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Hartman Gymnasium

The Hartman Gymnasium was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in about 1938–39 and quickly became an important center for athletic events and community gatherings. The school to which the gymnasium was originally attached was demolished in…

Petticrew Stage Stop

Surrounded by prairie grass and juniper, the Petticrew Stage Stop stands approximately twenty-five miles south of Lamar in Prowers County. Built in the early 1890s by John L. Petticrew, the building served as a stop between Lamar and Springfield,…

Prowers County

Prowers County covers 1,644 square miles of the Great Plains and Arkansas River valley in southeastern Colorado. The rectangular county is bordered to the north by Kiowa County, to the east by the state of Kansas, to the south by Baca County, and to the…

Prowers County Welfare Housing

The five-building Prowers County Welfare Housing complex on the north side of Lamar was built in 1938–41 as a series of Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects. The one-story sandstone buildings were the only New Deal public housing complex…

The Dust Bowl

In the 1930s, eastern Colorado experienced the worst ecological disaster in the state’s history. Unsustainable farming practices and widespread drought transformed the once fertile Great Plains into a barren landscape, inhospitable to both humans and…

Wiley Rock Schoolhouse

The Wiley Rock Schoolhouse, built by the Works Progress Administration in 1938, is located on Main Street in the Prowers County town of Wiley (603 Main Street in Wiley, Colorado). Originally built as an annex for the adjacent Wiley High School, Wiley…