Abbey Christman, survey coordinator for Colorado Preservation Inc., will be at Boggsville Historic Site the evening of Saturday, July 24 to discuss the history of homesteading in southeastern Colorado. Her presentation will be based on the results of architectural surveys recently completed in Baca, Las Animas, and Otero Counties.
With funding from the Colorado Historical Society’s State Historical Fund, Preserve America, and the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, the survey team trekked across plains, canyons and mesas surveying historic buildings, agricultural structures, prehistoric and historical archaeological resources and cultural landscapes. More than 1,000 historic sites were documented during these surveys, the majority related to the region’s homesteading boom of the 1910s and 1920s.
Homesteading was an essential part of the settlement of Colorado, with 107,618 homesteads claimed statewide. Surveyed homesteads ranged from abandoned single dwellings to working family and ranch complexes. Settlers used whatever materials were readily available, building dugouts, adobe, stone, log and concrete structures.
This area of Colorado is considered historically as a Spanish borderlands region where Native American, Hispanic New Mexican and Anglo-American cultures interacted. This can be seen in the design of homesteads, with New Mexican elements such as corner fireplaces (fogon), adobe, hand-adzed pine and juniper logs used for roof joists and roof supports (vigas and latillas), and jacal-style construction combined with Anglo-American building styles. Many settlers also utilized natural landscape features such as incorporating canyon walls into buildings, constructing sheep pens across arroyos, and creating chicken houses within rock shelters. Ms. Christman will give an overview of the survey process and findings along with a photographic tour of the homesteads of the region, discussing the homesteading process and how homesteaders shaped the landscape of southeastern Colorado.
Boggsville Historic Site is located in Bent County, 1.75 miles south of Las Animas on Colorado 101. It is a property of the Pioneer Historical Society of Bent County (PHSBC). A complimentary evening ice cream social is scheduled prior to Christman’s presentation. Ice cream, lemonade and cookies will be served. The ice cream social will commence at 6:30 p.m., with the presentation scheduled at approximately 7 p.m. For more information, call (719) 456-0453 (if no one answers, leave a message) or e-mail boggsville67@yahoo.com.
Boggsville is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Labor Day.
