners. The area’s main crime was horse stealing. The reward for apprehending a horse thief was $25, until one citizen led a campaign to raise that amount to $100 due to the significantly rising number of stolen horses.

Other than that, Springfield was generally quiet, and sometimes a week might pass without anyone coming into town. Storekeepers often stayed at home until a potential customer came into view.

Springfield is located in the southeast corner of the state and is an agricultural community.

JONES HOTEL: Located on Main Street, the Jones Hotel was built prior to 1913.

Main Street, Springfield, Colorado. A newspaper office next to the two-story Jones Hotel, 1913.

CHEYENNE COUNTY

The present boundaries of Cheyenne County were established in 1889. It was named for the area’s original residents, the Cheyenne Indians, who occupied eastern Colorado before it was settled by whites.

Wild Horse

This town is named for the herds of wild horses that once thundered across these plains, watering at nearby Wild Horse Creek. The entire town burned down in 1917 but was partially rebuilt.

ALBANY HOTEL: Located on Main Street, the Albany Hotel was built prior to 1917. It was razed by the town fire in 1917.

PFALTZGRAFF HOTEL: Built by William H. Pfaltzgraff, this hotel burned down in 1917.

A postcard of Wild Horse, Colorado, in 1917, shortly before the town fire that same year. The Albany Hotel is the stone structure on the right at center.

KIOWA COUNTY

Kiowa County was established in 1889, named for the Kiowa Nation. Kiowa County is the site of the infamous Sand Creek Massacre on November 29, 1864, in which a Kiowa settlement of old men, women and children were ruthlessly slaughtered on Sand Creek by U.S. forces. Initially hailed as a victory against hostile Indians, within months, congressional inquiries disclosed the outrage that still remains a dark blot on the nation’s historical record.

The 1930s Dust Bowl reduced eastern Colorado’s agriculture to the precarious conditions of today. While the land still supports some dry land farming and ranching, upstream interests have acquired most of the water rights, and the aquifers are drying up. If this trend continues, Kiowa County could one day revert to its original grassland and prairie state.

Brandon: Essentially a Ghost Town

Established in 1887, Brandon became a busy trade center. But the Dust Bowl took its toll, and people eventually moved on. Brandon’s post office finally closed in 1963. A few stoic citizens and some abandoned buildings still remain.

BRANDON HOTEL: The Brandon Hotel was built sometime before 1911.

Situated on a corner in town, the Brandon Hotel was owned and operated by State Representative Cline, circa 1911–12.

KIT CARSON COUNTY

Founded in 1889, the county was named for the famous scout Kit Carson. Its county seat is Burlington. The county is not without surprises. In 1928, Denver’s well-known amusement park Elitch Gardens sold its old, broken-down carousel, produced in Philadelphia in 1905, to Kit Carson County for the princely sum of $1,250 and laughed.

The carousel had lost favor with big city patrons because its animals were stationary and did not move up and down, even though it revolved faster than most merry-go-rounds (twelve miles per hour, one and a half times the average speed). This historic carousel is the sixth of seventy-four produced by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company between 1904 and 1933.

Unfortunate county officials lost their reelection bids over this “reckless” decision to purchase a merry-go-round in hard economic times. Yet time would vindicate them, and Kit Carson County has had the last laugh.

The carousel’s murals, horses, chariots, outer rim and Wurlitzer Monster Military Band organ have been restored to original mint condition. The revitalized relic made its debut at the county fairgrounds in Burlington as the Kit Carson County Carousel. In 1987, the carousel was designated a National Historic Landmark and is still open to the public. It is considered a priceless treasure.

Seibert

The small stagecoach stop of Hoyt, between the Republican River and Buffalo Creek, was once located four miles north of the present town of Seibert. When the railroad came through Colorado in 1888, Seibert was founded and named after railroad official Henry Seibert. As businesses began moving into Seibert, Hoyt was reduced to a virtual ghost town and assimilated into the new railroad town.

AUNT KATE HOTEL: Built in 1899 by Bert Hendricks, this hotel’s lumber was hauled by wagon from Hieghler, Nebraska. The hotel was torn down in 1935 for the first post office. It was operated by “Aunt” Kate Hutchins.

Aunt Kate Hotel, July 4, 1908, showing “Aunt” Kate Hutchins (right foreground) in a white dress, marked by an “X.”

LINCOLN COUNTY

Lincoln County was established in 1889 and named for President Abraham Lincoln, with Hugo as its county seat. The Union Pacific Railway was constructed soon after. A second railroad, the Rock Island, was built across northern Lincoln County, crossing the Union Pacific at Limon. The Rock Island declared bankruptcy nearly a century after it arrived; its tracks from Limon west to Colorado Springs were dismantled, and its right of way was used in places for walking and bike paths.

Arriba

Arriba was founded on controversy. In 1888, Charles A. Creel set up a real estate business on the present town site and had a specific vision in mind for his community. The Rock Island Railroad track was laid nearby, and for several years, Arriba grew according to Creel’s plan.

That is, until C.C. Coleman purchased land adjacent to Arriba in 1904. By 1907, he was selling lots for a new town, Frontier City. Creel had refused to sell property to anyone planning to build saloons, but the cagey Coleman allowed one to be built on one of his lots, close to Creel’s home. Thus, the “wets” and the “drys” squared off, Creel shouldering a personal obligation to protect his people of Arriba from the evils of “demon drink.”

The Hotel Colorado in Arriba, circa 1919.

Creel marked off a parcel of land a half block wide and three blocks long between Arriba and Frontier City. Called “Devil’s Lane” and “Hell’s Half-Acre,” the strip would soon become “No Man’s Land.” But thirsty Arribans gladly faced the perils of No Man’s Land to get to that jazzy new saloon.

