All Entries Tagged With: "history"
Professor Jeff Broome, PhD to Present Program to Prowers County Historical Society
Jeff Broome, PhD in philosophy and a long-tenured professor at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, will present the program at the Prowers County Historical Society at Big Timbers Museum at 7:00 PM Thursday, April 16th. Guests arriving early will be entertained by Jeff playing original acoustic finger-style guitar from his latest CD. Jeff is a well-published […]
Boggsville: The National Trust’s Newest “National Treasure”
Offers Window into Pivotal Time in American History By Rebecca Atkinson, Director, Boggsville Historic Site, Las Animas, Colorado What does the 1860’s market village of Boggsville near Las Animas, Colorado, have in common with a Frank Lloyd Wright house, an Acoma Village, The Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City, James Madison’s […]
Lone Bear’s Family and the Sand Creek Massacre
This article is part of a series by the National Park Service concerning the 150th Anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre. Lone Bear, long a friend of white society, tried to secure peace across the Colorado Plains in 1864. U.S. Army Colonel John Chivington remarked on his conduct as a prominent Cheyenne peace chief and “wrote […]
Tourism to Area National Parks creates over $1.5 Million in Economic Benefit
Report Shows Visitor Spending Supports 21 Local Jobs A new National Park Service (NPS) report shows that 23,324 visitors to Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site in 2013 spent $1.28 million in communities near the park. That spending supported 17 jobs in the local area. The same report shows that 4,795 visitors to Sand Creek […]
Between Fort Laramie and Fort Wise – A Tale of Two Treaties
This article is part of a series by the National Park Service concerning the 150th Memorial of the Sand Creek Massacre. Whether it was for California’s gold fields or Oregon’s verdant farmland, pioneer families traveled the Oregon Trail in the 1840s, moving across traditional Native American lands to new domains. Settlers and American Indians competed over […]
12th Annual Snow Goose Festival, Not Just for the Birds and Birders!
LAMAR, Colo. – Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Lamar Chamber of Commerce are hosting a weekend full of fun, celebrating birds, watchable wildlife and historical heritage in southeastern Colorado. The 12th Annual Snow Goose Festival kicks off on Thursday, Feb. 20 and continues through Sunday, Feb. 23. New this year, registration is free! “Visitors can choose from […]
The Southern Cheyenne Odyssey
This article is part of a series by the National Park Service concerning the 150th Memorial of the Sand Creek Massacre. The epic migration of the Cheyenne, or Tsistsistas, tribe from the American Midwest to southeastern Colorado was a journey hundreds of years in the making. An odyssey of people, animals, and events brought the […]
Dedication of Bent’s New Fort Panels Draws Huge Crowd
On October 19th, over 100 guests got to walk on the site of Bent’s New Fort…something that few people had (legally) done in over 160 years. On that day new panels commemorating the site were unveiled and guests were able to tour the remains of the famous trading post that William Bent established in 1849 […]
Dedication of Bent’s New Fort Visitor’s Site Will Happen on October 19th
It’ll take more than a government shutdown to halt the dedication of the Bent’s New Fort site. Your Santa Fe Trail Association, the Bent’s Fort Chapter, and the Semmen’s family will make sure that the ceremony will take place. National Park Service personnel will not be allowed to officially participate but may be spotted among […]
What Ever Happened to Cathay Williams (A.K.A. William Cathey): Buffalo Soldier?
While it is known that African-American troops were among the first soldiers to serve at Fort Lyons, few people know that America’s only documented female Buffalo Soldier also lived in Colorado. Catharine Williams was born on a plantation near Independence, MO. Although her father was a free man, because William’s mother was a slave, so […]
Author Alma Lou Plunkett to Visit Lamar Public Library
The Lamar Public Library is pleased to announce that author Alma Lou Plunkett will be visiting on Saturday, April 13th to discuss her new book, “The Kansas-Colorado Line: Homesteading Tales of Several Families, a Memoir.” Alma Lou Plunkett of Syracuse, Kansas, recounts the challenges and opportunities faced by homesteaders on the Kansas/Colorado border. Homesteading was […]
Lunch N’ Learn Brings Perspectives From Dust Bowl
The Lamar Community College Learning Resource Center will present a Lunch ‘n Learn – “In Their Own Words …..Dust Bowl Tapestries: Cycles of Desert to Oasis” on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 from 12:15 to 12:50 p.m (approximate). The college is proud to host the event as it will highlight the College’s rich history as […]
Big Timbers History Corner #18 – Fort Lyon Canal
When settlers began to come out to Colorado, it didn’t take long for them to figure out that farmers were going to have to help Mother Nature out in the moisture department if they wanted crops to actually grow. In 1887, two existing canals, the La Junta and the Lamar, were enlarged and reincorporated as […]
Big Timbers History Corner #17 – Southeast Colorado Hospital
Long before Southeast Colorado Hospital was established in Springfield, the name was being used in Lamar. The building still stands today at the southeast corner of Beech and Third. It’s unlikely anyone minded it being eclipsed by the building of the Maxwell Hospital in 1928, because according to one former volunteer, Gladys Seevers, it had […]
Big Timbers History Corner #14 – Sand & Sage
In honor of the Sand and Sage Fair, here’s a shot of livestock visiting our area many, many years ago. Not the way they wash cattle for the fair these days, eh? The Arkansas looks pretty different, too! Makes you wonder what ranching in Prowers County will be like a hundred years from now…. Be […]
Big Timbers History Corner #11 – Lamar Girls
One of the many, many things and places named after Lucius Quintus Cincinatus Lamar II was our town. This photo shows two of his grand-daughters in 1950, when they came out from Washington, DC for a town celebration. The one on the right was dubbed Miss Lamar. Nothing on the display says whether there was a […]
Big Timbers History Corner #10 – Cigarette Holder
Talk about a connection to history! If you go out to Big Timbers Museum and find this case (near the Fleagle Bank Robbery display), you will be inches away from this cigarette holder which was once personally owned and used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt! You could theoretically clone him from this! (If you had […]
Big Timbers History Corner #3
This photocopy of an article featuring the very first graduating class at Lamar High School in 1907 was donated by Mrs. Lee Strain. Her given name was Coy and it isn’t much of a stretch to guess that the young lady in the photo named Coy Beavers was our donator at a young age. Good […]
Big Timbers History Corner #2
Despite the serrated edges and the tongs, this is NOT a device from an old-time kitchen! It’s a baby holder, used in the J. H. Ward photo studios to prop tiny ones up so they could have their portraits taken. The babies who sat here long ago are now old enough to be enjoying pictures […]
Big Timbers History Corner #1
Do you ever imagine what Lamar was like in its younger days? Where was the nicest place in town to eat out in the first half of the 20th Century? The Maxwell House would have been a major contender for that honor. It was located where PCDI is today, right at the corner of Main […]