Otero County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,690. The county seat is La Junta. The county was named for Miguel Antonio Otero, one of the founders of the town of La Junta and a member of a prominent Hispanic family.
Las Animas County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,555. The county seat is Trinidad. The county takes its name from the Mexican Spanish name of the Purgatoire River, originally called El Río de las Ánimas Perdidas en el Purgatorio, which means "River of the Lost Souls in Purgatory."
Bent County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,650. The county seat and only incorporated municipality is Las Animas. The county is named in honor of frontier trader William Bent.
Las Animas is the statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only incorporated municipality in Bent County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 2,300 at the 2020 United States Census. Las Animas is located on the Arkansas River, just west of its confluence with the Purgatoire River, in southeast Colorado east of Pueblo, near the historic Bent's Fort.
Ludlow is a ghost town in Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. It was the site of the Ludlow Massacre–part of the Colorado Coalfield War–in 1914. The town site is located at the entrance to a canyon in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It is located along the western side of Interstate 25 approximately 12 miles (19 km) north of the town of Trinidad. Nearby points of interest include the Ludlow Monument, a monument to the coal miners and their families who were killed in the 1914 massacre, the Hastings coke ovens, and the Victor American Hastings Mine Disaster Monument.
Bent's Old Fort is an 1833 fort located in Otero County in southeastern Colorado, United States. A company owned by Charles Bent and William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain built the fort to trade with Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Plains Indians and trappers for buffalo robes. For much of its 16-year history, the fort was the only major white American permanent settlement on the Santa Fe Trail between Missouri and the Mexican settlements. It was destroyed in 1849.
Fort Lyon was composed of two 19th-century military fort complexes in southeastern Colorado. The initial fort, also called Fort Wise, operated from 1860 to 1867. After a flood in 1866, a new fort was built near Las Animas, Colorado, which operated as a military post until 1897.
Fort Lyon is an unincorporated community and U.S. Post Office in Bent County, Colorado, United States. The Fort Lyon Post Office had the ZIP Code 81038, though the zip code for nearby Las Animas (81054) is also used.
Weston is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The Weston post office has the ZIP Code 81091. At the United States Census 2020, the population of the Weston CDP was 53.
Byron Giles Rogers was an American politician from Colorado.
The Purgatoire River, also known as the Purgatory and Picketwire River, is in southeastern Colorado, United States. The river originates in the high mountains of the Culebra Range. Several tributaries merge near Weston in Las Animas County and the river flows east-northeastward 196 miles (315 km) to a confluence with the Arkansas River near Las Animas in Bent County, Colorado. The Purgatoire River drains an area of 3,449 square miles (8,930 km2), most of which is in Colorado but a small percentage of the watershed is in New Mexico. The Purgatoire River watershed is lightly populated. Population has been declining since 1920 as former coal mining and agricultural communities have become ghost towns.
The Santa Fe Trail Scenic and Historic Byway is a 188-mile (303 km) National Scenic Byway and Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway located in Prowers, Bent, Otero, and Las Animas counties, Colorado, USA. The byway follows the Santa Fe National Historic Trail through southeastern Colorado and connects to the 381-mile (613 km) Santa Fe Trail Scenic Byway in New Mexico at Raton Pass, a National Historic Landmark at elevation 7,834 feet (2,388 m). The byway visits Amache National Historic Site and Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site, both National Historic Landmarks, and winds between the Spanish Peaks and Raton Mesa, both National Natural Landmarks.
Boggsville is an extinct town located in Bent County, Colorado, United States. The town was located near the Purgatoire River about 3 miles (4.8 km) above the Purgatoire's confluence with the Arkansas River. It was established in 1866. The surviving structures are among the earliest examples of Territorial architecture in Colorado. Boggsville was the last home of frontiersman Kit Carson before his death in 1868 at Fort Lyon. The U.S. Post Office at Las Animas now serves Boggsville postal addresses.
State Highway 183 is a highway in Bent County, Colorado. SH 183's southern terminus is at County Route HH (CR HH) near Fort Lyon, and the northern terminus is at U.S. Route 50 (US 50) east of Las Animas.
The Bent County High School, in Bent County, Colorado at 1214 Ambassador Thompson Blvd in Las Animas, is a historic school that was built in 1913 or 1914. It has been deemed notable for association with former U.S. Ambassador Llewellyn Thompson, Ken Curtis, and author James Michener’s wife, Mari (Sabusawa) Michener, all of whom attended the school, as well as for "its imposing, three-story, massive-columned architecture". It was designed by Swedish architect James Larson. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 2010.
John Martin Reservoir is a reservoir on the Arkansas River in Bent County in southeastern Colorado. Built and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it is used for flood control, irrigation, and recreation. John Martin Reservoir State Park lies on its shore.
Amache Ochinee Prowers, also known as Walking Woman, was a Native American activist, advocate, cattle rancher, and operator of a store on the Santa Fe Trail. Her father was a Cheyenne peace chief who was killed during the Sand Creek massacre on November 29, 1864, after which she became a mediator between Colorado territorial settlers, Mexicans, and Native Americans during the 1860s and 1870s. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2018.
John Wesley Prowers was an American trader, cattle rancher, legislator, and businessman in the territory and state of Colorado. Married to Amache Prowers, a Cheyenne woman, his father-in-law was a Cheyenne chief who negotiated for peace and was killed during the Sand Creek massacre.