Creel took more drastic measures, digging a ditch the length of the strip, eight feet wide by eight feet deep. But a court order, obtained by one of his fellow citizens, required Creel to fill in his ditch. So Creel hired one Will Emerson to construct a barbed-wire fence along the strip. Emerson was kept busy during the day replacing the fence, which was repeatedly taken down at night by unknown revelers.

With Creel’s death in 1918, the feud abated. Creel’s widow, who didn’t have her whole heart in the controversy, donated a parcel of No Man’s Land for a church and then sold off the rest of the lots. Frontier City was soon absorbed by Arriba and included in the town’s charter. The Frontier City saloon is gone, but Creel’s house remains, keeping sullen vigil across No Man’s Land, now identified only by the town’s east–west streets changing names when they cross the former hostile line of demarcation.

HOTEL COLORADO: The Hotel Colorado was built sometime before 1919.

Hugo

This town was named for Hugo Richards, a railroad official later influential in California financial circles. The town boasts the Hugo Municipal Pool, a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. Labor on it was halted twice, once for the WPA crew to finish the Hugo gymnasium and again in 1937 for the crew to spread poison bait in the battle against grasshoppers. Walls of the pool’s bathhouse are adobe, a mixing of traditional construction techniques with modern design.

Hugo’s 1909 roundhouse, associated with the operation of the Union Pacific Railroad in eastern Colorado, is the state’s most intact Union Pacific example, one of only four surviving roundhouses in Colorado.

GRAYMONT HOTEL: This hotel was built before 1911.

PROWERS COUNTY

This county was created from Bent County in 1889 and named for John W. Prowers, pioneer and cattleman. It includes both sides of the Arkansas River for thirty-nine miles west from the Colorado-Kansas state line.

Lamar

In 1866, well-to-do cattleman A.R. Black was asked by railroad “town site platters” to donate land from his original settlement of Blackwell. Black refused, even though he was warned that another town would start up next to his if he declined the offer. Before long, another landowner complied and sold property to the railroad promoters. In no time, the Blackwell depot was moved three miles west, and its sign was changed to Lamar, named for Lucius Q. Lamar, secretary of the interior under President Cleveland. People flocked in, enticed by the idea of free land. Lamar was the last town to be established in this dubious fashion and is the youngest significant town on the main line of the Santa Fe Railway. Located on the Arkansas River in southeastern Colorado, Lamar is the Prowers County seat, with agriculture as its main industry.

HOTEL BEN-MAR: This hotel was built sometime before 1909 and was later renamed Maxwell House. From 1909 to 1911, the Hotel Ben-Mar was operated by retired doctor Lillian Heath Nelson and her husband, Louis J. Nelson. Nelson was a former member of President McKinley’s honor guard, and Heath, a pioneer in her field, was the first woman to practice medicine in Wyoming. As a teen in the 1880s, she assisted Dr. Thomas Maghee, a Union Pacific Railroad physician, when she was obliged to disguise herself in young man’s clothing for her safety. Heath was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Keokuk, Iowa.

A postcard of the Hotel Ben-Mar, circa 1929.

The newly constructed Davies Hotel, 1902.

The hotel was given a makeover and became known as Maxwell House in the 1930s. Still later, it became the Stockman’s Bar and Inn. The historic Hotel Ben-Mar is still standing, but its latest facelift is a modernized front façade to disguise it as a store.

DAVIES HOTEL/PAYNE HOTEL: The Davies Hotel was built in 1902 at 122 North Main Street. It is still standing. The Davies’ location near the railroad depot ensured it a steady stream of lodgers. Builders utilized locally quarried sandstone for the outer walls, and the hotel is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

WASHINGTON COUNTY

Most of the Native American population was forced out of eastern Colorado and moved onto reservations by 1870. In 1885, the Union Pacific Railroad constructed a branch line from Julesburg to Denver. With the government willing to provide up to 480 acres of cheap land to each family and the railroads actively promoting the area by reducing transportation rates on special “immigrant cars,” the population boomed. Missing from the promotional advertising for “cheap land” was any mention of disgruntled Native Americans yet residing in the area.

That same year, the president ordered that all illegal fences be removed from public lands so farmers and ranchers would perceive an equal footing.

The county was named in honor of President George Washington.

Akron

Akron was built along the Burlington Northern Railroad line in the northeastern plains. It was once the only established town along the line, holding much importance during the railroad era. Named for Akron, Ohio, Akron is the Washington County seat, fifty miles west of Denver.

HOTEL AKRON: This hotel was built circa 1886.

A postcard of the Hotel Akron, promoting the area to prospective new residents. It reads: “We are enjoying ourselves at the Hotel Akron…Located on the great Burlington Route. The only commercially pure Fullers Earth in America is found here. The oil and gas wells discovered are second to none. The gold placer grounds, none richer. The best farm lands in the United States, with room for 1,000,000 people. Come, help develop this productive part of Colorado, and secure for yourself and your family a home, where health and riches can be found.”

YUMA COUNTY

Named for the Yuma tribe, this county was created in 1889 from part of Washington County. Yuma’s southern half was added in 1903 from Arapahoe County. Yuma County has one geographic distinction. Where the Arikaree River flows out of Yuma County into Cheyenne County, Kansas, at 3,315 feet in elevation, the lowest point in Colorado, this crossing point is on record as the highest low point of any U.S. state.

Yuma

The town of Yuma was incorporated in 1887. Each September, Yuma celebrates its farming history during Old Threshers Day. This small community in northeast Colorado grows more corn than any county in the state.

LEFT HOTEL: Built prior to 1916, the Left Hotel was destroyed by a tornado in 1916. Nothing left.